Wireless routers have come a long way in the last few years when it comes to transmission speeds and service range. The coming 802.11ac standard was poised to replace the solid but soon-to-be-dated 802.11n over the next year. 802.11ac promised to bring faster speeds and longer transmission range capabilities, but even the new 802.11ac wireless standard is no match for what Samsung has up its sleeve for 2015.
Samsung announced yesterday that it is readying a new 802.11ad Wi-Fi standard that will best the 866Mbps data transmission cap of most high-end home routers by having a new ceiling of 4.6Gbps transmission rate. Yes, you read that right. Samsung"s 802.11ad standard is 4.6x faster than your wired gigabit connection. How is it possible?
Current home routers rely on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies when transmitting data over the air. These frequencies have become increasingly crowded because of home appliances and other nearby Wi-Fi routers that can interfere with your own home router. Samsung"s solution is to move from the 2.4/5Ghz bands to the 60GHz frequency band.
Higher frequencies have been tried before with wireless networking, but those frequency bands have a harder time penetrating solid surfaces. This leads to heavy degradation of signal in homes with multiple walls/levels. Kim Chang Yong, Head of DMC R&D Center of Samsung Electronics, pointed toward the development of new technologies that steadies the higher frequency transmission over longer distances and allows it to better penetrate walls.
Since the new standard isn"t coming to market until 2015, upcoming products like the Galaxy Note Edge won"t be able to benefit from the cutting edge technology. Samsung itself isn"t expected to have any of their own hardware available for sale until late 2015 at the earliest, but other manufacturers will have a chance to bring their own product to market utilizing the impressive 802.11ad standard.
Source: Samsung Tomorrow | Images: Samsung, Gizmoworld