RSSWi-Fi Direct aims to be the 'Bluetooth Killer'
By Tim Conneally | Published October 14, 2009, 12:29 PM
Imagine a wireless home network where devices communicate directly with one another instead of through the wireless router -- a sort of mesh network without the need to switch to ad hoc mode. Today the Wi-Fi Alliance announced it has almost completed the standard which could make these a reality: Wi-Fi Direct.
Wi-Fi Direct was known as "Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer," and has repeatedly been referred to in IEEE meetings as a possible "Bluetooth Killer." By means of this standard, direct connections between computers, phones, cameras, printers, keyboards, and future classes of components are established over Wi-Fi instead of another wireless technology governed by a separate standard.
Even though the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands are often dreadfully overcrowded in home networks, the appeal of such a standard is twofold: Any certified Wi-Fi Direct device will be able to communicate directly with any legacy Wi-Fi devices without the need for any new software on the legacy end, and transfer rates will be the same as infrastructure connections, thoroughly destroying Bluetooth. The theoretical maximum useful data transfer for Bluetooth 2.0 is 2.1 Mbps, while 802.11g has a theoretical maximum throughput of 54 Mbps.
"Wi-Fi Direct represents a leap forward for our industry. Wi-Fi users worldwide will benefit from a single-technology solution to transfer content and share applications quickly and easily among devices, even when a Wi-Fi access point isn't available. The impact is that Wi-Fi will become even more pervasive and useful for consumers and across the enterprise," Wi-Fi Alliance executive director Edgar Figueroa said in a statement today.
Not sure how useful this thing will be. Say in a very big house that WiFi 802.11N isn't enough to cover (at good rates everywhere), you'd think you may wanna use WiFi Direct, right? But then you realize you'd need a bunch of scattered devices turned on all the time pushing packets that didn't belong to them, effectively acting as routers. Sounds like a major waste of energy to me. Might as well install more cheap real routers and save on the electricity bill.
And if I had to transfer GB's worth of data I'd still pick a wired approach, such as Light Peak. And because something like that is gonna be REAL universal (replacing network, monitor, USB, eSATA, etc), you know you're always gonna have that cable handy (or you quickly disconnect something temporarily to use that cable).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_Peak
One immediate effect WiFi Direct will have, I suppose, is to create daily limits on MB transfer (or per MB charge) for fee-based hotspots, since this tech will allow you to give away (rebroadcast) wifi services for free quite easily.
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|So then you could have a "WiFi Direct" headset for your mobile-phone? Needs a catchier name.
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|Like SignalFire, or WaveStorm, or AngryAir? "Just connect your headset to any AngryAir compatible device and you're ready to go!" Yep, I think you're right, need a catchier name. ;-)
I'm sure it would end up being abbreviated to just "Wifi" eventually, there's no major reason for a distinction for most people. Or at least "WFD".
My big question here is how does this compare in power usage to Bluetooth. I thought part of the reason for the speed limitations was trying to limit power needs...
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|It's bad enough I have to compete with a dozen neighbors for wireless frequencies, now I have to compete with their toasters too? And if it's crowded now, it'll only get worse as N catches on with its expanded range. The technology's great, but the 2.4GHz band just doesn't have room for all this.
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|hehehe funny - but how true!
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|there is one mobile app using this techno in 2009 !! http://www.goomeo.com
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|I believe 802.11N has mechanisms to automatically jump to diff channels to avoid interference. Of course if problem persists you could always outspend your neighbor by installing some illegally strong WiFi antenna. ;)
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