IEEE 802.11ad

The Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) was a trade association that developed and promoted the adoption of multi-gigabit per second speed wireless communications technology operating over the unlicensed 60 GHz frequency band. The alliance was subsumed by the Wi-Fi Alliance in March 2013.

The formation of the WiGig alliance to promote the IEEE 802.11ad protocol was announced in May 2009. The completed version 1.0 WiGig specification was announced in December 2009. In May 2010, WiGig announced the publication of its specification, the opening of its Adopter Program, and the liaison agreement with the Wi-Fi Alliance to cooperate on the expansion of Wi-Fi technologies. In June 2011, WiGig announced the release of its certification-ready version 1.1 specification.

The WiGig specification allows devices to communicate without wires at multi-gigabit speeds. It enables high performance wireless data, display and audio applications that supplement the capabilities of previous wireless LAN devices. WiGig tri-band enabled devices, which operate in the 2.4, 5 and 60 GHz bands, deliver data transfer rates up to 7 Gbit/s, about as fast as an 8-band 802.11ac transmission, and more than 11 times faster than the highest 802.11n rate, while maintaining compatibility with existing Wi-Fi devices. The 60 GHz signal cannot typically penetrate walls but can propagate off reflections from walls, ceilings, floors and objects using beamforming built into the WiGig system. When roaming away from the main room, the protocol can switch to make use of the other lower bands at a much lower rate, both of which can propagate through walls.

Among the companies that compose the board of directors are:

Contributor members include:

Ali Sadri is the president and chairman of the board of WiGig Alliance and also founded the movement. Sadri directs all activities throughout the alliance, from leading the board of directors to providing support for the technical working groups.

The Wireless gigabit alliance set about its task for creating faster and more efficient communications technology in 2007. Their idea was to set about creating wirelessly interconnected home entertainment and office devices, like PCs, tablets, smartphones and displays, entirely removing the need for wires. They also wanted devices to be constantly connected and ready to transfer. Thus eliminating the need to have both a laptop and a tablet, as a device could connect straight to a display. In May 2009, the alliance announced something, and WiGig 1.0, announced in December of the same year. In 2010, WiGig and the Wi-Fi alliance announced a cooperation agreement. The agreement combined 60 GHz with traditional Wi-Fi networking that extended the range at slower speeds and helped signals to go through walls to cover entire homes. On November 3, 2010, the WiGig Alliance and the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) announced an association to define the next generation standard wireless display technology. VESA and WiGig Alliance agreed to share technology specifications to develop multi-gigabit wireless Display Port capabilities.

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