IEEE 802.11ad

IEEE 802.11ad specifies enhancements to the IEEE 802.11 standard to support very high throughput in the unlicensed 60 GHz band. In this band is much more bandwidth available than in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.

Within the 60 GHz band it is possible to communicate over four channels with a width of 2.16 GHz each. This makes bit rates of up to 7 Gbit/s possible.

The drawback of the use of the 60 GHz band is the very limited range compared to the 2.4 and 5 GHz band. However, IEEE 802.11ad is designed to deliver wireless connections between the computer and other devices in the network, e.g. a HDMI video connection to a screen or a USB connection to other terminal equipment. Since IEEE 802.11ad is designed to be a "cable replacement" to provide connecitivity between devices, the relatively short range of the connection is not a real problem. IEEE 802.11ad will need to co-exist with IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac for the provisioning of TCP/IP connectivity within the network and to the internet.

Specification of IEEE 802.11ad started within the Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig), but their work is transfered to the IEEE 802.11ad specification.