The Future of Wi-Fi

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Wi-Fi is growing in popularity, according to the WiFi Alliance (but then it would say that, wouldn’t it!). However, it appears to be the case, with increasing numbers of smartphones coming with built-in Wi-Fi and one only has to think of the iPad and the iPhone sales numbers to realise that there is a growing number of wireless devices out there.

So, what can we expect from our wi-fi in the future? Well, 802.11n is becoming more ubiquitous and now the Wi-Fi industry has its sights set on increasing Wi-Fi throughput and range, with upcoming certification programs for Wi-Fi in the 60 GHz frequency band and with Very High Throughput (VHT) Wi-Fi in 5 GHz.

There is also the introduction of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Direct™, a certification program for device-to-device communication without a wireless network or access point. This may well see the death of bluetooth.

Certainly, the rapid growth in wireless devices (device shipments expected to reach two billion by 2015 )  means we all need to think  more about security and avoid using unsecured networks whenever possible. It’s thought that some 400, 000 of the 3.5 million hotspots around the world are unsecured and vulnerable to hacking, so beware.

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