The latest IEEE standard, 802.11ad, is one that now offers the fastest ever speed over short distances using the 60Ghz frequency.  Offering up to 4600Mbps the 802.11ad standard, which is 4x faster than 802.11ac and 30x faster the 802.11n, has broken the speed barrier within the wireless industry.

The technology behind this groundbreaking standard was actually developed by the WiGig (Wireless Gigabit) Alliance as opposed to the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) as traditionally has happened. It was created in 2009 but only emerged as the standard we know today after the WiGig Alliance merged with the Wi-Fi Alliance in 2013. (Chester, 2017)

As a general rule-the higher a frequency or the shorter the wavelength the greater the absorption rate, which has led to some concern over 60Ghz’s ability to cover long distances and go through objects. Bearing this in mind it can be said that this potential shortcoming is certainly outweighed by the incredibly high bandwidth that offers up to 7 Gigabits of data transmission. Consumers can also expect to see a number of 802.11ad Wi-Fi devices coming into the market that is backed up with the ability to switch to 2.4 and 5 GHz frequency bands for longer distance and better object penetration. (Cnx-software.com, 2017)

Since its creation, this technology has taken a few years to find its way into consumer products but the good news is that it has indeed finally arrived in the form of innovative products such as world’s first-ever 802.11ad Wi-Fi router, the TP-Link Talon AD7200 Multi-Band Wi-Fi Router. Although there are a limited amount of devices compatible with this standard, this device offers business overs and home users a unique way to futureproof their Wi-Fi.

The AD7200 is able to achieve over 4600Mbps on the 60GHz band, 1733Mbps on the 5GHz band and 800Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band. It’s equipped with MU-MIMO which enables the AD7200 to serve multiple users at the same time and provide speeds that are up to 3X faster for every device on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. (Tp-link.co.za, 2017)

Improved efficiency can now be ensured amongst the following applications:

• Internal/Cloud Storage – Fastest backup speeds
• HD Streaming – Seamless 4K video streaming
• Virtual Reality – Enhanced, cable-less augmented reality experiences

One can expect to see these benefits and more as we see more 802.11ad compatible devices come onto the market. These will include the latest smartphones, laptops, tablets, virtual reality headsets, adapters and chipsets.

Whether you need to back up your office server or simply stream the latest episode of Game of Thrones Season 7 in 4K, using the TP-Link AD7200 Multi-Band Router will give you the most advanced and efficient way of doing this.

References

Chester, E. (2017). 4.6Gbps Wi-Fi: How 60GHz wireless works—and should you use it?. [online] Ars Technica. Available at: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/12/802-11ad-wifi-guide-review/ [Accessed 15 Dec. 2016].

Cnx-software.com. (2017). The First Devices and Routers with WiFi 802.11ad Delivering Up 7Gbit/s Transfer Rates at 60 GHz Will Be Available This Year. [online] Available at: http://www.cnx-software.com/2016/03/07/the-first-devices-and-routers-with-wifi-802-11ad-delivering-up-7gbits-transfer-rates-at-60-ghz-will-be-available-this-year/ [Accessed 7 Mar. 2016].

Tp-link.co.za. (2017). Talon AD7200 Multi-Band Wi-Fi Router – TP-Link. [online] Available at: http://www.tp-link.co.za/products/details/cat-9_AD7200.html [Accessed 19 Jul. 2017].