Wi-Fi Direct threatens Bluetooth

 

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Posted on 15 Oct 2009 at 09:30

The Wi-Fi Alliance has announced work on a protocol called Wi-Fi Direct, which will allow devices such as smartphones and laptops to form peer-to-peer connections without first joining a network.

"Wi-Fi Direct represents a leap forward for our industry," claims Wi-Fi Alliance executive director Edgar Figueroa in a statement.

"Wi-Fi users worldwide will benefit from a single-technology solution to transfer content and share applications quickly and easily among devices, even when a Wi-Fi access point isn't available. The impact is that Wi-Fi will become even more pervasive and useful for consumers and across the enterprise."

The impact is that Wi-Fi will become even more pervasive and useful for consumers and across the enterprise

The protocol is expected to be certified in 2010, with the Wi-Fi Alliance claiming owners of older Wi-Fi hardware will be able to access it through a software upgrade.

The release of Wi-Fi Direct is expected to pose a direct threat to Bluetooth which has long been the common standard for peer-to-peer filesharing between mobile devices.

As with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct devices will discover each other automatically, though across greater distances than Bluetooth is capable of achieving.

It's also theoretically capable of transferring data at 250Mbits/sec, significantly better than Bluetooth's meagre 11Mbits/sec. The trade-off for this is a larger power draw.

Author: Stuart Turton