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Wi-Fi Alliance Unveils 802.11ac Certification Program
Aims to Ensure Interoperability of 802.11ac Devices
The Wi-Fi Alliance has launched its Wi-Fi Certified ac certification program, which should help improve interoperability between 802.11ac devices. "CERTIFIED ac advances the ability of Wi-Fi to satisfy that appetite by increasing capacity and improving performance, thus paving the way for new products and services that provide a great user experience," the group stated in a press release. Late last year executives from gearmakers admitted that initial versions of 802.11ac may not be worth it for users, but that later incarnations of hardware will prove to be significantly better. First-generation 802.11ac products offer up to 1.3 Gbps via three spatial streams and 80-MHz-wide channels -- double the largest 40 MHz channel width currently seen in 802.11n hardware.
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brianiscool
join:2000-08-16
Tampa, FL

1 recommendation

brianiscool

Member

Nice

When I get download and uploads at 1GB speeds via wireless let me know. You will be lucky to get 600Mbps - 700Mbps.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

1 recommendation

tshirt

Premium Member

Re: Nice

Considering IEEE 802.11g specification that extended throughput to up to 54 Mbit/s is only 10 years old .6 to 1.3Gbps is amazing.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5 to brianiscool

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to brianiscool
I have a Trendnet AC router and my Samsung Galaxy S4 supports 11ac protocol. And I have seen 500mbps speeds between router and smartphone. The good thing though is I get full Comcast Blast speeds of about 60/14 Mbps to my smartphone. Speeds I couldn't get using 802.11n 5ghz old router.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: Nice

said by FFH5:

I have a Trendnet AC router and my Samsung Galaxy S4 supports 11ac protocol. And I have seen 500mbps speeds between router and smartphone.

doubtful

in practice you're not likely to see an 802.11ac reach its theoretical maximum of 1.3 Gigabit per second (Gbps). That's because the conditions you need to reach that speed requires a laboratory instead your office.

To reach the highest speeds you need three data-streams, each of which can run up to 433 Megabits per second (Mbps). A typical 802.11ac access point can support up to eight data streams. Client devices must only support one.

For example, the Samsung Galaxy S4 supports 802.11ac with the Broadcom BCM4335 Wi-Fi chipset. This chipset only supports a single stream so, even in the best of all possible worlds, you'll only see 433Mbps.

Boricua
Premium Member
join:2002-01-26
Sacramuerto

Boricua to brianiscool

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to brianiscool
I would like to see when the broadband providers start giving us these devices. Right now, I have U-Verse with a 2Wire gateway/modem still at .11g. I have yet to see them move up to .11n.

BimmerE38FN
join:2002-09-15
Boise, ID

BimmerE38FN

Member

Re: No Mention of this

Why not just ad an AC AP to the modem/router?
34764170 (banned)
join:2007-09-06
Etobicoke, ON

34764170 (banned)

Member

Re: No Mention of this

said by BimmerE38FN:

Why not just ad an AC AP to the modem/router?

Ya, doesn't make sense. The routers/"gateways" the ISPs hand out are for the most part garbage for wireless never mind the route too.
floydb1982
join:2004-08-25
Kent, WA

floydb1982 to brianiscool

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to brianiscool
I've had the Linksys WRT54G for the longest because I didn't have any need to upgrade to 802.11n because internet was only 25Mbps. Then when Comcast was going to be doubling there speeds at no extra cost only then did I upgrade to the new wireless 802.11n 40MHz 5GHz 450Mbps standard. My computer uses the 1GBps LAN, Mamas computer uses 802.11n 40MHz 5GHz 300Mbps, the Netgear NTV300 in the living room uses 802.11n 20MHz 150Mbps, and the Roku 2 XS in my bedroom uses 100Mbps LAN. We haven't had wireless 802.11n for that long and already the Wi-Fi alliance want to go to 802.11ac. I mean come on now folks this is completely crazy. I'm not upgraded. Then there was the problems of people getting burned buying pre-wireless 802.11n devices that got rendered junk because they had no compatibly with the final draft version of 802.11n.
av9116
join:2001-12-17
San Francisco, CA

av9116

Member

Re: Nice

said by floydb1982:

We haven't had wireless 802.11n for that long...

Technology won't be stagnant just because you were late in the game. By the time you're ready to jump on AC, it would be a mature product. The cycle will repeat with AD.
34764170 (banned)
join:2007-09-06
Etobicoke, ON

34764170 (banned) to floydb1982

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to floydb1982
said by floydb1982:

We haven't had wireless 802.11n for that long and already the Wi-Fi alliance want to go to 802.11ac. I mean come on now folks this is completely crazy. I'm not upgraded.

11n has been around long enough and it is past due that there be faster wireless standards. People keep talking about how wireless is going to replace wired but it sure as hell won't at the slow pace and poor job they've done with the standards so far.

That's your problem for being behind the times.
Secyurityet
Premium Member
join:2012-01-07
untied state

Secyurityet

Premium Member

There goes the neighborhood...

Can't wait to see what that does to the existing channel structure!

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: There goes the neighborhood...

said by Secyurityet:

Can't wait to see what that does to the existing channel structure!

It could be a problem eventually. But all APs within scanning distance of my home are still on 2.4 ghz. I was the only one on 802.11n 5 ghz and am now the only one on 802.11ac 5ghz.

DataRiker
Premium Member
join:2002-05-19
00000

DataRiker

Premium Member

Re: There goes the neighborhood...

More than likely the AP's are dual 2.4/5.0, just the distance 5.0 can travel is much shorter.
Happydude32
Premium Member
join:2005-07-16

Happydude32

Premium Member

Re: There goes the neighborhood...

The 802.11AD protocol will provide support for 2.4 GHz (as well as 60 GHz and 5 GHz) and will be the successor to AC.

My last day working at Worst Buy I wanted so bad to buy the Linksys EA 6500 AC router that lists for $200, it was $120 w/employee discount, but held off because in about a year Wireless AD will be here and I'd upgrade anyway. So for now I'll keep the 4500 N Router and upgrade to AD next year.

With having three bands, I'll have to come up with a new SSID. My 2.4 GHz Network is NSA Surveillance, my 5.0 GHz Network is CIA Surveillance, the mobile hotspot on one phone is FBI Surveillance and the other phone is DHS Surveillance. Maybe I could call the 60 GHz 'US Secret Service'? Help me, I'm running out of government agencies here!

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz

MVM

Re: There goes the neighborhood...

It'll be a year before any 802.11ad products hit the market, and probably another year beyond that before there are enough products to make it usable (having an access point is useless if none of your devices can talk to it). 60 GHz will also be extremely low range. Line-of-site, it won't pass through walls (and possibly not through obstacles), so it will be of pretty limited use; only works in the same room as the router. It's not clear (to me, anyhow) how much faster 802.11ad will be than 802.11ac in the 5 GHz band.
mgamer20o0
join:2003-12-01
Norwalk, CA

mgamer20o0 to Happydude32

Member

to Happydude32
said by Happydude32:

The 802.11AD protocol will provide support for 2.4 GHz (as well as 60 GHz and 5 GHz) and will be the successor to AC.

My last day working at Worst Buy I wanted so bad to buy the Linksys EA 6500 AC router that lists for $200, it was $120 w/employee discount, but held off because in about a year Wireless AD will be here and I'd upgrade anyway. So for now I'll keep the 4500 N Router and upgrade to AD next year.

With having three bands, I'll have to come up with a new SSID. My 2.4 GHz Network is NSA Surveillance, my 5.0 GHz Network is CIA Surveillance, the mobile hotspot on one phone is FBI Surveillance and the other phone is DHS Surveillance. Maybe I could call the 60 GHz 'US Secret Service'? Help me, I'm running out of government agencies here!

ATF DEA ICE HLS EPA IRS we will always have more agencies to use then bands....

Juggernaut
Irreverent or irrelevant?
Premium Member
join:2006-09-05
Kelowna, BC

Juggernaut to FFH5

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to FFH5
I'm the only one on a 5gHz connection in the neighbourhood as well (for now). Love it.

That said, I'll keep ahead of the rest of the herd later when ac/ad comes along. A solitary signal is a thing of joy.
Happydude32
Premium Member
join:2005-07-16

Happydude32

Premium Member

Re: There goes the neighborhood...

That's why I love living where I do. I’m in a rural enough area only to be able to physically see one other house no matter where I am on my property and pick up exactly zero wireless signals besides my own, but not rural enough to have access to 50Mb cable.

Country air, cows mooing, no neighbors and cable, can't beat it!

Juggernaut
Irreverent or irrelevant?
Premium Member
join:2006-09-05
Kelowna, BC

Juggernaut

Premium Member

Re: There goes the neighborhood...

Hell yeah, good deal.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned) to Secyurityet

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to Secyurityet
said by Secyurityet:

Can't wait to see what that does to the existing channel structure!

Yep. I like to se the trick of getting a 80 MHz channel over 2.4 GHz when the wi-fi band there is only 72 MHz wide. Unless it only has range of 15 feet I can see huge interference issues. Time to start investing in some wi-fi blocking paint
Kamus
join:2011-01-27
El Paso, TX

Kamus

Member

4 antennas

Bring on the MU-MIMO routers. This is one of the most important features in the new standard. Hopefully we'll get it soon.
mingkee27
join:2013-06-21
Brooklyn, NY

mingkee27

Member

no plan to upgrade at this moment

It is pretty costly to upgrade the infrastructure in the house (one wireless router and 4 APs) as there's no client supporting AC at this moment.
There's no specific benefit to go for such performance except running Gigabit fiber as backbone for the house.
Adding more security and IPsec VPN support are much more important as N is more than good enough.
Kamus
join:2011-01-27
El Paso, TX

Kamus

Member

Re: no plan to upgrade at this moment

said by mingkee27:

Adding more security and IPsec VPN support are much more important as N is more than good enough.

Different strokes for different folks. Some people have use for the added bandwidth already. and besides, VPN support is not something that has anything to do with the standard, it's not like it's a mutually exclusive thing.

For households that have multiple clients, the added bandwidth is already very welcome. remember: this is total capacity, and it goes down pretty fast with enough clients. I know that before i had 5ghz clients my network couldn't keep up with my multi-room streaming needs. Now that i'm adding 5ghz clients (n clients, but still) multi-room streaming is much more consistent.
34764170 (banned)
join:2007-09-06
Etobicoke, ON

34764170 (banned) to mingkee27

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to mingkee27
said by mingkee27:

There's no specific benefit to go for such performance except running Gigabit fiber as backbone for the house.
Adding more security and IPsec VPN support are much more important as N is more than good enough.

Gigabit Ethernet is really old news... but Wifi is still behind for performance. The unfortunate reality is that an overwhelming majority of 11n devices on the market are 2.4GHz only and although it is an improvement over 11g its still is far from decent levels of performance. 11ac is very much necessary in order to usher in good Wifi performance and range.

More security and IPsec has nothing to do with Wifi.