Amendments in IEEE 802.11ad™ Enable Multi-Gigabit Data Throughput and Groundbreaking Improvements in Capacity

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IEEE, the world's largest professional organization advancing technology for humanity, today announced that the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Standards Board has approved the IEEE 802.11ad^TM-2012 amendment to provide data rates up to 7 Gbps, more than 10 times the maximum speed previously enabled within the IEEE 802.11^TM standard. With the improvements introduced in IEEE 802.11ad, this amendment is a perfect complement to the existing IEEE 802.11 standard, acting as the foundation for tri-band networking, wireless docking, wired equivalent data transfer rates and uncompressed streaming video.

“IEEE 802.11 is undergoing a continuous process of refinement and innovation to address the evolving needs of the marketplace, and there is no better proof of that fact than IEEE 802.11ad”

The IEEE 802.11ad specification adds a “fast session transfer” feature, which enables wireless devices to seamlessly transition between the 60 GHz frequency band and the legacy 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. The ability to imperceptively move between the bands ensures that computing devices are always “best connected,” enabling them to operate with optimal performance and range criteria.

“IEEE 802.11 is undergoing a continuous process of refinement and innovation to address the evolving needs of the marketplace, and there is no better proof of that fact than IEEE 802.11ad,” said Bruce Kraemer, chair of the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN Working Group. “By migrating up to the next ISM band (60 GHz), we break ground on new spectrum for IEEE 802.11, enable an order of magnitude improvement in performance and enable usages that have never before been possible with existing IEEE 802.11 — namely wireless docking and streaming video.”

Through the vast improvements in spectral reuse at 60 GHz and an efficient beam forming technology, IEEE 802.11ad enables great improvements in capacity. Many users in a dense deployment can all maintain top-speed performance, without interfering with each other or having to share bandwidth as with the legacy frequency bands.

More than 300 individuals from equipment and silicon suppliers, service providers, systems integrators, consultant organizations and academic institutions from more than 20 countries participated in IEEE 802.11ad ratification. The global collaboration effort led to the successful completion of the standard 50 percent faster than the previous major PHY/MAC IEEE standard of this magnitude. The amendment was published in December 2012.

IEEE 802.11ad is available for purchase at the IEEE Standards Store.

IEEE 802.11 defines the technology for the world’s premier wireless LAN (WLAN) products. IEEE 802.11-based products are often branded as “WiFi^®” in the market. IEEE 802.11 standards underpin wireless networking applications around the world, such as wireless access to the Internet from offices, homes, airports, hotels, restaurants, trains and aircraft. IEEE 802.11’s relevance continues to expand with the emergence of new applications, such as the smart grid, wireless docking and the “Internet of Things.”

For more information about the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN Working Group, visit http://standards.ieee.org/develop/wg/WG802.11.html.

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