802.11ad - The Fastest WiFi Solution You've Never Seen

[51CTO.com Quick Translation] Millimeter-wave Wi-Fi technology, also known as 802.11ad, is a powerful new wireless standard, and related products are just beginning to hit the market—including a router from TP-Link and a laptop from Asus.

802.11ad is based on ultra-high-frequency radio waves—specifically, the current 802.11n and 802.11ac standards use 5 GHz, but ad uses 60 GHz. This means it can handle far more data than previous standards, but also for shorter durations—because higher-frequency signals fade away faster.

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This means that 802.11ad can achieve very high wireless transmission speeds over short distances, but its actual application in an enterprise environment is different. The main controversy at present is whether 802.11ad will be used in the same way as previous Wi-Fi standards.

Previous standards have been primarily edge-to-endpoint technologies, but Forrester analyst Ande Kindness pointed out that this is not the primary way 802.11ad will be used.

According to Kindness, this is more like a wireless backbone technology, which replaces part of the wired network with its superior transmission capabilities.

"It will serve as the primary connection mechanism to quickly transfer data and help users get rid of their dependence on cables," he said in an interview.

Different wireless technologies have their own advantages, Kindness said, emphasizing that a number of companies have already begun to use them to support various uses. 802.11ad is an important part of the Wi-Fi expansion solution, which can include more use cases.

"You don't think of Bluetooth as part of Wi-Fi because Wi-Fi is trying to expand itself to solve all the problems that already exist," he said. "And now there are new versions that can clearly serve as backend infrastructure, which is quite rare in the development of previous technology solutions."

Wi-Fi has been struggling to fit in with a host of other new wireless technologies, which has allowed the long-standing 802.11 family to continue to grow and develop - including 802.11ah, also known as HaLow, a low-frequency, high-bandwidth standard designed to accommodate the massive Internet of Things.

Not all parties agree, however - Qualcomm, one of the main chip suppliers behind 802.11ad hardware, stressed that the 60 GHz standard is likely to go beyond analyst Kindness's vision and serve a wider range of mainstream deployment environments.

According to Mark Grodzinsky, senior director of product management for Qualcomm's connectivity division, 802.11ad will be widely available starting next year and will complement existing Wi-Fi technology without affecting how it is used.

"I think by next year, every major PC maker will have 11ad SKUs in their notebooks," he said.

Performance factors also need to be paid close attention to, Grodzinsky reminded. Even for 802.11ac wave 2 technology, it is still obviously quite struggling to cope with the current considerable transmission bandwidth requirements, so the 802.11ad standard will undoubtedly show great potential in this area.

“Everyone in the enterprise wants good network performance at their seat,” he said. “While many technical standards are ideal from a numerical perspective, people are clearly more concerned about their actual experience and want better performance levels – and the only way to achieve high performance levels is to increase capacity.”

Chuck Lukaszewski, vice president of wireless strategy and standards at HPE/Aruba, agrees, saying that the market demand for capacity remains high and that next-generation technologies like 802.11ad can bring a "third layer" to the spectrum band to meet the needs of specific environments.

“This is particularly important for industries that have a high demand for transmission bandwidth, especially considering that some industries have long been unable to achieve full wireless,” he explained in an interview. “The most typical examples are medical PACS systems and computer-aided engineering/design workers.”

However, Lukaszewski also pointed out that there are still obstacles to the widespread use of the 802.11ad standard, because traditional Wi-Fi is still widely deployed, and practitioners need to gradually explore which areas are most suitable for the full promotion of this new technology. Simply put, the hardware currently using 802.11ad technology on the market is not using it in "infrastructure mode", which is different from the most common Wi-Fi deployment method today.

"To date, Wi-Gig products on the market are still mainly defined as peer-to-peer applications. Once the infrastructure model is widely accepted among Wi-Gig customers, enterprise wireless transmission suppliers will quickly follow," he said.

While Qualcomm's Grodzinsky hinted at major product announcements in the coming weeks, no one is sure how 802.11ad will become ubiquitous -- either as traditional Wi-Fi technology or, as Forrester suggests, as a wireless backhaul carrier.

802.11ad routers will continue to gain market share, but Kindness said that their initial development will still be limited to a small number of compatible endpoints - if your laptop doesn't need too exaggerated transmission network to cooperate, why bother to choose a 60 GHz access point?

"I think for this reason 802.11ad is primarily limited to loopback networks -- beyond that, I don't see it being used to take over traffic switching."

Original link: http://www.networkworld.com/article/3123428/wi-fi/802-11ad-is-the-fastest-wi-fi-that-you-might-not-ever-use.html

Original title: 802.11ad is the fastest Wi-Fi that you might not ever use

[Translated by 51CTO. Please indicate the original translator and source as 51CTO.com when reprinting on partner sites]