WiGig - 802.11ad is the new kid on the block

Taking over the aging, yet mighty 802.11n protocol is the new standard 'ac'. Still in wave one 11ac is soon to be lifted to wave two and to fully realize its potential, but wireless technology moves so fast and it was only a matter of time before even the new 'ac' standard is yesterday's news. 802.11ad is the most recent standard to be given some limelight and the following is some basic prominent features.

New future super standard

802.11ad is the new kid and opens up the 802.11 can wider by adding a new frequency range to play with. 2.4GHz has become incredibly saturated and in a short amount of time so will 5GHz. Where 11n uses both 2.4GHz and 5GHz and 11ac uses 5GHz new 11ad will use 60GHz. Dual will give way to Tri-band devices and access points which adds many channels with which to play meaning more devices can connect and enjoy achievable high speed and capacity wireless networking without being choked for air.

Back to the Future

With a name dubbed WiGig you would expect some impressive multi-gigabit figures and you would not be wrong. 802.11n can potentially hit 600Mbps; 11ac can hit up to 1.3Gbps; but 11ad can support speeds of up to 7Gbps at its present state. I said 'present' as it is said that this is only the start. Using techniques that are common place in today's standards such as utilizing higher modulations and MIMO it is possible to achieve 100Gbps!

When, Where and how?

In truth who knows for sure, it could be 2015 or further. There is of course buzz about 11ad but at present is rumours and whispers and it will probably be many years until we see any full matured 802.11ad product. 802.11ac has only been on the market for a short amount of time with more to come such as MU-MIMO. With industry leaders such as Ruckus and Cisco rolling out their offerings, I think it's safe to say they would not have invested large amounts of precious R&D's pocket book on rolling out 11ac product.

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