When start-up Wilocity first came onto the radar in 2007, it was presenting an apparently far-out idea, to run Wi-Fi in 60GHz spectrum, to an obscure group within the IEEE. Six years on, it has gained an investment and partnership from Cisco as high frequency Wi-Fi ‘ 802.11ad or WiGig as it is now called ‘ enters the mainstream for home and enterprise networking. This is not just another Cisco punt on an interesting start-up ‘ it will involve Wilocity in several important collaborative projects which are highly relevant to its efforts in enterprise and carrier small cells.
Bob Friday, CTO for the enterprise networking group at Cisco, did not reveal the size of the investment in Wilocity. But he did let slip one interesting point, that Wilocity will also contribute to the firm’s crucial small cell efforts. The initial step will be to build on Cisco’s dominance of the wireless enterprise by offering triband Wi-Fi access points; then to move to multimode cellular/WLAN access points (also building on the acquisition of Ubiquisys); and this is a clear stalking horse for a grander ambition to penetrate the carrier access network, as operators start to integrate Wi-Fi into their LTE HetNets.
Friday said Cisco was collaborating with Wilocity on proof-of-concept trials for 3G/LTE small cells with integrated Wi-Fi and, given the short range of many such cells, 11ad would be a good fit for high capacity applications like corporate video. Friday said “11ad and LTE will start to merge next year’.
This would give 802.11ad a far higher profile than it has enjoyed so far, when it has tended to be classified as a more specialized sidekick to its sister standard, 802.11ac, which is about 18 months ahead in full commercialization terms.
Initially a competitive effort to very high speed efforts within the main 802.11 groups, the 60GHz technology gradually came closer to the WLAN mainstream as the 802.11ad specifications matured, and it was finally merged with the Wi-Fi Alliance, which kicked off a certification program in September (though still retaining some separation by keeping the distinct WiGig name and logo).
Now it is widely seen as complementary to the other new high speed standard, 802.11ac, which runs in conventional 5GHz Wi-Fi spectrum and can achieve speeds of over 300Mbps using MIMO and wide bands (and theoretically get up to 1Gbps).
WiGig/11ad can theoretically reach peaks of 7Gbps over short distances because of the capacity and propagation qualities of the licence-exempt 60GHz band, though initial commercial products will be far slower than that ‘ but still a useful addition to the Wi-Fi mix, to support very high speed applications such as in-room video transfer, carrier Wi-Fi for dense hotspots, and enterprise functions.
Cisco has seen the opportunity and has taken a minority stake in Wilocity. The companies will cooperate on making 11ad more generally useful in the enterprise by integrating it tightly with 11ac to create triband networks, combining capacity in 60GHz with longer distances in 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The project could involve Cisco using Wilocity’s silicon designs in its enterprise access points, and the giant also aims to create an ecosystem, providing support for device makers in adding WiGig and triband support. Wilocity already has a valuable partnership with Qualcomm Atheros on the device chip side.
The technology will also be used as the basis of other systems, such as Wireless USB, which is an example of how Wi-Fi has come to dominate a huge range of applications, well beyond its original WLAN remit ‘ from carrier-grade outdoor networks to personal area networking and M2M protocols. Wireless USB was once due to harness the UltraWideBand technology, which fell apart amid industry feuds, but has now, like many other standards, opted for a Wi-Fi foundation to ensure itself a broad ecosystem and good pricing. This is one of the important aspects of WiGig ‘ by offering a short range but ultra-high speed version of Wi-Fi, it opens the technology up to replace, or work with, traditional PAN technologies like Bluetooth, ZigBee and others.
Tal Tamir, Wilocity’s co-founder and CEO, sees triband products enabling hotspots of very localized capacity within broader enterprise networks, perhaps to serve meeting rooms; to improve wireless coverage and speed in public areas such as stadiums; and to offload data from wireline or cellular networks for specialized, localized functions such as medical imaging. Combining WiGig with conventional Wi-Fi addresses the newer technology’s biggest disadvantages, its short range and inability to penetrate most walls.
Wilocity was the first company to get 11ad silicon to commercial readiness, but the Cisco backing will be essential to avoid the fate of many pioneering start-ups, of being overtaken by giants just as the market takes off ‘ Intel is working on WiGig chips, and no doubt Broadcom and other participants in the IEEE working groups will not be far behind. Wilocity’s chips are being used in several ultrabooks and other devices, such as the Dell 6430u Ultrabook, D500 Wireless Dock, and Precision M4800 and M6800 Workstations. The firm says mobile chips will be ready late this year and will appear in smartphones in 2014.