There is a draft from IEEE about the 802.16.m standard which promises to deliver in one or two years, wireless speeds of up to 1GB. The 802.16m 1GB speed is based on the MIMO technology (multiple-input / multiple-output) which is already used on certain 802.11g/n routers. For example the 54Mbps routers are capable o theoretical speeds of 108Mbps by using MIMO.

IEEE 802.16m will not be a part of the WiMAX standard but the Committee assures us of compatibilities between these two standards. It will also be 4G compatible with the future wireless networks offering much higher speeds. These things will only happen in a couple of years from now on, when the CDMA2000 or the current WCDMA will be long history being replaced by OFDMA.

Current 802.16m specifications include:

• Very low rate Data: = 16 kbps
• Low rate Data & Low Multimedia: = 144 kbps
• Medium multimedia: = 2 Mbps
• High multimedia: = 30 Mbps
• Super high multimedia: 30 Mbps ~ 100 Mbps / 1 Gbps

However there is a small thing that should be taken into consideration. The IEEE Committee announces that the military will help into developing the new IEEE 802.16m standard for higher transfer speeds on mobile devices, so this means it may not be released right away on the market but will be first tested by the military. Nice one!
[via DailtyTech]

Filed under Wireless