Philips Electronics has demonstrated the FireWire protocol running over an 801.11a wireless LAN interface. Using a 5GHz carrier, 802.11a is capable of data transmission in excess of 50Mbit/s, allowing multiple video channels to be passed around a local area.

Using FireWire on top of the WLAN allows isochronous transfer, which is necessary for video or audio data. Philips sees wireless FireWire being useful for linking set-top boxes, DVD players and digital TVs with PCs.

The firm has experimented with Firewire-over-WLAN for several years, starting with the lower speed 802.11b, giving up to 11Mbit/s. However, the higher speed of 802.11a makes it muchmore suitable for Firewire applications.