By Carol Ansley, Counsel and Senior Director at ARRIS
Devices using Wi-Fi® for data communication encompass every area of technology, and consumers expect to be able to check the weather, stream video, and see who just rang the doorbell, all using almost ubiquitous Wi-Fi coverage. In the future, new bandwidth-demanding applications will include virtual and augmented reality programming.
At SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo® 2017, I’ll be speaking at the session, “Checking the Signal: What’s Next in Wi-Fi?” where we’ll explore the latest in home Wi-Fi technologies and how they interact with licensed spectrum. I’ll be presenting an overview of 60 GHz and WiGig, also known as 802.11ad, and compare testing results with simulations.
It’s an opportune time to discuss 60 GHz wireless since Wi-Fi in the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands is struggling with congestion in many environments, such as the outdoors, MDUs, and shared business offices. The 60 GHz band offers a wide bandwidth with little interference from other sources. It’s already in its second generation with transmitters and receivers that are more reliable due to improved multipath handling and better antenna arrays. That’s unlike the early 11ad/Wi-Gig/60 GHz systems, which have real performance issues – cutting out when anything went between the transmit and receive locations.
My presentation and white paper, co-authored with Charles Cheevers, ARRIS CTO of Customer Premises Equipment biz, also covers the upcoming, still in progress IEEE revision called 11ay. And it highlights some new features that will enable outdoor use cases for this versatile technology. When researching the topic, we discovered that installing 60 GHz Wi-Fi in the corner of the room gave the best coverage as opposed to “normal” Wi-Fi, which performs best in the center of a room.
I’ll be discussing these findings and more on October, 17th at 2:00 pm MT in room 102/104/106 at the Colorado Convention Center. I hope to see you there.
