WiFi Jedi.com

One of my Enterprise customers asked me today about 802.11ad as a replacement for their 802.11n, and if they should wait for chipsets that support operation in 60 GHz.   Here’s what I  wrote back:

“802.11ad / 60GHz technology is most likely going to be used for short-range / high-capacity cable replacement (think wireless HDMI to home theater components).  The higher frequency doesn’t make it a candidate to replace the current use cases of today’s Wi-Fi.  Also, because of that different frequency band, it will not be backward compatible with 802.11n or legacyWi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g).  While there could ultimately be multiple chips in end-user / client devices, history suggests it’s not likely – most of the phone / tablet manufacturers today don’t implement chipsets for 2.4 GHz *and* 5 GHz largely due to battery life concerns.  Additionally, similar claims around having multiple chips for both Wi-Fi and Wi-Max were popular at one time, but were never widely productized. ”