Wi-Fi Direct Is Here! What Is Wi-Fi Direct?

Wi-Fi Direct from Blake Robinson on Vimeo.

Your iPad, your iPhone, your laptop, your camera, your printer, your gaming handhelds. What do all of these have in common? They are all Wi-Fi enabled devices. And what is in common with all of that too? They all require a Wi-Fi hotspot in order to be connected to each other. Today, the Wi-Fi Alliance introduced a new wi-fi system called Wi-Fi Direct and will start certifying devices for these standards today as well. And obviously the question on your mind and many others around the world must be the same: What is WI-Fi Direct?

To put it plainly, it is very similar to what you have known and forever love as Bluetooth except on a much larger and more massive scale. This would be a Wi-Fi networking system that would no longer need a centralized port but would only need two points of connection. Or to put it into English, there would no longer be a Wi-Fi hotspot needed and all that would be required is 2 devices such as an iPod or a laptop and a camerawith wi-fi. Ideas of this have actually been tried in devices such as the all-famous Nintendo DS with device-to-device connection and it works to a somewhat well degree. However, it was mainly proprietary and would not be very reliable in a real life situation. This new standard would enable much longer ranges than Bluetooth and would also be much more powerful and reliable than Bluetooth could possibly be. 

It would also be far more widely-ranged than Bluetooth since Bluetooth is an actual hardware feature which requires Bluetooth hardware. If your device already has Wi-Fi built-in, as soon as it becomes registered as a certified Wi-Fi Direct device, then you will be good to go with this new standard. So in the end, you can forget about having to go through your home network in order to get to a device that doesn’t even need your router but go straight to the device. This new standard looks to already be well on its way to driving old Wi-Fi standards into the dirt and becoming the new form of Bluetooth for a lot of people and possibly companies. What do you think? Will Bluetooth need to step it’s game up with a Bluetooth 3.0 or is this just another Wi-Fi failed attempt? Leave your thoughts in the form of a comment below.

Comments

[Peter Hajas]

How is this different at all from WiFi adhoc networks?