Are you tired of cables running all over the room? Ever wanted to make your router completely wireless? 7 Gbps streaming media over Wi-Fi is on the horizon, folks 鈥?say goodbye to a messy, cable-filled room!
Over the next year and a half, we will see major advances in Wi-Fi technology (the technology that connects personal computers, handheld devices like PDAs, and mobile phones wirelessly). Faster wireless evolution and higher speeds will replace the routers you use today, supporting an incredible 7 Gbps throughput and freeing your rooms from tangled network cables.
The latest progress centers on two new technologies: 802.11ac for whole-home routers using the 5 GHz band, and short-range transmission over the 60 GHz band. Both are at different stages of development. The Wi-Fi Alliance expects to certify 802.11ac products in early 2013, but the timeline for 802.11ad remains ambiguous. The fastest 802.11ad product certification is planned for late 2013, although the first certified products may not include routers or modems.
Many 7 Gbps use cases in the 60 GHz band will be point-to-point 鈥?for example, transferring large amounts of video data from a handheld device to a wireless TV. The ultimate goal is to have tri-band routers that coexist on 60 GHz, 2.4 GHz, and 5 GHz, but the first 60 GHz products will likely not include access points. The Wi-Fi Alliance has decided to tackle point-to-point connections first, which is a great starting point for the future of routers, though the key issue is they aren’t robust enough yet.
“If we need to create a certification program for a single station, we will do it without including access points. We will not wait for access points 鈥?everything is in place for that,” said Davis-Felner, outlining a solution to prevent the certification plan from being further