A major Wi-Fi upgrade is on the way from the IEEE Standards Association, which has just published the latest revision to the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN Standard.
The new revision, dubbed 802.11-2012, is set to offer a host of improvements over current 802.11 standards including a maximum throughput of 600Mbps.
The revision makes changes to both the Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) components of the WiFi specification.
The new standard will operate within a range of 3.65 and 3.7GHz, which sets it apart from current WiFi standards which use the 2.4GHz or 5GHz frequencies. Wi-Fi products that use the new frequency range will enjoy a significant boost in speed due to the lack of congestion.
In addition to being faster, the 802.11-2012 revision is set to usher in new features to the WiFi standard. These include direct linking support, wireless mesh networking, improved security measures, multicast and unicast data delivery, faster cellular hand-offs and support for new devices and networks.
"More than 300 voters from a sweeping cross-section of global industry contributed to the new standard, which has roughly doubled in size since its last published revision,” said Bruce Kraemer, chair of the IEEE 802.11 working group.
“...Work on the next generation of IEEE 802.11 already has commenced with a variety of project goals including extensions that will increase the data rate by a factor of 10, improve audio/video delivery, increase range and decrease power consumption.”
