What is 802.11AC ?

802.11ac is The Fifth Generation high speed wireless (Wi-Fi) standard introduced and by design, 802.11ac is intended to operate only in the 5 GHz frequency band with introduces a valuable new technology like beamforming and MIMO. 802.11ac is a faster and more scalable version of 802.11n and get faster data transfer rate up to 1.3Gbps respectively.

802.11ac technology will provide better performance for bandwidth-intensive applications like streaming video, live video meeting such as zoom and MS team collaboration.

802.11ac design with multiple new advance features like MIMO and beamforming which 802.11ac become more robust and provide high speed network that is three time faster from 802.11n

802.11ac operate at various channels can be 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and 160 MHz wide.so technically wider channel option gives more bandwidth and high speed availability.

802.11ac is the latest evolution of Wi-Fi network, fast wireless connections, better range, improved reliability, and improved power consumption. Also it is basically designed for specifically to good for gaming and live HD video streaming, High-end cloud application to run them smoothly on wireless network.

The IEEE 802.11ac wireless standard defines mechanisms and techniques for dramatically enhancing the speed and capacity that a Wi-Fi Access Point (AP) can deliver. 802.11ac standard contains several mechanisms to help ensure more efficient use of added capacity and support the growing number of fixed and mobile clients found in modern households and business environments.

One of the most significant enhancements in 802.11ac is Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) technology. Most commercially available Wi-Fi routers and APs today are based on Single-User MIMO (SUMIMO) or simply MIMO, which employs inefficient time-slotting protocols to share its single dedicated full-rate Wi-Fi link with multiple clients.

80211AC Features –

MU-MIMO – Multi user – Multiple input and multiple output –

MU-MIMO makes efficient use of available spectrum by effectively multiplying the total capacity of a network. In beginning of 802.11ac, a new technology is defined, called multiuser MIMO (MU-MIMO). Here an AP is able to use its antenna resources to transmit multiple frames to different clients, all at the same time and over the same frequency spectrum. If 802.11n is like a hub, 802.11ac can be thought of as a wireless switch.

MU-MIMO is a wireless technology that can handle the transmission formation from multiple Wi-Fi devices at the same time and Increased throughput and reduced latency. MU-MIMO technology help to allow multiple wireless devices can use to transmit and receive the date at same time.

With 802.11n, a device can transmit multiple spatial streams at once, but only directed to a single address. For individually addressed frames, this means that only a single device (or user) gets data at a time. We call this Single-User MIMO (SU-MIMO).

MU-MIMO is new feature introduced with 802.11ac. MU-MIMO support is required on both the access point and client device to work. It operates in the downstream direction, access point to client, and allows an access point to transmit to multiple client devices simultaneously.

In addition to making your network faster transmitter and handling dense user’s network, MU-MIMO can help increasing its capacity. MIMO aids the significant advantage in campus Network, apartment buildings, large offices, or other crowded environments.

However, MU-MIMO is a challenging technology to implement correctly and won’t be available in the first wave of AP products.

Beamforming –

Beamforming is a signal processing technique used in sensor arrays for directional signal transmission. This technology focus the single strength in one direction toward the receiver device. So that more data reaches the targeted device instead of missing out into the atmosphere.

Any device (with multiple antennas) can beamform to any other device at any time. What 802.11ac adds is the opportunity for the receiver to help the beamforming transmitter to do a better job of beamforming. This is called “sounding,” and it enables the beamformer to precisely steer its transmitted energy toward the receiver.

Beamforming is an important feature of the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, however it is as “optional”. Beamforming featured devices are allow a devices to detect the exact location of a device and send the data directly to it in a straight line.

Beamforming can help improve wireless bandwidth utilization, and it can increase a wireless network’s range. This features can improve video streaming, voice quality, and other bandwidth- and latency-sensitive transmissions.

802.11ac Backwards Compatible –

You no need to worry about backwards compatible of 802.11ac with existing wireless infrastructure. 802.11ac is carefully designed to be maximally forward and backward compatible with 802.11a/n devices.   802.11ac is fully backwards compatible with 802.11a and 802.11n in the 5 GHz band.

 In fact, the 802.11ac design is even simpler and more thorough than 802.11n compatibility with 802.11a devices. Therefore, the emergence of 802.11ac clients will not cause issues with existing infrastructure.

An 802.11ac device must support all the mandatory modes of 802.11a and 802.11n. So an 802.11ac AP can communicate with 802.11a and 802.11n clients using 802.11a or 802.11n formatted packets.

802.11ac Routers use more Antennas –

To improve range and reliability, 802.11ac routers can use more antennas than existing 802.11n your next router may have as many as eight antennas inside it.

Final Words.

• The 802.11ac standard is an improved version of previous standards, offering higher speeds over wider bandwidths.
• Everything is going mobile. Including your workers and they need access from anywhere, on any device.
• 802.11ac Access Points can deliver reliable wireless access to support a range of applications. 802.11ac offers a significant boost in performance.
• 802.11ac is an evolutionary improvement to 802.11n. One of the goals of 802.11ac is to deliver higher levels of performance that are commensurate with Gigabit Ethernet networking.
• It give more mobility and wide coverage everywhere. 802.11ac devices deliver a seemingly “rapid” data transfer experience increased scale and coverage.
• High-density environments with scores of clients per AP.
• The increased adoption of video streaming, collaboration and other bandwidth-intensive applications.
• IT administrators who may still be on older standards such as 802.11n will strongly benefit from deploying 802.11ac in their network while providing room for growth and future expansion.