IgniteNet is claiming that its new MetroLinq Base Station Sector is the first point-to-multipoint system supporting 60 GHz to hit the market.
The WiGig-supported MetroLinq 60 outdoor antenna is built for standalone use or as part of a managed network. The antenna also features a 5 GHz radio to provide back up on a client-to-client basis.
The commercial availability of IgniteNet's 60 GHz MetroLinq model comes after the company earlier this year announced a partnership with Peraso to secure the WiGig infrastructure components for the 60 GHz functionality. At the time, Peraso CEO Ron Gibbery told FierceWirelessTech that 60 GHz products hadn't really begun to roll out yet because the necessary silicon wasn't yet available. Peraso's WiGig W110 is now in production.
WiGig products operate in the 60 GHz frequency band and provide multi-gigabit speeds and low latency. The Wi-Fi Alliance, which pegs 2016 as the first big year for WiGig commercial availability, envisions the product as a cable replacement for display extensions, wireless docking between devices like laptops and tablet, sync and backup and simultaneous streaming of multiple, UltraHD 4K videos.
WiGig, also known as the IEEE 802.11ad standard, has been in the works since 2009 but now analysts like Mohamad Haidar of SAR Insight & Consulting are viewing it as essential to support increasing demands for more bandwidth. In particular, due to WiGig's up to 7 Gbps data rates, SAR sees the technology as key to streaming 4K video to smartphones.
While WiGig products have slowly begun to move into the marketplace, companies including Qualcomm and Intel have formed agreements to work on interoperability for 802.11ad. Qualcomm and Intel engineers collaborated on tests including peer-to-peer connections between Intel and Qualcomm Atheros 802.11ad WiGig based clients and Qualcomm Atheros 802.11ad WiGig powered access points, and were able to hit multi-gigabit real data throughput between their devices.
For more:
- see this press release
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Intel, Qualcomm collaborate on 802.11ad WiGig interoperability