New Wi-Fi spec allows access point bypass

14.10.2009
A new industry specification promises to un-network Dubbed Wi-Fi Direct, the spec will let your laptop or smartphone connect directly with other wireless devices.

Although touted by some as making Wi-Fi "easier," what the spec really does is make it more available. That's because the Wi-Fi radio in your laptop won't need an access point or a hotspot to connect with wireless printers, cameras, projectors, sensors or plasma screens.

"It can revolutionize what people do with it," says Edgard Figueroa, executive director, , the industry group that coined the term that is now a widely used shorthand for radio networks based on the IEEE 802.11 standard. Alliance members, which include Cisco, Intel and other heavyweights, has been developing Wi-Fi Direct for the past year as a way to let a user with a Wi-Fi-enabled device create his own personal-area network (PAN).

The work explicitly addresses possible enterprise wireless LAN concerns, though these parts (and others) of the specification are not yet final, Figueroa says. Wi-Fi Direct sets up a connection negotiation process, resulting in a master-slave relationship, with one device having the role of "group owner" for a flock of Wi-Fi devices connecting together. The group owner controls the domain, administers it, and can grant or terminate Wi-Fi connections.

Enterprise WLAN administrators will have "some influence" over this environment, though precisely how and to what degree hasn't been determined yet. The intent of the Alliance committee drafting the spec is to ensure that Wi-Fi Direct PANs are secure, through support for Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 () and AES encryption, and that the two can coexist without interfering with each other.