Gigabit wireless LANs

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of the upcoming IEEE Gigabit Wireless LAN amendments, i.e. IEEE 802.11ac and 802.11ad. Both standard amendments advance wireless networking throughput beyond gigabit rates. 802.11ac adds multi-user access techniques in the form of downlink multi-user (DL MU) multiple input multiple output (MIMO)and 80 and 160 MHz channels in the 5 GHz band for applications such as multiple simultaneous video streams throughout the home. 802.11ad takes advantage of the large swath of available spectrum in the 60 GHz band and defines protocols to enable throughput intensive applications such as wireless I/O or uncompressed video. New waveforms for 60 GHz include single carrier and orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM). Enhancements beyond the new 60 GHz PHY include Personal Basic Service Set (PBSS) operation, directional medium access, and beamforming. We describe 802.11ac channelization, PHY design, MAC modifications, and DL MU MIMO. For 802.11ad, the new PHY layer, MAC enhancements, and beamforming are presented.