Proliferation of Wi-Fi: Opportunities in CE ecosystem

With the rapid proliferation of bandwidth intensive content, a newer technology is essential as 802.11 a/b/g cannot satisfy the requirements, like higher bandwidth. The latest generation, 802.11n, is the answer and helps accelerate the uptake of Wi-Fi integration in CE (Consumer Electronic) devices. Nowadays, most of CE devices are Wi-Fi-enabled and the unprecedented growth causes a dearth of bandwidth for Wi-Fi operation. We present the various standardization activities in progress by industry alliances and international standard organizations to assuage the bandwidth paucity problem by defining protocols for Wi-Fi operation in the available license-exempt spectrum in VHF/UHF (Very High Frequency/Ultra High Frequency) and 60 GHz band. The expansion of Wi-Fi to CE coupled with the new standardization initiatives creates new usage models like P2P (Peer-to-Peer) communication, Wireless Display, Smart Grid applications, etc., that are also articulated in this work.