Wireless Gigabit Alliance completes specs for 60 GHz technology

The Wireless Gigabit Alliance has completed specs for a technology designed to deliver as much as 7 Gbps in the 60 GHz band.

The alliance, backed by wireless technology companies such as Intel, Broadcom and Atheros, announced in May it was developing the WiGig specification. WiGig is expected to have enough capacity to deliver high-def video streams and will play in the home-networking market. The alliance is expected set up a certification system next year and anticipates WiGig-based consumer products to begin reaching the market in 2011.

The WiGig Alliance said it has included a beam-forming feature that is expected WiGig networks to transmit over distances that are greater than 10 meters--a capability that would enable data and content to be dispersed throughout a room.

The Wi-Fi Alliance is also developing a standard at 60 GHz called IEEE 802.11AD, but the Wi-Fi Alliance has indicated that WiGig looks to be complementary to WiFi, especially since Intel, Broadcom and Atheros all have plans to integrate the technology into WiFi chipsets. The addition of the standard would enable users to switch to WiGig for more speed.

For more:
- read this Techworld article