The Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig Alliance) was a
trade association
A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific Industry (economics), industry. An industry tra ...
that developed and promoted the adoption of multi-
gigabit per second
In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are multi ...
speed wireless communications technology "
WiGig
WiGig, alternatively known as 60 GHz Wi-Fi, refers to a set of 60 GHz wireless network protocols. It includes the current IEEE 802.11ad standard and also the IEEE 802.11ay standard.
The WiGig specification allows devices to communicate wi ...
" operating over the unlicensed
60 GHz frequency band. The alliance was subsumed by the
Wi-Fi Alliance
The Wi-Fi Alliance is a non-profit organization that owns the Wi-Fi trademark. Manufacturers may use the trademark to brand products certified for Wi-Fi
interoperability.
History
Early 802.11 products suffered from interoperability problems be ...
in March 2013.
The formation of the WiGig alliance to promote the
IEEE 802.11ad protocol was announced in May 2009.
The completed version 1.0 WiGig specification was announced in December 2009.
In May 2010, WiGig announced the publication of its specification, the opening of its Adopter Program, and the liaison agreement with the
Wi-Fi Alliance
The Wi-Fi Alliance is a non-profit organization that owns the Wi-Fi trademark. Manufacturers may use the trademark to brand products certified for Wi-Fi
interoperability.
History
Early 802.11 products suffered from interoperability problems be ...
to cooperate on the expansion of Wi-Fi technologies.
In June 2011, WiGig announced the release of its certification-ready version 1.1 specification.
Members
Among the companies that comprise the board of directors are:
*
AMD
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufactur ...
*
Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...
*
Broadcom
Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wirel ...
Corporation
*
Cisco
Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...
Systems, Inc.
*
Dell
Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies.
Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...
Inc.
*
Huawei Technologies
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smart ...
*
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
Corporation
*
Marvell International LTD.
*
MediaTek
MediaTek Inc. () is a Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company that provides chips for wireless communications, high-definition television, handheld mobile devices like smartphones and tablet computers, navigation systems, consumer multimedia pr ...
Inc.
*
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
*
NEC
is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...
Corporation
*
Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...
Corporation
*
NVIDIA
Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...
Corporation
*
Panasonic
formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Osaka P ...
Corporation
*
Qualcomm Atheros
Qualcomm Atheros is a developer of semiconductor chips for network communications, particularly wireless chipsets. Founded under the name T-Span Systems in 1998 by experts in signal processing and VLSI design from Stanford University, the Un ...
*
Sony Corporation
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
*
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
Electronics Co.
*
Toshiba Corporation
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...
*
Wilocity
Wilocity was a fabless semiconductor company based in California founded in 2007 developing 60 GHz multi-gigabit wireless chipsets for both the mobile computing platform and peripheral markets. Wilocity was founded in March 2007 by executiv ...
Contributor members include:
*
Aeroflex
Aeroflex Inc. was an American company which produced test equipment, RF and microwave integrated circuits, components and systems used for wireless communications. Its headquarters were located in Plainview, New York. In May 2014, Aeroflex was ...
*
Agilent
Agilent Technologies, Inc. is an American life sciences company that provides instruments, software, services, and consumables for the entire laboratory workflow. Its global headquarters is located in Santa Clara, California. Agilent was establi ...
Technologies
*Allegro DVT
*Beam Networks
*
CSR
*
Future Technology Devices International
*
Harman International
Harman International Industries, commonly known as Harman (stylized in all-uppercase as HARMAN), is an American audio electronics company. Since 2017, the company has been an independent subsidiary of Samsung Electronics.
Headquartered in Stam ...
*Hittite
*Institute for Infocomm Research
*
Keysight
Keysight Technologies, or Keysight, is an American company that manufactures electronics test and measurement equipment and software. The name is a blend of ''key'' and ''insight''. The company was formed as a spin-off of Agilent Technologies, wh ...
Technologies
*MET Labs
*Nitero
*
NXP
NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NXP) is a Dutch semiconductor designer and manufacturer with headquarters in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The company employs approximately 31,000 people in more than 30 countries. NXP reported revenue of $11.06 billion in 2 ...
*Peraso Technologies, Inc.
*
Rohde & Schwarz
Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co KG (, ) is an international electronics group specializing in the fields of electronic test equipment, broadcast & media, cybersecurity, radiomonitoring and radiolocation, and radiocommunication. The company provides ...
*
Samsung Electro-Mechanics
Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEM, Korean: 삼성전기) is a multinational electronic component company headquartered in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. It is a subsidiary of the Samsung Group. The company produces chip parts such as MLCCs, pri ...
*Sivers IMA
*
SK Telecom
SK Telecom Co., Ltd. ( or ) is a South Korean wireless telecommunications operator and former film distributor and is part of the SK Group, one of the country's largest chaebols. It leads the local market with 50.5 percent share as of 2008. S ...
*SRTC
*
STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics N.V. commonly referred as ST or STMicro is a Dutch multinational corporation and technology company of French-Italian origin headquartered in Plan-les-Ouates near Geneva, Switzerland and listed on the French stock market. ST ...
*Tensorcom, Inc.
*
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globall ...
*TMC
*UL CCS
*
ZTE Corporation
ZTE Corporation is a Chinese partially state-owned technology company that specializes in telecommunication. Founded in 1985, ZTE is listed on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges.
ZTE's core business is wireless, exchange, opt ...
Ali Sadri is the president and chairman of the board of WiGig Alliance, and also founded the movement.
Sadri directs all activities throughout the alliance, from leading the board of directors to providing support for the technical working groups.
History
The Wireless gigabit alliance set about its task for creating faster and more efficient communications technology in 2007. Their idea was to set about creating wirelessly interconnected home entertainment and office devices, like PCs, tablets, smartphones and displays, entirely removing the need for wires. They also wanted devices to be constantly connected and ready to transfer. Thus eliminating the need to have both a laptop and a tablet, as a device could connect straight to a display. In May 2009, the alliance announced something, and WiGig 1.0, announced in December of the same year. In 2010, WiGig and the Wi-Fi alliance announced a cooperation agreement. The agreement combined 60 GHz with traditional Wi-Fi networking that extended the range at slower speeds and helped signals to go through walls to cover entire homes. On November 3, 2010, the WiGig Alliance and the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) announced an association to define the next generation standard wireless display technology. VESA and WiGig Alliance agreed to share technology specifications to develop multi-gigabit wireless Display Port capabilities.
The official standard was published by the
Standards Association of the
IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...
in December 2012 as IEEE 802.11ad-2012 as an amendment to the overall
IEEE 802.11
IEEE 802.11 is part of the IEEE 802 set of local area network (LAN) technical standards, and specifies the set of media access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) protocols for implementing wireless local area network (WLAN) computer commun ...
standard family.
In January 2013, after more than two years of collaboration, the Wireless Gigabit Alliance announced it would merge with the
Wi-Fi Alliance
The Wi-Fi Alliance is a non-profit organization that owns the Wi-Fi trademark. Manufacturers may use the trademark to brand products certified for Wi-Fi
interoperability.
History
Early 802.11 products suffered from interoperability problems be ...
. The merger was finalized in March.
Although no longer a separate organization, the WiGig technology kept its name, with the Wi-Fi Alliance planning to jointly certify both devices in late 2013.
On September 9, 2013, a statement revealed that the WiGig protocol would be used in a new wireless version of USB through a deal between the Wi-Fi Alliance and the USB Implementers Forum. The
Wireless USB
Wireless USB (Universal Serial Bus) was a short-range, high-bandwidth wireless radio communication protocol created by the Wireless USB Promoter Group which intended to increase the availability of general USB-based technologies. It was unrelat ...
standard would use existing USB 2.0 and 3.0 drivers. The Wi-Fi alliance transferred WiGig wireless transmission technology to the USB Implementers Forum as it is expected that WiGig certified products will implement USB functionality.
Applications
On November 3, 2010, WiGig Alliance announced the WiGig version 1.0 A/V and I/O protocol adaptation layer (PAL) specifications.
The application specifications have been developed to support specific system interfaces including extensions for PC peripherals and display interfaces for HDTVs, monitors and projectors.
WiGig Display Extension
*Supports wireless transmission of audio/visual data
*Enables wireless
DisplayPort
DisplayPort (DP) is a digital display interface developed by a consortium of PC and chip manufacturers and standardized by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). It is primarily used to connect a video source to a display device su ...
and other display interfaces that include the
High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection
High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) is a form of digital copy protection developed by Intel Corporation to prevent copying of digital audio and video content as it travels across connections. Types of connections include DisplayPort ...
2.0 feature.
*Offers key A/V applications, such as the transmission of lightly compressed or
uncompressed video
Uncompressed video is digital video that either has never been compressed or was generated by decompressing previously compressed digital video. It is commonly used by video cameras, video monitors, video recording devices (including general-pur ...
from a computer or digital camera to an HDTV, monitor or projector
WiGig Bus Extension and WiGig Serial Extension. The WiGig Bus Extension (WBE) was available to members in 2011.
*Define high-performance wireless implementations of widely used computer interfaces over 60 GHz
*Enable multi-gigabit wireless connectivity between any two devices, such as connection to storage and other high-speed peripherals
License
On May 10, 2010, the
Wi-Fi Alliance
The Wi-Fi Alliance is a non-profit organization that owns the Wi-Fi trademark. Manufacturers may use the trademark to brand products certified for Wi-Fi
interoperability.
History
Early 802.11 products suffered from interoperability problems be ...
and WiGig Alliance announced a cooperation agreement for multi-gigabit wireless networking. The Wi-Fi Alliance and the WiGig Alliance shared technology specifications for the development of a Wi-Fi Alliance certification program supporting Wi-Fi operation in the 60 GHz frequency band.
On November 3, 2010, the WiGig Alliance and the
Video Electronics Standards Association
VESA (), formally known as Video Electronics Standards Association, is an American technical standards organization for computer display standards. The organization was incorporated in California in July 1989To retrieve the information, searc ...
(VESA) announced a liaison for standard wireless display technology. VESA and WiGig Alliance agreed to share technology specifications to develop multi-gigabit wireless DisplayPort capabilities and create a certification program for wireless DisplayPort products.
On June 28, 2011, the WiGig Alliance announced becoming an Adopter of
HDMI Licensing, LLC
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controller, ...
to further provide
WiGig Display Extension (WDE) support for HDMI mapping. WDE is the only 60 GHz specification that defines a framework to connect to DisplayPort monitors and
HDMI
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controller, ...
TVs, enabling applications such as the wireless transmission of compressed or uncompressed video.
Competition
WiGig competes with
WirelessHD WirelessHD, also known as UltraGig, is a proprietary standard owned by Silicon Image (originally SiBeam) for wireless transmission of high-definition video content for consumer electronics products. The consortium currently has over 40 adopters; k ...
in some applications. WirelessHD transmits in the same 60 GHz band used by WiGig.
See also
*
Wi-Fi Alliance
The Wi-Fi Alliance is a non-profit organization that owns the Wi-Fi trademark. Manufacturers may use the trademark to brand products certified for Wi-Fi
interoperability.
History
Early 802.11 products suffered from interoperability problems be ...
References
External links
* – official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:WiGig
Wireless networking