New 60GHz group aims for 6Gbit wireless links

Major technology companies including Intel, Microsoft, Samsung and Panasonic have formed a new alliance to develop a standard for creating wireless links in the 60GHz band capable of transfer rates of 1Gbit/sec and above.

The Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WGA) says the new Wigig standard will be broader in aim than the existing Wireless HD specification, which is designed to send HD video from set-top boxes and media players to TV sets. Wigig is designed to link cellphones, video cameras, PCs and other devices as well, and the organisation says speed could reach 6Gbits/sec.

Other WGA members include Atheros, Broadcom, Dell, LG Electronics, Marvell International, Mediatek, Microsoft, NEC, Nokia and Wilocity.

Many are also members of the Wireless HD organisation. Caroline Gabriel, of Rethink Wireless, says prime movers of WGA are Wifi chipmakers who don't want to be outflanked by a new technology.

A notable absentee from the WGA member list is Sibeam, which already offers a Wireless HD chipset that has been used by a number of TV manufacturers.

To complicate matters even further, an IEEE 802.11 subcommittee has been investigating the use of 60GHz as a new Wifi transmission band. The Wigig specification will allow a number of protocols such as HDMI to be used over its carrier signal.

The 60GHz band has a number of advantages, some double-edged. The range is short because the frequencies happen to be readily absorbed by oxygen; Wifi hype has tended to promote range as an unqualified advantage, but it is so only if you pretend that interference between neighbours is of no account.

Wigig should allow many close neighbours to use the 60GHz band without contention problems. The bandwidth is huge: 2.5GHz compared with a maximum 40MHz for a current Wifi.

Signals at 60GHz are directional, which normally means you need line-of-sight transmission, though it may be possible to bounce a signal off walls. But again there is a plus side: radiated energy is more concentrated, making transmissions more power efficient.

Directionality can also ease addressing: you simply point one device at another, rather than going through a complex search and pairing routine.

The new alliance may be the final straw for Ultrawideband (UWB), once front-runner for providing fast wireless links across rooms. Intel dropped the technology last year and the governing Wimedia Alliance has wound itself up, handing the technology over to the Bluetooth Sig, which may (or may not) use it as a fast data pipe.