IEEE 802.11ad: Directional 60 GHz Communication for Multi-Gigabit-per-Second Wi-Fi

With the ratification of the IEEE 802.11ad amendment to the 802.11 standard in December 2012, a major step has been taken to bring consumer wireless communication to the millimeter wave (mm-Wave) band. However, multi-Gbps throughput and small interference footprint come at the price of adverse signal propagation characteristics and require a fundamental rethinking of Wi-Fi communication principles. This paper describes the design assumptions taken into consideration for the IEEE 802.11ad standard and the novel techniques defined to overcome the challenges of mm-Wave communication. In particular we study the transition from omni-directional to highly directional communication and its impact on the design of IEEE 802.11ad.