802.11 ac addresses the speed and capacity challenges customers face in the 802.11n and older technology.
By 2016 over 70% of the mobile devices will be 802.11ac enabled
With all the social media applications, customers are sharing more video contents than before.
What are the benefits from a user perspective of 802.11ac compared to 802.11n?
Better Battery Life on mobile devices
More bandwidth.
Greater client density (more users).
Faster Client adoption.
Is 802.11ac backward compatible with 802.11 a/n?
Yes, 802.11ac radios also support 802.11 a/n clients.
All enterprise and SMB grade access points provide at least (2) radios - 2.4 GHz for 802.11 b/g/n & 5 GHz 802.11 a/n.
What are the key differences between 802.11 g/a/n and 802.11ac?
Spectrum
802.11n operates in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz spectrums.
Both 802.11a and 802.11ac operates in 5GHz only.
Speed
The latest generation of 802.11n Access Points max out at a data rate of 450 Mbps
802.11ac provides a date rate of 1.3 Gbps (Wave-1) and 802.11ac (Wave -2) will offer a data rate of 3.5 Gbps
802.11ac can operate at up to 3 X faster than 802.11n
Battery Savings
Since 802.11ac devices are more efficient over the air they transmit for shorter intervals conserving battery life.
802.11ac has been shown to improve battery life up to 2x over 802.11n
What is the difference between Wave-1 and Wave-2 802.11ac?
The biggest difference - Wave1 802.11ac is available now from multiple chipset manufactures and the expectation is that 802.11ac Wave2 will come to market in 2015-2016.
802.11ac Wave-2 will require new chipsets so this will not be a software upgrade to current 802.11ac platforms.
Main features of 802.11ac Wave- 1 include:
PHY Rate 1.3Gbps
Channel Bonding support for 80 MHz (mandatory);
3 Spatial Streams, Single User MIMO
2SS mandatory for non-battery powered AP’s
Only 1SS mandatory for battery powered AP's and clients
Faster modulation 256-QAM
Main features expected of 802.11ac Wave-2 include:
Multi User MIMO
4th Spatial Stream
160 MHz wide channels: non-contiguous 80+80 and contiguous 160
PHY Rate ranging from 1.3 Gbps to 3.5 Gbps (depending on the number of spatial streams and channel width)
Why would you buy Wave 1 802.11ac now and not just wait for Wave 2 802.11ac?
Why deploy 802.11ac Wave-1
Wave 1 is the best-in-class, most innovative RF solution available today.
Customers in an active buying cycle to expand their network and adopt 802.11ac Wave 1 today, instead of 11n or waiting for Wave 2 which won’t be available until 2015.
802.11ac Wave 1 represents fundamental improvements and enhancements to 802.11n in terms of client performance due to 3-4x higher throughput than 802.11n
Users can expect to have better experience for data, voice, video, VDI, etc.
Wider channel bandwidth in 802.11ac means more real estate to support higher client density in conference room, auditoriums or stadiums
Client devices are adopting 802.11ac faster than 802.11n
Smart phones, tablets and laptops are on and off the network faster thereby conserving battery life.
What benefits can I expect with 802.11ac Wave-2
Higher Density / or number of concurrent Wi-Fi devices = MU-MIMO “Switch Like behavior”
Higher Throughput up to 3.5 Gbps = 4th Spatial Stream and 160 MHz wide channels
Has the 802.11ac standard been ratified?
Yes - The ratification and publication of 802.11ac by IEEE was completed December 9th 2013 and was ANSI approved December 11th 2013.
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