802.11n performance leap, 8 major changes in Wi-Fi interconnection

802.11n has made a huge leap in performance - the rate has increased from 300Mbps to 100M to 150Mbps - which will bring unprecedented convenience to wireless life and work. We can outline a blueprint for the rapid development of wireless connection performance - wireless access points will become more and more common, and point-to-point interconnection will become smoother and smoother. Here, we will explain the changes in Wi-Fi in the future from eight aspects. These changes will bring us better signal quality, more reliable connections, better bandwidth, longer battery life and stronger security performance.

　　1. Better bandwidth

　　Although the IEEE has started two projects aimed at bringing gigabit speeds to the 802.11n standard, neither has produced a draft.

　　The 11n standard enables a range of high speeds that are suitable for different functions and devices. Today, all 11n radios support two-dimensional data streams, which are sent and received through assemblies made of two or three antennas, and mobile devices already use these radio components. For example, Apple's latest Wi-Fi iPod Touch is equipped with a Broadcom radio chip that supports the 11.n standard but does not yet use it.

　　Soon, more Wi-Fi chips will support three or four data streams, with data rates expected to reach 450Mbps to 600Mbps. Earlier this year, Quantenna Communications announced that it was preparing a 4x4 chipset that could transmit high-definition TV signals throughout the home.

　　"Although there won't be a large number of client devices that support four-dimensional data flow in the future, well-designed access points will also make good use of the 600Mbps physical layer rate to achieve high-speed transmission," said William Kish, founder and CTO of Wi-Fi equipment supplier Ruckus Wireless. In the future, users can select high-end nodes through the 802.11n standard to create a Wi-Fi network similar to the Internet.

　　2. Stronger radio signals

　　In radio chips, there will be more optional features that comply with the 11n standard. And these features can be used in wireless clients and access points to make the radio signal more reliable and continuous.

　　"The new 11n physical layer technology will make Wi-Fi signals stronger and provide higher data rates over a wider area," said William McFarland, CTO of chip maker Atheros Communications.

　　These features include low-density parity-checking for improved error correction; beamforming that uses feedback from Wi-Fi clients to let access points focus their transmissions on client wireless signals; and space-time block coding that uses multiple antennas to improve signal robustness.

　　McFarland said that if we use a laptop near a building that provides Wi-Fi now, we will find that the signal is extremely unstable. After using space-time block coding, the connection will be stable.

　　3. Wi-Fi-enabled life

　　Innovations in energy consumption and management have made it possible not only to extend the battery life of Wi-Fi phones, but also to apply Wi-Fi technology to a variety of new devices, even wireless sensors: including medical monitoring equipment, building control systems, real-time location tracking tags and consumer electronics. The result is that people can continue to monitor tasks and complete data connections as needed.

　　Summit Data Communications, an embedded Wi-Fi vendor, recently announced 802.11a wireless signaling in a variety of plug-in forms, with the goal of allowing all types of devices to use the uncongested 5Ghz band. Startup Gainspan offers 11bg Wi-Fi radios, which have an IP software stack and can run wireless sensors for several years using standard batteries because of their low power consumption. Redpine Signals offers single-stream embedded 11n radios.

　　4. Improved safety performance

　　The most erosive impact of the Internet is the loss of user benefits through identity impersonation, denial of service attacks, privacy violations, etc. If users believe that Wi-Fi connections pose an unacceptable risk, then mobility may increase the chances of such violations.

　　The IEEE recently approved the 802.11w standard, which protects the radio management framework used to optimize wireless connections. Now, Wi-Fi clients can receive and follow instructions to "leave the network" because such instructions may be generated by an intruder using a fake MAC address. The 11w standard will cut off such attacks.

　　In simple terms, Wi-Fi will allow users to enjoy better connections by using identity-based security. In Wi-Fi networks, security policies are associated with users rather than switch ports. The benefit is that users can freely access the network at home, work, hotels, work dining areas, and public hotspots without having to adapt to security policies.

5. Collaboration with non-wireless networks

　　Today, if you are a corporate Wi-Fi subscriber and you are in a Wi-Fi hotspot owned by another carrier, you are out of luck. In the future, the Wi-Fi devices we use will be able to query the services of other carriers, ask if we can use their services, and then securely join their networks. And mobile subscription identification will be with us everywhere, so we can use a variety of Wi-Fi services freely.

　　The ability to merge multiple networks like this is expected to appear in the 802.11u standard, which will be used to connect across networks. In the future, Wi-Fi networks will advertise their services, and their terms will appear below the corresponding link. Based on the identification information we register with an Internet service provider, we may be able to access a strictly defined set of links and functions. The 11u standard is scheduled to be finally approved in June 2010.

　　6. Self-managed Wi-Fi clients

　　Wi-Fi vendors have created a series of proprietary products that allow users' devices to interact intelligently with access points. Access points today typically indicate the management limits of the Wi-Fi network; the client's wireless transmissions are in a relative management vacuum.

　　If users add intelligence to devices through new standard Wi-Fi management protocols, the ways in which both clients and access points can collaborate will increase.

　　Imagine a netbook Wi-Fi adapter, or a Wi-Fi VoIP phone that automatically turns itself off when not sending or receiving wireless signals. Or imagine an access point that can redirect a Wi-Fi voice conversation to a more optimal neighbor when using location sharing data, or send the message to another less-trafficked point when the access point is in danger of being overloaded. What if the Wi-Fi network architecture could pinpoint a user's location, and then block or allow connections based on that data?

　　The 802.11v standard, expected to be finalized in June 2010, has a number of elements that will address improved Wi-Fi management. It will include a set of counters for aggregate statistics, increased power management to improve battery life, and location data. The standard will be implemented on both the client and access point.

　　The idea of ​​client collaboration can also be addressed through the Wi-Fi Multimedia Admission Control specification now being developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance. This specification will allow wireless networks to talk to and manage streaming media sessions, so requests for high-definition video don't impact Wi-Fi voice users on the same access point. The Wi-Fi Alliance is weighing a special Wi-Fi network management specification that borrows from several related IEEE standards and adds additional management capabilities.

　　7. Improved mobility through smarter radio frequency management

　　Lack of coordination also plagues wireless frequency management, because access points and clients' wireless transmissions are generally unaware of each other's wireless transmission frequencies. This negative impact increases the difficulty of wireless frequency optimization and management.

　　For example, since a Wi-Fi phone always passes between access points, it will trigger a blind search for signals. But if the client can ask the access point: "What is your neighboring point like? What is the next best access point in the neighborhood?", then the device and the network can coordinate better. At the same time, the Wi-Fi access point can also figure out the environment of the client's wireless frequency, identify weak signals or areas with poor coverage, and optimize the connection step by step.

　　The IEEE 802.11k radio resource management standard released last year is designed to address this problem, but Wi-Fi vendors have been using a set of proprietary features to address this challenge. They all hope to expand the intelligence and control of Wi-Fi clients and coordinate requests between clients and Wi-Fi access point architectures. The launch of Aruba Intelligent Airwave Management 2.0 is an example.

　　Meanwhile, the Wi-Fi Alliance is crafting an Enterprise Voice certification that uses some features of the 11k standard. The certification is designed to optimize voice quality in large enterprise Wi-Fi voice environments.

　　8. Personalized Wi-Fi Zones

　　Today, our Wi-Fi is a point-to-point access network. In the future, the Wi-Fi transmitter in any personal device we use will be able to connect directly to other client devices. Take the Ozmo device, for example, which can connect peripherals to laptops via Wi-Fi.

　　The WiFi Direct project recently announced by the WiFi Alliance will allow the WiFi network card in the notebook computer to bypass the access point and connect directly to a wireless printer, digital camera, slide projector, sensor or plasma screen. As an industry parameter, WiFi Direct will introduce a new firmware implementation protocol, but no changes to the hardware are required.

　　At the same time, WiFi access points will become the enabler of end-to-end connections under the 802.11z standard, which will provide extensions for directly connecting devices. In this arrangement, client devices will ask access points for permission to connect directly to nearby client devices, eliminating the need to constantly search for access points to connect to. However, the client still needs to maintain a connection with the access point, and it must also fully enable security and management services.