Wi-Fi - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Avaya builds massive Wi-Fi net for 2014 Winter Olympics

  Avaya engineers are putting the final touches on a network capable of handling up to 54Tbps of traffic when the Winter Olympics opens on Feb. 7 in the Russian city of Sochi.

• A few finally find HotSpot 2.0 Wi-Fi connections

  There are currently several million smartphones certified to run on a "HotSpot 2.0" Wi-Fi network. In November, about 400 of them finally got a chance to do so -- in Beijing, China.

• Understanding where 802.11ad WiGig fits into the gigabit Wi-Fi picture

  The wireless world is evolving rapidly in response to the explosion of intelligent devices, applications and data, and the IEEE 802.11ad standard, commonly known as WiGig, is poised to help.

• Cruise line plans 11ac network upgrades for stem-to-stern Wi-Fi

  People sign up for cruise ships to get away from it all. But not quite all: Passengers still want Wi-Fi access for the growing number of mobile devices they lug with them on vacation for staying in touch, web surfing, music, photos and video. Cruise line Royal Caribbean is turning to 802.11ac to optimize their Wi-Fi connectivity for this mobile data deluge.

• High-gain patch antennas boost Wi-Fi capacity for Georgia Tech

  To boost its Wi-Fi capacity in packed lecture halls, Georgia Institute of Technology gave up trying to cram in more access points, with conventional omni-directional antennas, and juggle power settings and channel plans. Instead, it turned to new high-gain directional antennas, from Tessco's Ventev division.

• Alcatel-Lucent challenges Cisco, Brocade unified access

  Alcatel-Lucent is offering its enterprise switch users a free software upgrade to converge wired Ethernet networks with wireless from Aruba Networks.

• Startup wants to make public Wi-Fi a more social experience

  There's no doubt about it – public Wi-Fi can sometimes be a hassle. The airport wants you to pay a fee. Starbucks makes you buy an expensive mochaccino. What's a frustrated laptop user to do?

• IN PICTURES: Wi-Fi’s latest speed boost: 802.11ac client radios

  Here’s an alphabetic sampling of products; prices as of October 10, 2013, based on data from Google Shopping and Amazon.

• Location-based Wi-Fi services can add immediate value to Wi-Fi deployments

  Think of Wi-Fi location as indoor GPS. Wi-Fi-based positioning systems are used where GPS is inadequate due (typically) to signal blockage. Though the Wi-Fi protocol fundamentals haven't changed much in the past few years as it concerns location technology, the ecology of Wi-Fi location services have completely flipped.

• Wireless networks that follow you around a room, optimize themselves and even talk to each other out loud

  Graduate students at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory showed off their latest research at the university's Wireless retreat on Monday, outlining software-defined MIMO, machine-generated TCP optimization, and a localized wireless networking technique that works through sound.

• 802.11ac 'gigabit Wi-Fi' starts to show potential, limits

  Vendor tests and very early 802.11ac customers provide a reality check on "gigabit Wi-Fi" but also confirm much of its promise.

• 802.11ac 'gigabit Wi-Fi' starts to show potential, limits

  Vendor tests and very early 802.11ac customers provide a reality check on "gigabit Wi-Fi" but also confirm much of its promise.

• Your best 'Gigabit Wi-Fi' resources

  "Gigabit" Wi-Fi has reached a point where it's now being deployed by some early adopters. There are more 802.11ac resources – test data, anecdotal observations, hands-on experience – and more products than ever before.

• New 'white spaces' research from Microsoft and China makes it easier to find vacant spectrum

  Identifying and using vacant "white space" spectrum for Wi-Fi may get simpler, more efficient, and cheaper thanks to a new project by Microsoft and a team of Chinese researchers.

• HP rolls out next-gen firewall line, threat-detection service

  HP today took the wraps off its Next-Generation Firewall line designed to exert application-level controls and visibility over all traffic related to the enterprise, including mobile devices used in public WiFi settings and traffic from cloud services.