After finishing my last blog post for PEI, I realized I left out some seemingly big technologies coming to market just before Christmas time. This is a follow up to my “Wireless Gigabit Yay!” blog post.
5GBps WiFi
Technically, 5GBps WiFi exists. My last dissertation on the latest in WiFi tech omitted this development on purpose. Read below to find out why.
Just 4 days ago yet another 802.11ad product line was launched by TPLINK. Claimed throughput is 4.66 GBPS. Naturally, cut that in half to account for duplex ‘math’ WiFi suffers from.
Math aside…does this actually work? What changed?
No, it does not work
802.11ad in the present implementation runs off 60GHz. So bearing in mind NO laptops, cell phones, or tablets employ it, we move on to finding how it actually works.
Granted, this is a chicken and egg problem, and it is only natural the 802.11ad APs are released first. I expect to see 60GHz WiFi Phones by the end of next year.
60GHz
The reason 60GHz does not, and CANNOT work is because of physics. Have you ever wondered why your phone is ‘quad band’? Within the available FCC spectrums in the US, lower wavelengths are MUCH more desirable due to their ability to travel further—this is why 700MHz LTE band tender was such a big deal.
Do you ever wonder why your 5GHz wifi has half the coverage of the good OL’ 2.4GHz? This is exactly why—it is harder for higher frequency waves to pass through objects.
60GHz is SQUARELY aimed at line of sight communication—do not expect it to travel through walls.
That’s it. This is all you need to know about 802.11ad—unless you’re streaming 4k video from your smartphone to the TV right in front of it, there is literally no mainstream application for this technology.
Let’s try again soon. I CANNOT wait to get rid of all the cat5 in my house.
JacobR, PEI
