The team behind the invention showed it off at MobiCom 2010 last year, a gathering of mobile networking experts, and won a prize for the best demo. Fellow researchers told them they didn't expect it to work and, when it did, said it was so obvious that it had probably already been invented.

There's still some way to go before the technology will make it into consumer or business equipment. For example, the researchers are still working on a way for their invention to work over the kind of distances required for typical wireless networking.

Additionally, wireless networking relies on standards that are adopted by all manufacturers, which is why you can use an Dell laptop with a D-Link router, for example. These standards are controlled by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the invention would have to be cleared by the 802.11 working group before being formed into a new standard. That's likely to take many years to complete, although progress could be speeded-up by the lack of need to set aside new frequencies.

The team is also seeking a patent for its work--which could restrict implementations of the technology--and limit it to those manufacturers who can afford to pay a fee. Because of this, the technology might manifest within future Wi-Fi devices as an extension to the existing wireless standards, usable only if the receiving computing device also has the extension.

This isn't uncommon among wireless device manufacturers, It's easy to imagine a company like Apple paying for the technology to be used in its and computers, for example, to double wireless networking speeds and give their products a competitive advantage.