Gigabit WiFi Coming For Increased Speed In 2013

Using WiFi as an access method to the Web has been a common and accept access point for millions of people. With smartphones, having WiFi access instead of using your 3G or 4G LTE connection for downloading saves on the potential overage charges as you exceed your data plans. At the moment, the speeds we are seeing over WiFi are adequate as they have become saturated over the years due to the explosion of technology taking advantage of the bandwidth. So, any coming changes which will remove the bottlenecks and significantly increase speed is something we can all get behind. And that change is Gigabit WiFi.

The current speeds that we are seeing for 802.11g is 54 Mbps and 802.11n is 150 Mbps with 802.11n being the current standard coming with all new devices capable of WiFi connectivity. These are the accepted theoretical values for delivering content for a WiFi device. We do not see that for a various reasons even when standing next to the WiFi device. What is currently in the works and is expected to be available this year is Gigabit WiFi for newer devices. This is to provide for up to 1.3 Gbps throughput, though this is the theoretical maximum and we are not going to be seeing a number that high. But even if you only get to see half that number with your mobile device, it is a huge improvement over 802.11n. This is to be called 802.11ac which will give those mobile devices with the necessary chips the speed necessary to move data far faster than today and may be at 1 Gbps speeds getting devices to see rapid screen displays and file downloads.

With anything having to do with technology, such as WiFi, there is an organizational body which rules over them and that is the case with the 802.11 standards which WiFi falls under. The 802.11 standards are ruled over by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) here in the US. And while this will be approved soon, many companies are preparing WiFi devices based on what the adopted standard is expected to be. WiFi devices based on 802.11ac are coming from companies like NetGear, D-Link and Cisco/LinkSys.

In order to achieve these much higher speeds for WiFi, they are leveraging something called Quadrature amplitude modulation. With this methodology, each stream of data can deliver up to 433 Mbps. That is less than the theoretical 1.3 Gbps and makes one wonder why there is a difference. Since they are delivering a stream of data, then what if they could deliver multiple streams of data which when added together provide for much higher performance? That is exactly how they are going to achieve much higher speeds in delivering things over WiFi.

There are going to be WiFi devices which will be able to handle 3 streams of data giving you the expected great delivery of information. And future 802.11 standards will expand the number of streams of data giving us even faster speeds over WiFi. While we have should have Gigibit WiFi approved by the FCC in the next few months and the associated bandwidth, others are starting to work on the next standard coming which is 802.11an with theoretical speeds of up to 7 Gbps. The future for WiFi performance is looking bright.