Wi-Fi Alliance now certifies Wi-Fi direct products

From CNET News.com: First demonstrated at CES 2010, Wi-Fi Direct has just now gotten another major step to become part of the Wi-Fi usage spectrum.

The Wi-Fi Alliance, the group that test and certifies Wi-Fi products to make sure they interoperate, announced today that it has begun certifying products capable of making Wi-Fi-based device-to-device connections and designating them Wi-Fi Certified Wi-Fi Direct.

Traditionally, Wi-Fi clients need to connect to a central place, called an access point, before they can connect to one another in their "infrastructure" mode. Other than that, they can also connect in pair via a mode called "ad-hoc" that is limited both in range and throughput speed.

Wi-Fi Direct, on the other hand, allows Wi-Fi devices to connect to one another without an access point at the same speed and range of the infrastructure mode. They can also establish a connection much faster via Wi-Fi Protected Setup, a method that enables connecting devices by pressing a button. In other words, Wi-Fi Direct allows Wi-Fi products to connect much like Bluetooth devices but at much faster speed and much longer range.

With this flexiblity, Wi-Fi Direct devices fill an important hole in daily usage: directly connecting devices for applications such as content sharing, syncing, printing, and gaming anywhere, without users having to carry along an access point.

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