In 2019, the newest Wi-Fi will be available to the public. Known as Wi-Fi 6, it will bring speeds of up to 2Gbps to your wireless devices. But it's not the fastest connection in the Wi-Fi world. The Wi-Fi Alliance has endorsed WiGig, and the technology can deliver speeds of 5Gbps but isn't widely used.
> ContentsWhat is WiGig?What are the limitations of WiGig?What are its uses?How is it different from Wi-Fi 6?If WiGig is faster than Wi-Fi 6, why don't we jump on the bandwagon and skip Wi-Fi 6 altogether? Well, it's faster, but it has some limitations. Let's see what it is and why it's not better than Wi-Fi 6.
WiGig is another name for a Wi-Fi connection called 802.11ad. It is also called Wireless AD. It has the ability to deliver Wi-Fi speeds that are seven or eight times insane compared to the speeds offered by 802.11ac! With download speeds of up to 10 Gbps, WiGig can download an HD movie in seconds! It offers very low latency and almost wire-like responsiveness.
WiGig uses the 60 GHz spectrum instead of the 2.4 or 5 GHz typically used by standard Wi-Fi. Channels wider in this spectrum can pack more data into the signal. It uses beamforming technology for a direct signal between devices, eliminating interference.
The antennas that WiGig uses to send signals between devices are only the size of your thumb and are getting smaller and smaller.
Another problem is that today WiGig is technically faster than the speeds available from almost all internet service providers. This gap means you won't be able to get its full speed anyway.
So what is WiGig for? Right now, WiGig would work best as a complement to your current Wi-Fi rather than replacing it. Some of the uses that may be possible soon include:
WiGig is much faster than Wi-Fi 6. However, Wi-Fi 6 is more flexible than WiGig because Wi-Fi 6 can pass through objects like walls and travel farther. Today, most WiGig devices must be standalone. In other words, you need both the WiGig wireless adapter to communicate with a specific receiver via a direct stream.
One day you may be able to buy a WiGig-enabled router and laptop with WiGig capability and get amazing speeds while the computer is within range of the router. These types of devices are rare today. Wi-Fi 6 will soon be widely available, and while it doesn't have the blazing speeds of WiGig, you'll still see a marked improvement over your current connections.
We know technology is continually improving, and just recently Qualcomm announced that it has the first 802.11ay Wi-Fi chipsets. These are the next level of WiGig and have the capacity for speeds of up to 10Gbps for all devices. WiGig technology could theoretically reach speeds of 40-50 Gbps, but today's devices are not capable of handling such data transfer rates, so they have a lot of catching up to do!
So while WiGig speeds might seem like Wi-Fi heaven, it's still not really practical for everyday use. Wi-Fi 6, however, will dramatically improve your experience over the current 802.11ac standard.
