Gigabit WiFi Draws Attention

By Doug Lung
published


Work on the IEEE 802.11ac one Gbps WiFi standard received a lot of attention in the press this week. The standard is part of work on Very High Throughput or "VHT" wireless connectivity. The 802.11ac standard will use frequencies below 6 GHz, but excludes the 2.4 GHz band. Most devices will likely use the 5 GHz WiFi bands.

The Status of Project IEEE 802.11ac – Very High Throughput < 6 GHz Web page notes the first TG draft was approved last month and an internal review period will run from Jan. 28 to Feb. 27, 2011.

An article by Paul Korzeniowski Ready for 1Gbps WiFi notes that In-Stat projects that compliant products will begin shipping in 2012 and will be found in more than one billion devices by 2015. He noted, however, that vendors have not yet agreed on a way to increase the speed.

Existing WiFi speeds are more than adequate for distributing a DSL or cable Internet connection around the house, but viewing local HD video content or reading and writing to network storage will benefit from the higher speeds available in 802.11ac.

Doug Lung
Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.