[VIDEO] Wi-Fi Alliance CEO on Wi-Gig, 802.11ac and the Future of Wi-Fi

uh so there's a few programs that are sort of in the crosshairs for the Enterprise that we're working on uh to start out we we recently launched two new programs that are going to be very interesting to follow for the Enterprise space one is pass point which is um a new capability that uh automatically will allow mobile devices that have Wi-Fi to associate and uh establish a link to our Network without user intervention and at the highest level of security so this is a terrific onew combination that we're delivering and how is that going to be enable is that in tandem with phto Alliance or some kind of two token or token authentication system there is a you know very intricate uh authentication techniques um but they are triggered by the credentials that most people already carry in their devices such as uh Sim just based on my SIM card and the credential on there that my carryer already has I can associate with a new Wi-Fi network with pasy and then I would assume there's going to be some kind of federation or authentication back to the Sim provider or whoever the authentication vendor is that's right so there is a there is a you know a proper link that's established you know all the way up to whoever has those credentials right the certificating authori um so it's uh it's something that mimics quite a bit uh what the cellular Community already does to authenticate you as you as you will networks around the world and the vision is exactly that that with Wi-Fi being so avail ailable everywhere right in Enterprises in uh you know the the consumer space certainly at home even uh you know out in in malls and coffee shops and airplanes right that you you should just carry one set of credentials and that those should be honored wherever you go so there's uh there's all the technology that we've put in place now and that we just recently launched probably the you know the second part of the solution is uh what we're seeing evolved now which is a bunch of the roaming relationships that need to be established by all those uh folks who are providing Wi-Fi services it is a unique recipe of technologies that was developed in the Wi-Fi Alliance certainly there are elements of 802.1 U which is uh inter wireless network roaming for mitopo uh but there are a number of other techniques that were that are novel and we're developed in the Wi-Fi Alliance uh for example there's a new algorithm for the device to have the intelligence to scan what available Wi-Fi networks are in the environment at the time and to make an intelligent choice of which network to associate to based on uh the consum the the the preferences of the end user subscriptions that the end user may have Etc no well the it's a it's strictly a software solution uh so there's there's really no Hardware requirements which is to say that for a lot of the installed base uh the the individual vendors will have an option of whether to make that kind of a firmware update available to the consumer base to the customer base um but we do expect I mean we probably have certified uh I believe over 100 devices already both uh you know handsets and uh devices in the network to support this how are you seeing 80211 AC and its various waves and what's your role in all that uh so the role that the Wi-Fi line is playing is in this is the traditional role right which is to establish inter operability uh 802.1 AC is the next version of Wi-Fi it's a the first version of Wi-Fi that's going to deliver gigabit per second speeds yeah so there is a a tremendous amount of improvements in the in the protocol um and uh we expect to launch the interoperability program which will formally sort of unleash the market right when consumers can have confidence that they'll buy product that will interoperate across Brands and across time uh and we'll do that mid year this year with the 80211 uh n roll out there was a lot of pre-standard implementations uh and a little bit of early fragmentation which caused some confusion in the marketplace uh what did the Wi-Fi lines learn from that experience that now you're going to pull into AC to make it a smoother roll out right you know when we first uh got into 2011 and um it was it was really we were drawn by the market there was such anticipation for that in early implementations that uh that were not interoperable that uh it became apparent that we didn't need to step in and provide interoperability um we were years years away from having the standard finalized when early products started emerging right uh we learned from that and sort of uh institutionalize that experience in the Wi-Fi allines and this time we will have a program that's uh delivered in advance of the of the specification being done in atrol uh and as I mentioned we'll deliver that mid year but the the iopo is not going to be done with AC for some time yet for me I see call it four or five vendors this week already they're saying I have an AC module today this is pre-standard so and I know that that's outside of the scope of what you can do but how do you deal with that because there's always people that want better faster well uh the what what we have uh you know we play the role that we continue to play which is um you know when when folks while and buy a device that's not certified then there is the risk that that device will not work properly with other devices yeah whether those other devices are certified or not our expectation is that once uh certification the CER program from the Wi-Fi L is uh is complete and launched and available that the vendors who have gone out with early products will come back around and certify those products and up upgrade them uh so that they are uh operating in a certified mode that's what we saw with and that's what we expect with they see it's a very complic complicated technology by the way yeah so uh it's uh it it's really going to benefit to have the certification program out and then carriers are have their own speeds Etc is there any kind of standard or is there demand already for proper carrier handoffs to a Wi-Fi network such that I can seamlessly Roam and drop between the two is that something that I know it's years ago people used to talk of cognitive radio and stuff like this is that uh an effort that the Wi-Fi Alliance is involved in in any way that is an excellent question and there are early implementations by some service providers that do the seamless Handover between Wi-Fi and cellular and there's a lot of interest in this area um certainly we have dozens of operators in the Wi-Fi lines who are looking into this uh and there's an area you know it's certainly an area of interest you know I I I suspect that in the not too distant future we're going to have uh you know intelligent methods to provide that seamless hand over where it'll be invisible to end users ET what's what's W gig I'm not as familiar with it it probably should be W gig is um is another trade name for um for the 60 GHz technology that is somewhat synonymous with 802 11 ad okay um and uh yeah so as you as you probably know Wi-Fi L is now U also working on 60 GHz which will be multiple gabit per second speeds at a shorter range what's the timeline on on that in terms of specification and then you know uh proof of concept kind of things there's already demonstrations from companies who have available commercial product in this using the specification so it's uh we're almost in similar mode that we were in with 8 201n you know early days where folks uh have already you know they haven't waited for the certification nor you know nor should they right they they have to address their own commercial interest but WiFi Li is working to make sure that we deliver interoperability here soon and uh currently it's looking like maybe you know next year we would have the interoperability programs I'm thinking 80211 ad y gig versus AC right uh why wouldn't I just make the leap to ad and Skip AC alt together if I can get the better speed right well for one ad is not quite available yet right it's not broadly available yet uh so uh you know that means you don't have as many options as many Brands as much of a the the uh the benefit of the volume mass Market being opened yet uh so there's that the characteristics are basically different right um 60 GHz is a short range technology that's uh intended to be for in room applications only okay like specifically going to data center or whatever it might be could there right uh you know there's uh some of the use cases involved you know fast sync or Wireless docking you know coming into your desktop environment having all your devices automatically connect wirelessly uh the Wi-Fi Lin is a very healthy organization and I I think uh the expectation that our members have uh you know have imposed on the whole organization is to be Visionary and to you know our vision is seamless connectivity so certainly we're not uh sort of self-restricting in terms of 2.4 or 5 GHz uh we want to see Wi-Fi adopted broadly and beyond that um you know to uh to take on challenges of generally seamless connectivity for that reason we've set up uh you know organizations for example that are focused on Smart grid we're taking on y gig 60 GHz work uh recently and um because we're so effective um our expectation is we'll be successful in all of these areas's

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