The future of Wi-Fi without networks

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Wi-Fi Direct devices are likely to come in all shapes and sizes – next generation semiconductor and technology group Marvell has already announced Wi-Fi Direct support across its entire range of 802.11 WLAN devices including mobile phones, portable gaming devices, personal media players and other low power mobile devices.

Bye bye Bluetooth?

Already people are wondering whether Wi-Fi Direct will threaten Bluetooth, the open wireless protocol for sending data over short distances that powers mobile phone earpieces and uses PC adaptors to allow devices from mobile phones to a wireless mouse to interact.

Certainly much will depend on power consumption, range and performance in the head-to-head battle between Wi-Fi Direct and Bluetooth.

Certainly Bluetooth has had more time to work on high speed and low energy technologies and Wi-Fi Direct may take time to catch up although this may not take too long with companies like Marvell rapidly adopting and implementing Wi-Fi Direct.

When will Wi-Fi Direct arrive?

Despite enthusiastically announcing the “near completion” of the new Wi-Fi Direct specification, the Wi-Fi Alliance has not revealed a precise date for its publication.

It's been suggested that devices are likely to begin being certified under the new standards by next summer, and the associated FAQ adds “we expect Wi-Fi Alliance member companies to begin designing and testing Wi-Fi Direct products in early 2010”. This suggests the new specification could be unveiled as early as December this year.

Certainly it seems that businesses can expect Wi-Fi Direct devices to enter the market by mid-2010 particularly with Marvell and also Ozmo, another producer of low-power Wi-Fi personal area networks both already announcing support for the new Wi-fi Direct technology.

Marvell are already making evaluation kits for Wi-Fi Direct available for business customers and plans to offer the technology as a software upgrade on existing and future Wi-Fi products.

Certainly, the technology may have profound effects for businesses, not just in terms of reducing the costs of sharing and transferring data but by offering more efficient ways to automate the backup of important data without ever having to physically connect external hard drives or servers to PCs, laptops or mobile devices.

Synchronising data between devices may also become faster and easier with Wi-Fi Direct and longer-term, new apps may eventually appear which identify work colleagues in the area and establish connections with their mobile devices to exchange business data.

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