Cisco weighs in for multi-gigabit addition to Wi-Fi

A high-frequency supplement to Wi-Fi that's several times faster than most of what's available now appears headed for enterprises through a partnership between Cisco Systems and a specialist in the technology.

The system, called WiGig or IEEE 802.11ad, uses 60GHz spectrum to reach theoretical speeds as high as 7Gbps (bits per second), over a shorter range than today's Wi-Fi technologies. That's a lot more speed: The fastest Wi-Fi system, 802.11ac, tops out at just over 1Gbps. The Wi-Fi Alliance said in September that it expects to start certifying some WiGig products next year.

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WiGig specialist Wilocity will work with Cisco to integrate the technology with Wi-Fi into enterprise infrastructure that can run on three radio bands, the companies announced on Wednesday.

The tri-band networks will include WiGig in addition to the mainstream Wi-Fi systems that use the 2.4GHz and 5GHz spectrum bands. Their work together could include Cisco using Wilocity silicon in its enterprise access points, as well as the companies helping makers of devices to add WiGig, said Bob Friday, CTO for mobility in Cisco's enterprise networking group.

"If he thinks it's a good idea, it's going to happen," said Farpoint Group analyst Craig Mathias, referring to Friday and to Cisco's power in the wireless LAN infrastructure market. Cisco access points with Wilocity-powered 60GHz capability will ship, though it's not yet clear when, Mathias said.

After a long path to market, WiGig earlier this year was ratified as the IEEE 802.11ad standard. The WiGig Alliance has merged with the Wi-Fi Alliance and plans to certify products for Wi-Gig. The technology will also be used as the basis of other systems, including Wireless USB.

Wilocity has been one of the major vendors of 60GHz silicon and already has some chips shipping in client devices, including laptops and docking stations from Dell.

The high-speed, short-range specification complements the widely used Wi-Fi technologies, including 802.11ac, 802.11n, and the earlier 802.11a/b/g standards, Cisco and Wilocity say. The standards allow for smooth handoffs between the different networks to give users the best possible performance in a given location.

Enterprises will eventually turn to tri-band networks for more bandwidth to handle growth in users and time-critical traffic, Mathias said. The 60GHz band offers between 7GHz and 9GHz of spectrum, depending on the country, he said. That dwarfs the additional block in the 5GHz band that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is working on making available for Wi-Fi, which only amounts to about 1GHz, Mathias said.

The 60GHz wireless LANs won't be designed for going through walls but for serving small, focused areas. On an office floor filled with cubicles, many access points could be deployed, each delivering a large amount of capacity to a portion of the users, said Tal Tamir, Wilocity's co-founder and CEO. That means less sharing and higher speeds than if everyone on the floor was sharing one access point, he said.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/networking/cisco-weighs-in-multi-gigabit-addition-wi-fi-230332
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