Wi-Fi Alliance® enhances Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Direct®

New features and interoperable services streamline user experience and provide a platform for developer innovation

Austin, Texas, September 15, 2014 - Wi-Fi Alliance® has added to its broadly-adopted Wi-Fi Direct® certification program a set of services built on a platform of new usability mechanisms. The added optional features in the certification enhance the usefulness of the popular peer-to-peer technology for vendors and developers. Devices certified to support the new services can now “discover, connect and do” in a single step, and immediately implement interoperable services for several common tasks.

Underlying the enhancements is a new application service platform designed to make it easier for the industry to develop new applications to operate over Wi-Fi Direct connections by providing a common approach to service discovery and onboarding. Products supporting the Wi-Fi Direct Toolkit will offer a developer interface to the platform for use when building applications to run on Wi-Fi Direct connections. Rather than relying on the user to configure a connection before using an application, an application itself will be able to initiate a Wi-Fi Direct connection between devices from various brands.

Four services are now certified in the program, providing immediate value to the industry and end users:

• Wi-Fi Direct Send - One or more devices quickly and easily can now send and receive content with minimal user interaction
• Wi-Fi Direct Print - With a single command, print documents directly from a smartphone, tablet or PC
• Wi-Fi Direct for DLNA^® - Devices supporting DLNA interoperability guidelines discover each other before connecting to stream content   
• Miracast^® - Now, devices can implement the updated device and service discovery mechanisms of Wi-Fi Direct to enable screen mirroring and display in one step

“Easy-to-use peer-to-peer connectivity and a common approach for developers are key features to propel further innovation leveraging Wi-Fi^® in the mobile, smart home, and consumer electronics segments,” said Philip Solis, research director at ABI Research. “The enhancements provide immediately useful solutions for product vendors, as well as a new platform for developer innovation, making Wi-Fi Direct more valuable to industry and end users alike.”

ABI Research estimates that two billion Wi-Fi Direct devices have been shipped to date, and that 81 percent of all Wi-Fi devices will be Wi-Fi Direct-enabled by 2018. Wi-Fi Direct has been widely adopted, with more than 6,000 certifications completed since the initial program launch in October 2010. The list of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Direct products includes a range of televisions, mobile phones, printers, PCs and tablets, as well as silicon from all major Wi-Fi chipset vendors.

“Wi-Fi Direct already delivers device-to-device connectivity to billions of devices, and with these important additions in our certification program, we expect Wi-Fi Direct will become indispensable,” said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO of Wi-Fi Alliance. “We are pleased to bring these services to vendors and to foster developer innovation with the new toolkit.”

The first products to support the new service enhancements, and which comprise the test suite for interoperability certification, include:

• Google Nexus 10
• Marvell Avastar 88W8797 802.11 a/b/g/n Reference Design
• Mediatek MT6592+6625 Phone
• Qualcomm^® Snapdragon™ 800 based Linux Android System with XSPAN™ 802.11n Connectivity
• Realtek 2x2 11a/b/g/n/ac MiniCard
• Seiko Epson 100-120v, 100w, WFDS PWG Raster Print Service Reference Design

Industry response to the updated Wi-Fi Direct program:

"DLNA has included Wi-Fi Direct in its interoperability guidelines since 2011," said Scott Lofgren, DLNA president and chairman of the organization's board of directors. "We are pleased to be able to work with Wi-Fi Alliance to support their new additions to Wi-Fi Direct. The Wi-Fi Direct for DLNA application will make it even easier for consumers to send, receive, and display content on multiple screens using DLNA."

“With the advent of the IoT (Internet of Things) era, LG recognizes the significance of not just connectivity between devices but more importantly, interactivity,” said Hyunghoon Oh, senior vice president, Mobile Communications R&D Center, LG Electronics. “Through the Wi-Fi Direct service enhancements, we believe we will all be able to have the same connectivity and interactive experience regardless of device type and brand; this is why we are pleased to have incorporated such meaningful technology into the LG G3 for our consumers to enjoy.” The LG G3 smartphone has achieved certification for the expanded Wi-Fi Direct features.

“Epson has implemented the Wi-Fi Direct Print service to give users a simple, direct connection to print from their mobile devices,” said Yasunori Orii, General Manager of Printer Product Planning & Design Department.  “Our commitment to the testing efforts for interoperability by supplying a test bed device to Wi-Fi Alliance efforts will lead to better user experience in direct printing applications.”

"Marvell supports the innovative service enhancements to the Wi-Fi Direct platform," said Kevin Tang, Sr. Director of Marketing, IoT BU Connectivity Solutions. “This program greatly improves end user experience by enabling applications that simply discover, connect and interact device-to-device. Marvell is pleased to be a key part of this program and looks forward to proliferating this technology across our rich Wi-Fi connectivity product portfolio to further our goal of driving the Smart Life and Smart Lifestyle."

For more information on Wi-Fi Direct and a full list of certified products, please visit http://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/wi-fi-direct.

About Wi-Fi Alliance^®
www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance^® is a global non-profit industry association – our members are the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi^®. The members of our collaboration forum come from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem and share a vision of seamless connectivity. Since 2000, the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED^™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, industry-standard security protections, and the latest technology. Wi-Fi Alliance has certified more than 20,000 products, delivering the best user experience and encouraging the expanded use of Wi-Fi products and services in new and established markets. Today, billions of Wi-Fi products carry a significant portion of the world’s data traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications.