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Wireless Networking Communications Hardware

Gigabit Wi-Fi On the Horizon 61

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the faster-pringles-cans dept.
alphadogg writes to mention that the same working group that brought you the standard for the 802.11n wireless communications is already poised to launch a gigabit Wi-Fi project. "Last year, group members formed the Very High Throughput (VHT) Study Group to explore changes to the 802.11 WLAN standard to support gigabit capacity. The study group is looking at doing so in two frequency bands, high-frequency 60GHz for relatively short ranges and under-6GHz for ranges similar to that of today's WLANs in the 5GHz band, 802.11a and 11n."
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Gigabit Wi-Fi On the Horizon More

Gigabit Wi-Fi On the Horizon

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  • Sounds pretty awesome for streaming the future generation of high-def to the couch wirelessly.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by 0xygen ( 595606 )

      I've always been of the mindset that my laptop has a power lead, so when I want to move things around quickly, I have no real issue plugging in a gigabit network cable from down the side of the couch.

      I guess it's good for not having to run infrastructure though - rented places, student halls, or just making the house prettier!

    • Fix current wifi and wimax first! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by neutrino38 ( 1037806 ) on Friday September 12, 2008 @06:27PM (#24985435) Homepage Journal

      Before going gigabit, we await a few fixes

      - we should have a true full duplex communication with radio resource allocation. We need this for VoIP
      - we should have better network density (more user per network)
      - we should have better way to avoid interference between neighbouring networks.
      - in case of wimax, high latency has been reported when network becomes really used and bad behaviour inside buildings.
      - next gen wireless network should also be optimised to avoid battery drain.
      - For network pairing, please copy GAP/DECT technology and remove this network key usability nonsense.
      - Innovate by making wireless roaming easy.

      Fix this first. Otherwise, at this rate, big telco and 3G technology will rule.

      • Amen brother, unfortunately the common mentality is speed > quality. Rather than refine and improve what we currently have there seems to be a burning need to increase speed first, maybe fix a few things and then push the speed envelope again. I am all for faster transfer rates but I would like to see some refinements in what we are currently using first.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by natx808 ( 675339 )
        most of your fixes are here already - visit http://www.xirrus.com/ [xirrus.com]

        - voip is already being done successfully over wi-fi. there's plenty of non overlapping channels and multiple phones can run off a single xirrus AP

        - very high user density - 20k users supported at interop

        - rf management built in

        - plays nice with other wireless networks

        - 1/4 the power usage of other wi-fi solutions

        - fast roaming built in between radios and accses points

        wimax is irrelavent. wimax is used for long haul point to

  • Do the airwaves even have the spare bandwidth to pump through a billion bits per second? Right now, providers are fighting over parts of the spectrum with much lower bandwidth.

  • From the group who brought us N (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 77Punker ( 673758 ) <spencr04.highpoint@edu> on Friday September 12, 2008 @04:27PM (#24984673)

    Nobody has brought us N yet. According to Wikipedia, it probably won't be ratified until November 2009. They should probably work on that first.

    • You know there's a difference between real life and ISO standards right?

      O right... it's /.

      • Real life right now is using pre-release versions of standards that do not interoperate with each other properly. So at the moment, real life reflects the unfinished nature of the standard very well.

        • And you'd rather have equipment based on a ratified standard that doesn't interoperate with each other? Seriously, just having the standard doesn't mean everyone will follow it correctly. 802.11n interoperates pretty well now, and I don't expect it to be any better in 2009.

    • That's the part that bothers me. I'm in the market for a wireless router but I'm not certain just how much of a minefield "N" is?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Guppy06 ( 410832 )

      When 802.11n gets finalized, we'll all be using it to play DN4E over IPv6 from our flying cars.

      "From the people that brought you Pipe Dream Stuck in Committee comes..."

    • Well, i'm certainly enjoying the nice transfers i'm getting from my belkin router to my tx25xx tablet. Now i just wish my internet connection was as fast.

  • Same group as N? (Score:3, Funny)

    by HaeMaker ( 221642 ) on Friday September 12, 2008 @05:20PM (#24984733) Homepage

    Then we should see it by about 2040.

  • "60GHz and under-6GHz for ranges similar to that of today's WLANs in the 5GHz band, 802.11a and 11n."

    There, fixed that for ya.

  • Time for my aluminum hat! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    With all these radio waves floating around my house (cellular, wi-fi, microwave, wireless USB, wireless HDMI, etc) the tumor in my head will have a new friend!

  • The major pitfalls of wireless at the moment are:
    • unreliable
    • high latency
    • low range
    • low capacity

    In roughly that order. Anyone wanna tackle those problems first?

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by TheRaven64 ( 641858 )
      High latency? Ping time to a machine on my WLAN is 1.2ms. Ping time to the machine one hop away on my ISP's network is 12ms. What are you doing which requires less than 1ms latency on a LAN?
    • It seems to be fairly reliable to me - whenever I'm in a situation where a wifi network is unreliable, it's either because I'm too far away or the router itself is having issues. Latency is low, as far as I can tell basically the same as pinging another computer by way of a hub. The range is an issue, but it's one which will be difficult to deal with, although there are already ways to do so - for example, you can sacrifice latency for range by using repeaters. As for it being low capacity - which I take to
  • Actual speeds might even be competitive with a 100Mb LAN.
  • Excellent. Whenever I need to shift large files (1GB+) between my laptop and network storage I usually have to disappear to a switch and wire myself in. As long as it doesn't have interference with neighbours I'm sorted.

  • news? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hurfy ( 735314 ) on Friday September 12, 2008 @07:26PM (#24985887)

    "At a meeting this week in Hawaii, the study group has been finalizing a proposal calling for creation of a new, as yet unnamed task group to carry forward the work of crafting a standard."

    No tech yet, no people yet, no name yet but it's coming soon trust us......

  • Note the location.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by thatseattleguy ( 897282 ) on Friday September 12, 2008 @08:41PM (#24986325) Homepage
    TFA says,

    At a meeting this week in Hawaii, the study group has been finalizing a proposal calling for creation of a new, as yet unnamed task group to carry forward the work of crafting a standard.

    Not quoted was a later section, which went on to say:

    "Study group members recommended several more meetings to work on gritty details of the task force proposal, beginning with further "working sessions" to be held in Tahiti, St. Tropez, Rio de Janeiro, and a luxury cruise ship in the Carribean. 'Our work is never truly done', sighed one group member, clearly still feeling the effects of the previous night's 'Bacardi and Bimbos' breakout group. 'We'll keep at it as long as it takes, just like we did with 802.11n', promised another, as two 19-year-old, bikini-clad "adjunct group members" massaged coconut oil into his back."

  • On the horizon doesn't do me any damn good. I need it to be much closer than that!

  • I'm assuming if they claim it's gigabit then surely it's exactly 500mbit a second in real world use, right?
    Just like 802.11g is almost exactly half what it claims.

  • When all the encryption, bandwith sharing, distance and walls/other objects have been taken into account it will run a flaking 2 Mbps. Just like any other wireless connection

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