The wireless computer networking standard of 802.11 currently under development, the IEEE 802.11ac standard, is expected to emerge as the dominant Wi-Fi protocol by 2014, according to research firm ABI Research (News - Alert).

In its new report entitled “Wi-Fi Chipset Evolution: From 802.11n to 802.11ac and 802.11ad,” ABI indicated that there will be small shipment volumes of 802.11ac products in 2012 and a significant increase in shipments in 2013, and only a major subset of 802.11ac will be single-band 802.11ac, using solely the five GHz band while most will be 802.11n/802.11ac dual-band chipsets.

Hypothetically, the 802.11ac specification will provide high throughput for wireless local area networks (WLAN) in the 5 GHz band. It will enable a throughput of at least 1 gigabit per second (Gbit/s) by using a wider RF bandwidth (up to 160 MHz), more MIMO spatial streams (up to eight), multi-user MIMO and high-density modulation (up to 256QAM).

According to ABI, 802.11n and 802.11ac chipsets with 1X1 will remain dominant until 2015, due to their lower cost. It is anticipated that these chipsets will cross the 50 percent threshold in 2014.

“With the exception of a small and dwindling number of 802.11g chipsets, everything has already shifted to 802.11n, and it has happened faster than most people expected. This is a clear indication of what will happen with 802.11ac,” said Philip Solis, research director, mobile networks, in a statement. “The 1x1 version of 802.11n replaced 802.11g. A rapid transition will occur with 802.11ac, but without the messy politics that slowed down the standardization of 802.11n in the past.”

Analyzing the shift from 802.11n to 802.11ac and 802.11ad, dual- and tri-band configurations including 802.11ad, the new report by ABI forecasts that many Wi-Fi chipset vendors such as Broadcom (News - Alert), Intel, Qualcomm Atheros, and Texas Instruments will attempt to maintain or grow their share of the market by transitioning as fast as possible.

However, smaller vendors will attempt to grow their market share during the transition by quickly shipping chipsets with competitive protocol, band, and MIMO combinations, says the report.

The successor of 802.11ac, 802.11ad’s products will make an early debut. Even though 802.11ad will be used in dual- and tri-band chipsets, it will not reach the 50 percent mark until 2016, says ABI.

As part of the Wireless Connectivity research service, the 23 pages report, “Wi-Fi Chipset Evolution: From 802.11n to 802.11ac and 802.11ad,” covers the Wi-Fi chipset market’s transition from 802.11n to 802.11ac and 802.11ad. Some of the forecasts in the report include protocol, band, and MIMO configurations for various product categories. A table of current and upcoming 802.11n, 802.11ac, and 802.11ad chipset vendors, products, protocols, bands, and MIMO configurations is also provided in the report.

Recently, Rohde & Schwarz (News - Alert) came-up with a new comprehensive test and measurement solution for 802.11ac signals, based on the R&SFS-K96 OFDM signal analysis software.