There are many terms that are not understandable to ordinary users, which is why it is worthwhile to deal with each of them. You may be interested in what WiFi Direct is. This technology was announced long ago, it was intended to simplify the establishment of communication between a pair of separate Wi-Fi devices. In a sense, it's Wi-Fi-based Bluetooth. It differs from the former in greater speed and distances, and from the latter in ease of setup and safety. And everything seems to be fine, but it's really worth it to figure it out.
A bit of history
To understand what WiFi Direct is, you need to look into the past. For the organization of wireless communication of consumer devices, they directly used Bluetooth, which is quite simple, has a short range, low cost and quite reasonable energy needs. Nowadays, when smartphones have almost caught up with computers in performance, I want something more. And here it is worth noting that there is Wi-Fi, which works faster, it has a greater range, but there is an important nuance.
The initial idea was that Wi-Fi can work in two modes: direct, when several devices organize a simple peer-to-peer network, and infrastructure, involving the use of an access point, which is a kind of traffic arbiter. The second option eventually developed and moved forward, and the first simply got stuck in the nineties: now it is not supported by all household devices, it has a low speed, as well as insecurity. That is, it is dangerous, inconvenient and completely inapplicable, so modern Wi-Fi just can not do without an access point.
How are things now?
Home Wi-Fi manufacturers are so eager to simplify the lives of modern users that home access points currently have almost no settings, and many of them work directly out of the box on defaults. Many users simply do not know how to enable WiFi. It was this factor that allowed the appearance of a huge amount of free Wi-Fi from the best Internet providers. This became the reason for such a strong popularity of Wi-Fi, but at the same time it gave rise to many myths about the insecurity of such connections. All of the above has led to the fact that the priorities of vendors have changed in favor of a simple and secure wireless network. This is where the question arises of what WiFi Direct is.
Features
This connection method has numerous advantages:
- secure direct connection between devices, set up similarly to Bluetooth, that is, you just need to select the appropriate item from the list, without thinking about the PSK and SSID;
- the speed of such networks is much faster than that of traditional Bluetooth;
- a significantly greater distance between devices is allowed;
- A high degree of reliability and security is guaranteed by the constantly running WPA2, which cannot be disabled.
Implementation
So, what is WiFi Direct, it becomes clear, it remains to deal with issues related to the intricacies of providing such access. The adoption of a new amendment to the 802.11 standard will take several years. It was decided to contrive within the specifications and standards currently available.
Each Wi-Fi device actually has a software access point that knows how to declare itself, as well as the capabilities of the device, and supports WPS. Depending on what type of gadget is in front of you, some additional functions may be implemented, for example, routing or switching traffic.
Thanks to the implementation of SoftAP, a device that has support for WiFi Direct can also connect ordinary gadgets that have the ability to work with WPA2. A device with an advanced module can simultaneously be connected to Wi-Di and Wi-Fi, which provides tethering.
What does it give?
The result of all these developments is the ability of the user to connect directly to the printer and print photos from the camera, or you can simply send them to a digital photo frame. The guest will have the opportunity to broadcast video directly to your TV, without the need to spend time connecting a local network and more. This will all happen quickly and easily. Already there are Samsung WiFi Direct chipsets, as well as products from other manufacturers.
Specifications
So, if we talk about what WiFi Direct is, then on the hardware level it is not much different from a regular Wi-Fi module. It turns out that the technical characteristics of the new solution almost coincide with modern wireless networks. New gadgets will be compatible with existing Wi-Fi devices. Most of the new chips require operation at a frequency of 2.4 gigahertz, so they should easily interact with earlier versions of the 802.11 standard, and in some cases compatibility with 802.11n is expected. The modules will operate at a frequency of five megahertz, which will allow them to connect to newer networks. According to the proposed information, it can be understood that most of the chips are capable of supporting both frequencies.
WiFi Direct is not always a one-on-one connection
The fact that this standard is intended to connect two devices with each other does not always mean that the possibilities will be limited only by this. You can create a connection between entire groups of devices, for example, running on WiFi Direct Windows 7. Such configurations are supposed to be used for multiplayer games. In this case, the players will not need access to the Internet or some kind of mobile or other coverage. Even in the desert, they will be able to form a small wireless network if the devices are located in the reach of each other. Not all network participants must support this standard. Only one WiFi Direct chip is able to take on the task of coordinating the traffic passing between devices with Wi-Fi modules.
It is worth noting that sometimes the creation of groups is impossible, because some gadgets were originally created only for one-on-one connection. This does not contradict the specifications of the standard, since the ability to connect to multiple users is an option. For each specific device, there is a description that talks about this parameter.