LYT-INDUSTRY-Hansen 12/5/11 1:56 PM Page 6

I N D U S T RY P E R S P E C T I V E S

WIGIG: MULTI-GIGABIT WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS IN THE 60 GHZ BAND

CHRISTOPHER J. HANSEN, BROADCOM CORPORATION
INTRODUCTION
The Wireless Gigabit Alliance [1] — commonly called
WiGig — is an industry consortium devoted to the develop-
ment and promotion of wireless communications in the 60
GHz band. Recent advances in 60 GHz technology and demand
for higher-speed wireless connections are key drivers for
WiGig. Among the unlicensed frequency bands available for wire-
less networks, 60 GHz is uniquely suited for carrying extremely
high data rates (multiple gigabits per second) over short distances.
WiGig has developed a medium access control (MAC) layer, a
physical (PHY) layer, and several protocol adaptation layers (PALs)
to enable interoperable devices that take advantage of these
extremely high data rates. WiGig is also working closely with
standards bodies, including IEEE 802.11, and other industry groups,
such as the Wi-Fi Alliance, to help enable certification of stan-
dards-compliant devices.
EXTREMELY HIGH-SPEED APPLICATIONS
The motivation to develop 60 GHz communications comes
from a new class of applications that require extremely high-speed
wireless data. A summary of WiGig applications is shown in
Fig. 1.
High-speed video and computer display streaming, data
transfers and networking, as well as wireless bus are the key
applications. The data rate requirements for these applications all
exceed the capabilities of today’s wireless technologies. Thus,
the industry is motivated to pursue the use of 60 GHz commu-
nications.
THE 60 GHZ BAND
The unlicensed 60 GHz frequency band has more band- where Ae is the effective aperture area. The small wavelength
width available than all the other unlicensed bands combined. The (roughly 5 mm) means that a 16-element array with half wave-
worldwide spectrum availability is shown in Fig. 2. Even for the length spacing will occupy a space of about 20 mm ¥ 20 mm.
smallest allocation, there is more than 3 GHz of bandwidth
available, and most regions allow use of at least 7 GHz. In er. As the antenna gain is increased, the antenna beamwidth becomes
comparison, the 5 GHz unlicensed band has about 500 MHz of
Video
(1280 × 720~1920 × 1080p and beyond
uncompressed)
Video
(1280 × 720~1920 × 1080p and beyond
H.264 compressed)
Kiosk HD Blu-ray download
(25 Gbytes 1–5 min)
total usable bandwidth, and the 2.4 GHz band has less than 85 MHz
of bandwidth in most regions.
Additional bandwidth increases the channel capacity, but is not
sufficient to enable high-speed communications for practical appli-
cations. Interoperable systems that can exploit the wide bandwidth
at low cost are necessary. A specific challenge for 60 GHz is
overcoming the (often severe) path loss from transmitter to receiv-
er. The Friis equation is used to compute this effect:
Pt Gt Gr λ 2
Pr = ,
( 4 π R )2
where Pr is the received power, Pt is the transmitted power, Gt
is the transmitter antenna gain, Gr is the receiver antenna gain,
l is the wavelength, and R is the range from transmitter to
receiver. Typically, WiGig systems will operate at 10 dB higher
received power than IEEE 802.11n systems because the total noise
power from the wider bandwidth is much higher. Furthermore,
there is a loss of about 21 to 28 dB relative to the 2.4 and 5
GHz bands because of the shorter wavelength at 60 GHz.
Some of these losses can be offset by reducing the maximum
operating range. The remaining loss must be compensated for
by increasing the antenna gain.
Luckily, high antenna gains with small antenna sizes are
feasible at 60 GHz because, for a given antenna aperture, gain
scales inversely with the square of the wavelength. For a per-
fectly efficient antenna system,
4 π Ae
G= ,
λ2
Increasing antenna gain creates its own challenges, howev-
narrower. Very narrow antenna beamwidths — those
associated with 10 dB of antenna gain or more —
require automated antenna pointing, or beam-
forming. This was not an issue for IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n
systems that employ omnidirectional antennas. 60
GHz stations need to find each other, coordinate
operation, and optimize antenna settings in an
efficient, interoperable manner. WiGig addresses
these challenges in its MAC/PHY specification with
the design of its network architecture, access pro-
tocol, and PHY layer. A specific beamforming
protocol is also an integral part of the specifica-
tion.

WIGIG SPECIFICATIONS
File transfer
(2 Gbytes 30 s) The WiGig MAC and PHY layers provide
similar functionality to the IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n MAC
and PHY, but incorporate new features to enhance
Wireless I/O operation in the 60 GHz band. As mentioned ear-
(USB/PCIe) lier, beamforming is an integral part of the speci-
fication. There is a protocol to allow devices with
1 2 3 4 5 6 directional antennas to discover each other and estab-
Throughput (Gb/s) lish connections. Once connected, they can refine
antenna settings to maximize transmit and receive
Figure 1. WiGig applications. gains. As channels change, they can make contin-

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I N D U S T RY P E R S P E C T I V E S
uous adjustments to their antenna settings to max-
imize performance. This allows the highest data rates 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 GHz
possible, even with time varying channels, such as
those seen by mobile devices.
The PHY layer includes single-carrier (SC) modes
with data rates up to 4.6 Gb/s and orthogonal fre-
quency-division multiplexing (OFDM) modes
with data rates up to 7 Gb/s. It is expected that all
devices will employ SC modes, including low-
power mobile devices. OFDM modes are designed
for higher-performance systems that need the
highest possible data rates. Both the SC and
OFDM modes share a common preamble to promote
interoperability.
Channel coding in the WiGig PHY employs mod- Figure 2. 60 GHz worldwide spectrum availability.
ern low density parity check (LDPC) codes with rates
of 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, and 13/16. The same code sets are
employed for both SC and OFDM modes. The wide range of
code rates allows transceivers to choose the best code rate for
the particular fading channel condition they encounter. The codes
are specifically designed for implementations and include
properties to support both layer decoding and fully parallel
belief propagation decoding [2].
The WiGig MAC layer incorporates modes for both point-
to-point communication between two wireless devices and
wireless network access. Thus, both cable replacement and
Internet access use cases can be supported. There is also sup-
port for rapid transfer of connections between 60 GHz and the
2.4 and 5 GHz bands. This is useful if a mobile device moves
out of range of a 60 GHz connection. It can quickly fall back to
a lower-rate connection in one of the other unlicensed bands
and maintain seamless network connectivity.
The MAC and PHY also incorporate specific features to
support efficient transfer of very high-speed data. These fea-
tures include packet aggregation, block acknowledgment, and
advanced security with Advanced Encryption Standard-Galois
Counter Mode (AES-GCM) that requires fewer computations per
bit than earlier AES modes in IEEE 802.11.
WiGig is developing PAL specifications to address common 60
GHz applications. Each PAL layer sits directly over the MAC layer
and acts as an interface between the 60 GHz MAC/PHY and a
bus or display interface. This functionality is in contrast to the
typical IP networking model that has an additional IP stack sit-
ting on top of the MAC. The PAL interface model has a sim-
pler design that is suitable for cable replacement applications. The
IP model is more suited to network access. WiGig supports
either or both models of operation. The two models can even work
simultaneously. For example, a device may use a WiGig 60
GHz MAC/PHY to carry both streaming video over a PAL and
a high-speed Internet connection over an IP stack.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
The state of 60 GHz communications technology has
developed from experience with current wireless LAN sys-
tems and significant research developments over the past decade.
Continued research will help drive the technology forward,
IEEE Wireless Communications • December 2011
U.S. and Canada (57.05−64.00)
Japan (59.00−66.00)
Australia (59.40−62.90)
Europe (57.00−66.00)
China (59.00−64.00)
South Korea (57.00−64.00)
lowering costs and enabling new products and applications.
Of particular interest to the industry are improvements in cir-
cuit design and packaging, beamforming techniques to com-
pensate for non-line-of-sight channels, and new media access
techniques.
Lower-cost methods for packaging and connecting 60 GHz cir-
cuits [3] will help foster integration into different types of plat-
forms, such as portable devices. Further improvements in
complementary metal oxide semicondunctor (CMOS) circuit design
at 60 GHz, particularly power amplifier efficiency [4], will help
to improve battery life and expand communication range. For next-
generation systems, it will be also be necessary to develop
beamforming techniques specifically designed for non-line-of-
sight radio channels [5]. Also, improvements in multiple access
techniques [6] will allow denser deployments at higher data
rates.
SUMMARY
The Wireless Gigabit Alliance has been working to leverage
the state of the art in millimeter-wave technology to enable
widespread use of the unlicensed 60 GHz bands. The WiGig MAC,
PHY, and PAL specifications have been specifically designed
to enable a wide range of applications that demand extremely high
data rates. By working with other bodies for standardization
and certification, it is expected that devices employing WiGig tech-
nology will soon be available in the marketplace.
REFERENCES
[1] WiGig White Paper: Defining the Future of Multi-Gigabit Wireless Com-
munication, retrieved from http://www.wigig.org/specifications/
[2] A. Blanksby, B. Shen, and J. Trachewsky, “LDPC Code Set for mmWave
Communication,” Int’l. Wksp. mmWave Commun.: From Circuits to Net-
works (mmCom 2010), Chicago, IL, Sept. 2000.
[3] G. Liu et al., “Low-loss, Low-cost, IC-to-Board Bondwire Interconnects for
Millimeter-Wave Applications,” 2011 IEEE MTT-S Microwave Symp. Dig.
[4] J. Chen and A. Niknejad, “A Compact 1V 18.6 dBm 60 GHz Power Ampli-
fier in 65nm CMOS,” 2011 IEEE Int’l. Solid-State Circuits Conf.
[5] S. Wyne et al., “Beamforming Effects on Measured mm-Wave Channel
Characteristics,” IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun., vol. 10, no. 10.
[6] S. Singh, R. Mudumbai, and U. Madhow, “Interference Analysis for High-
ly Directional 60-GHz Mesh Networks: The Case for Rethinking Medium
Access Control,” IEEE/ACM Trans. Net., vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 1513–27.
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