Wi-Gig at 60 GHz, Enabling 4K Video, VR Headsets and More

May 3, 2016

By Ernest Worthman

Worthman

May 3, 2016 — Wi-Fi is coming to 60 GHz. Also known as WiGig, or IEEE 802.11ad, WiGig promises to improve the user experience for things like high-definition streaming multimedia and video gaming.

In 2009, when WiGig was introduced by the Wireless Gigabit Alliance, there really wasn’t much of a need for multi-gigabit speeds, and chipsets to support those speeds were slow to come to market. But in the last couple of years, that has changed. Commercial use and product rollouts of WiGig are accelerating and players such as Qualcomm and Intel, and focused vendors, such as SiBeam, are quickening the pace of development, reducing costs and setting up market drivers.

Basically, one can thank the 4K video movement for this uptick. Streaming 4K video is one major use case for WiGig. At this spec, a gigabyte movie could take less than three seconds to transfer between devices and uncompressed high-definition videos can be streamed from mobile devices to TVs in real-time without any delay.

This is a real boon for the softening smartphones and mobile device market in general. Add the emerging virtual reality headsets, and WiGig is just the ticket. Another hot application for WiGig is the connection of peripheral devices via high-speed Wi-Fi. Extrapolate that to the IoE, autonomous vehicles, smart networks and one can see why this is an exciting technology.