WiGig Alliance offers new tech

Author: Gareth Halfacree
Published: 7th May 2009
Comments (12) Stumble
WiGig Alliance offers new tech

The WiGig Alliance promises to bring gigabit-speed wireless via the 60GHz band into the home - finally ditching the last of your data wires.

While wireless networking technologies might be a bit hit-and-miss – for every popular 802.11g there's a struggling WiMAX – there's a new player in town which hopes to bring fresh life to a tired market.

Dubbed the WiGig Alliance, the group – backed by major players in the technology sector including Microsoft, LG, Samsung, Panasonic, Dell, Nokia, and networking chip manufacturers Marvell, NEC, Intel, Atheros, and Broadcom – is looking to exploit the under-used 60GHz band of unlicensed airwaves to bring the ability to stream anything your heart desires.

As reported by Engadget, the group hopes to have its technology integrated into everything from televisions and home steroes to mobile handsets and digital TV boxes – allowing every device in your house to talk to every other device.

Where the technology differs from other such projects is in the speeds being offered: despite being a technology not optimised for one particular task, the group is aiming for gigabit speeds. With the possibility of full 1080p HD content being beamed around the room sans wires, manufacturers are clearly taking note.

Craig Mathias, speaking for the wireless and mobile advisory firm Farpoint Group, said that technology has reached a point “where the last barrier to wireless being able to do everything that wire can has fallen” with the founding of the WiGig Alliance. While his statement seems a trifle premature before any of the manufacturers have developed a proven commercial implementation, you can't fault his optimism.

The Alliance hopes to have a finalised version of the WiGig specification in manufacturers' sweaty hands by the end of the year – which, sadly, puts retail products somewhere in the region of 2011.

Do you believe that WiGig could be the answer to all your problems, or is there no good reason to ditch the Cat5e and HDMI leads in the first place? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
Quote Arkanrais 7th May 2009, 15:03
I'm willing to bet by the time this gets up and going, there will be wired LAN connections with 10Gbit bandwidth either out already or just round the corner.
still, it is good to see faster wireless. I've way too many cables runnin in and out of rooms (not to mention the tentacle monster in my bedroom from 3 multiplugs)
Quote DAVEtheRAVE 7th May 2009, 15:08
Quote:
Craig Mathias

That is my surname!

Anyway back on topic, it sounds like a good idea but security will be an issue if things are constantly broadcasting information. I think that people will still want wires for network infrastructure and for high quality media. However it will work for sharing stuff between friends or colleagues and the like, but as a solution for copper (and even fibreoptic) cables I doubt it.


Dave
Quote Gareth Halfacree 7th May 2009, 15:24
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arkanrais
I'm willing to bet by the time this gets up and going, there will be wired LAN connections with 10Gbit bandwidth either out already or just round the corner.
10-Gig-E has been around for a while now - often used as the backbone connection for SANs.
Quote badders 7th May 2009, 15:50
Doesn't the ability to penetrate solid objects drop off the higher in frequency you go?
I can't even get 2.4GHz to go through a wall at my house, so 60GHz will have two hopes, one of them Being Bob.
Quote devdevil85 7th May 2009, 16:33
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gareth Halfacree
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arkanrais
I'm willing to bet by the time this gets up and going, there will be wired LAN connections with 10Gbit bandwidth either out already or just round the corner.
10-Gig-E has been around for a while now - often used as the backbone connection for SANs.
I think he forgot to add "at an affordable rate", but I agree: 100Gbit over copper will be out by 2011 no doubt about it. It's logically the next step, right? 1 > 10 > 100 > 1,000 > 10,000 > 100,000
Quote lona 7th May 2009, 18:34
Quote:
Originally Posted by devdevil85
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gareth Halfacree
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arkanrais
I'm willing to bet by the time this gets up and going, there will be wired LAN connections with 10Gbit bandwidth either out already or just round the corner.
10-Gig-E has been around for a while now - often used as the backbone connection for SANs.
I think he forgot to add "at an affordable rate", but I agree: 100Gbit over copper will be out by 2011 no doubt about it. It's logically the next step, right? 1 > 10 > 100 > 1,000 > 10,000 > 100,000

Could maybe take a little bit longer.. It's still very much in development. And again, it'll take YEARS before it's anywhere near affordable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Gigabit_Ethernet
Quote HourBeforeDawn 7th May 2009, 19:51
ah well it certainly is very promising ^__^
Quote Jerz 7th May 2009, 20:32
100 G-E? And here I am still waiting for 1 G-E to become more available and cheap. But seriously, I can not image what anyone short of having there own SAN would need with 10 Gigabits of bandwith. A single harddrive is maybe capable of sustained 100MBs a second; which is 800 Mbs, that should be within 1 gigabit's throughput. SSDs would be capable of maxing out 1 gigabit but still, 100 megabytes/sec is a substantial amount of data. Uncompressed Blueray movie streaming will fit within 100Mbs ethernet.
Quote darklord of chaos 7th May 2009, 21:25
is this going to be another hyped up waste of time wireless tech? ( draft-N) I have tried draft N wasted alot of money on it to find that a normal G class set up works faster and more reliably

sorry in the day of today can't we live without companies trying to rip the consumer off when money is kinda tight!
Quote Xen0phobiak 8th May 2009, 07:53
I'll stick with cat5 and HDMI/DVI thanks. Copper wiring 'just works', and wireless networking has always been that little bit less than perfect.
Quote Journeyer 8th May 2009, 08:15
While it looks good, and is certainly interesting, I am still in favor of wires, and I will stick to them for the foreseeable future at least.
Quote Jleosack 8th May 2009, 18:49
Quote:
Originally Posted by badders
Doesn't the ability to penetrate solid objects drop off the higher in frequency you go?
I can't even get 2.4GHz to go through a wall at my house, so 60GHz will have two hopes, one of them Being Bob.

Good point. Not only that, but I imagine the range is probably short also. So, wires aren't going anywhere regardless of whether or not 10G-E becomes affordable or not.
Log in

You are not logged in, please login with your forum account below. If you don't already have an account please register to start contributing.







Mobile Phones

LG Arena ReviewHTC Magic Review

Compare over 250 mobile phones &
52,000 deals!



Broadband

Mobile Broadband

Compare over 100 broadband & mobile broadband deals online!

Dragonage