The 7 GHz wide unlicensed band centered around 60 GHz, standardized by 802.11ad, is emerging as an alternative to 2.4/5 GHz wireless systems, promising multi-Gigabit throughput. However, the Millimeter-Wave (mmWave) technology comes with its own challenges. The aim of this thesis is to overcome these challenges in order to build general-purpose 802.11ad indoor home/enterprise WLANs. Towards this goal, we perform an extensive link measurement study with COTS hardware to characterize the 60 GHz channel in an indoor setup. The results of this study will guide the design of better performing MAC algorithms and protocols. Further, we propose a relay-based WLAN architecture as a solution to the unique challenges of 60 GHz links and specify multiple research directions associated with such an architecture that are essential to the realization of multi-Gigabit indoor WLANs.
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