WiGig Alliance Completes Wireless Specification, WiFi Accelerates to 7Gbps

The unified wireless specification announced today by the Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) will allow WiFi connections to operate at speeds of 7Gbps, even while supporting backwards compatibility with existing WiFi devices. This development will enable the widespread use of the 60GHz wireless technology and will supplement the 802.11 Medium Access Control (MAC) layer.

“When we launched the WiGig Alliance in May, we announced our plan to complete the industry’s first unified 60 GHz specification by Q4 2009, and we are proud to deliver on this promise to the industry,” Dr. Ali Sadri, president and chairman of the Wireless Gigabit Alliance, said. “We’re rapidly paving the way for the introduction of the next generation of high-performance wireless products – PCs, mobile handsets, TVs and displays, Blu-ray disc players, digital cameras and many more.”

WiFi technology based on this new wireless specification will allow for the manufacture of next-generation, wireless-enabled products (mobile computing platforms, gadgets, TVs, Blu-ray units) and the physical layer will enable both the low-power and high-performance WiGig devices to guarantee interoperability and communication at gigabit rates. The new specification will also promote the wide use of advanced security and power-management features and will support specific system interfaces through protocol adaptation layers. These interfaces will include PC data buses and display interfaces for HDTVs, monitors and projectors, among others. Of course, the new technology will still support the IEEE 802.11 standard.

“WiGig has reached a milestone with the completion of its specification as promised by year end, demonstrating the organization’s commitment to deliver,” Craig Mathias, a principal with the wireless and mobile advisory firm Farpoint Group, said. “By complementing Wi-Fi and enabling multi-gigabit speeds, the versatile specification is a very significant achievement on the road to the next generation of wireless LAN products.”

The specification is ready to be reviewed by the alliance members, including certain high-caliber newcomers, such as NVIDIA that joined the board of directors during Q4 2009. AMD, SK Telecom and TMC also joined as contributing members around the same time. The specification is set to become available to adopter members in the first quarter of 2010, which may foreshadow the release of WiGig devices during 2010.