The pursuit of tens of gigabits per second wireless systems [Industry Perspectives]

More than any time ever before, today technology has a significant impact on people's lives. The proliferation of slim, mobile, and portable devices such as notebooks, ultrabooks, tablets, and smartphones is a clear testament to the importance of computing and communication in modern society. In the particular case of wireless systems, this explosive growth has led to an insatiable need to constantly boost capacity so that innovative uses can be offered to consumers. This vicious cycle has brought to market many innovative wireless solutions including the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, third generation (3G), and fourth generation (4G), to name a few. When it comes to wireless systems with data rates greater than 1 Gb/s at a few meters, the most notable examples include the IEEE 802.11ac and IEEE 802.11ad amendments to the base IEEE 802.11 standard [2], with key parameters summarized in Table 1. Several companies have announced products implementing these technologies, with a few of those products already available, or soon to be available, to consumers. The data rates offered by IEEE 802.11ac and IEEE 802.11ad can meet the needs of many applications, with replacement of wired digital interface (WDI) cables arguably the most prominent new use of these technologies. This includes replacing WDI cables used between a notebook/tablet/smartphone and certain display (e.g., HDMI, DisplayPort) and IO (e.g., USB) devices, thereby enabling a fully wireless user experience [4].