A wireless LAN (WLAN) specification under development by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) that will serve as the successor to the 802.11acspecification, which is also currently under development. The 802.11ad standard is expected to be approved by the IEEE in 2014.
Recommended Reading: See 802.11 for a complete overview of the 802.11x family of specifications.
The 802.11ad specification operates in the 60GHz frequency band, as opposed to earlier 802.11 specifications such as 802.11ac, which operates in the 5 GHz range, and 802.11n, which operates in both the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz ranges. It is also designed to offer much higher transfer rates than previous 802.11 specs, with a theoretical maximum transfer rate of up to 7Gbps (Gigabits per second).
Also see Webopedia’s Wireless LAN Standards chart and How Wireless Networks Work.
