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A Closer Look at 802.11ax

Wi-Fi standards have brought us the wireless networks that we are able to enjoy today. The current standard of 802.11ac has brought us the faster 5 GHz speeds, first introduced in the 802.11n standard. However, the next step to Wi-Fi, 802.11ad, while released in 2016, has been hampered by a lack of devices, particularly on the client side. 802.11ad brings the 60 GHz frequency with its significantly faster speeds, but with the trade off of short range into the wireless fold. Apart from the 60 GHz frequency, 802.11ad is essentially the same as the 802.11ac standard.

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Recall that the current state of the art for 802.11ac is the “Wave 2” gear which is MU-MIMO, based on 4 x 4 antenna arrays. MU-MIMO, which stands for multiple user, multiple input, multiple output, and is designed to allow the router to direct the data to the client that requested it, and preserve bandwidth by not sending the same data to the other clients that do not need it.

While MU-MIMO is an advance forward, in its current iteration, it only works on the 5 GHz frequency, and not on the older 2.4 GHz frequency. In addition, the router and client both need to support the MU-MIMO technology, and most clients do not. In addition, even on a 4 x 4 MU-MIMO router, realize that a maximum of four clients can be served in a MU-MIMO fashion, with the other clients defaulting to the older SU-MIMO standard. Also, MU-MIMO only works on the download side, and not for uploads.

In summary, as impressive as MU-MIMO is, only in certain circumstances can the user reap the benefit.

802.11ax represents the next step in wireless networking, and it should be a larger step than 802.11ad. It seeks to address some of the current limitations of wireless networking, including offering greater throughput, and dealing with network congestion, an increasingly important challenge as folks have more devices connected to their router, along with a rise in interference from competing networks and devices.

In terms of throughput, 802.11ax has promised to quadruple wireless speeds compared to 802.11ac, while maintaining backwards compatibility. The Qualcomm IPQ8074 chip is slated to deliver throughput at 4.8 Gbps, which is seriously faster than current speeds, and is targeted to do this across a larger range (particularly outdoors), as well as at 2/3rd’s less power. If most of this pans out, we’re talking “Less filling, tastes great” type of progress.

You may be wondering what is the “secret sauce” behind all of this. Well, this anticipated Qualcomm chip uses MU-MIMO in a 12 x 12 fashion. There are 8 x 8 for the 5 GHz frequency, and 4 x 4 for the 2.4 GHz frequency. By having this many radios, this will allow the faster speeds, and importantly on both the 5 GHz and the 2.4 GHz frequencies, overcoming a serious limitation of the current MU-MIMO technology. In fact, there is a planned Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) that will allow a connection to a router across both frequencies- simultaneously, that is currently not possible with existing gear.

802.11ax is also designed to incorporate the 802.11ad standard. Perhaps this will allow Wi-Gig to get the penetrance that has eluded it so far.

This new standard also uses OFDMA, which stands for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access. This protocol manages both the download and upload to provide allocation of bandwidth, making the entire network more efficient, and providing each device with the bandwidth it needs, while reserving additional bandwidth for other devices that may need it more. This technology has its origins in cellphone tower tech, and will now be incorporated into the household router.

The 802.11ax equipment is anticipated to debut later in 2017, and into 2018. After all, new Wi-Fi standards often arrive later than expected. Feel free to discuss limitations with current 802.11ac wireless networking technology, and how 802.11ax can address these issues.

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Most recommended from 9 comments



pclover
join:2008-08-02
Santa Cruz, CA

5 recommendations

pclover

Member

Just a note

Just as a note OFDMA is a channel access method not so much a protocol. OFDMA is used in downlink LTE connections for those who may be curious.

Packeteers
Premium Member
join:2005-06-18
Forest Hills, NY
Asus RT-AC3100
(Software) Asuswrt-Merlin

4 edits

2 recommendations

Packeteers

Premium Member

seemless handoffs

i'm curious if seemless zero handoffs between aX routers will work better than they do not under aC.
a lot of aC endpoint routers claim to be able to handoff seamlessly, but very few may actually can do it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw0TKDuv_g4&t=3m
i work in an environment with 3 endpoints and we wish we could afford some true zero handoff ability.

if they can get aX boxes to work well down near the 1amp power consumption range
that will be great for people interested in putting them on long run-time ups arrays,
so hopefully these box designing bozo's don't waste power on led flashing and amps.

i used to be excited about aD, but without any real IoT security standards, I shy away from gizmos.
god knows who can hack them and if/who the gizmo dealer/maker is reselling my personal data.