Austin, Texas – The Wi-Fi
Alliance expects mid-2010 availability of the first Wi-Fi products that
incorporate its planned Wi-Fi Direct specification, which will enable Wi-Fi
devices to talk to one other without going through a wireless local area network
(WLAN).
The alliance expects to begin certifying Wi-Fi Direct
devices as interoperable under its certification program beginning mid-2010,
with products available around the same time. Products will likely be
demonstrated at January’s International CES, the alliance said.
Wi-Fi Direct is suitable for AC-powered and portable
devices, including cellphones, wireless mice and keyboards, digital cameras,
printers, notebook computers, TVs and whole-house remote controls, the alliance
said. It combines traditional LAN functionality with a long-range personal area
network (PAN), enabling suppliers to reduce costs by combining LAN and PAN functions in one radio rather than
incorporating separate Wi-Fi and PAN radios, said alliance executive director
Edgar Figueroa.
The spec, still under development, will ride on top of the
current 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN standards, will deliver the same data rates and ranges
as those standards, and will consume no more power than the current WLAN
standards, Figueroa said. It also incorporates WPA2 security and Wi-Fi
Protected Setup to simplify security setup.
Wi-Fi Direct will overcome the limitations of the current peer-to-peer
WiFi ad hoc spec, which has not been implemented widely, and it will deliver
greater throughput and portable-device range than the current Bluetooth
standard, the alliance said. Another advantage is more efficient bandwidth use.
Wi-Fi Direct will use half the bandwidth of a traditional WLAN to transmit the
same amount of data because data is sent directly from one device to another.
In contrast, in a traditional WLAN incorporating a wireless access point, bandwidth
is consumed when transmitting from one device to an access point and again when
the data is retransmitted from the access point to the intended target device.
Many products incorporating the current standards can be
upgraded with a software download to add Wi-Fi Direct, Figueroa noted.
Compared to the current Wi-Fi ad hoc spec, Wi-Fi Direct
enables devices to automatically find one another and discover other devices’
capabilities. The ad hoc spec also isn’t as speedy as its WLAN counterparts,
nor does it offer enterprise management tools, the alliance said.
Industry observers also contend that, compared to the
traditional WLAN specs, the ad hoc spec does not offer as much security against
unwanted incoming connections.
