The Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) said it has completed its spec for a networking technology pretty well summarized in the organization’s name.
The group, populated with consumer electronics, chip, PC and handset companies, has devised a wireless means of transmitting data at gigabit rates, using the 60 GHz spectrum.
Signal propagation is limited in that spectrum, thus the technology is intended to create LANs within a confined space – a single room or contiguous rooms.
Advocates suggest the technology could be used to complement Wi-Fi technology (it is based, in part, on Wi-Fi technology), but it might also be competitive not only with Wi-Fi, but with other advanced gigabit standards being proposed.
The completed specification is ready for member review and is anticipated to be made available to WiGig adopter members in the first quarter of 2010.
Members include Atheros Communications, Broadcom, Dell, Intel, LG, Marvell, MediaTek, Microsoft, NEC, Nokia, Nvidia, Panasonic, Samsung, Toshiba and Wilocity. Contributing members include AMD, NXP, SK Telecom, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and TMC, among others. SK Telecom, TMC, Nvidia and AMD just joined the group.
“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,” said Dr. Ali Sadri, president and chairman of the Wireless Gigabit Alliance. “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.”
The specification includes:
- Data transmission rates up to 7 Gbps.
- It supplements and extends the 802.11 Medium Access Control (MAC) layer and is backward-compatible with the IEEE 802.11 standard.
- Protocol adaptation layers are being developed to support specific system interfaces, including data buses for PC peripherals and display interfaces for HDTVs, monitors and projectors.
- Support for beamforming, enabling robust communication at distances beyond 10 meters.
- Widely used advanced security and power management for WiGig devices.
Devang Sachdev, technology marketing manager at Nvidia, said: “Nvidia recognizes the general market trend toward wire-free interfaces. Today, display interfaces are at an inflection point where the next-generation solutions will feature wireless display connections for PCs, game consoles, notebooks, and mobile devices with PC monitors and TVs. Nvidia supports open standards for wireless transmission of data for display and interfaces such as PCIe, USB, etc., and we see this as aligned with WiGig’s work.”
