Wireless hardware

Wireless hardware South Africa

Wireless standard - wireless speeds

• 802.11b up to 11Mbps
• 802.11a/g up to 54Mbps
• 802.11n (2.4GHz) up to 450Mbps
• 802.11ac (5GHz) up to 1.3Gbps
• 802.11ax ( 2.4 + 5 GHz, plus operates in all ISM bands between 1 and 6 GHz) up to 14GHz combined (4x 4 MIMO)*
  

Wireless standard - wireless coverage (distance, range)

• 802.11b
• Typical indoor range is 30 m (100 ft) at 11 Mbit/s and 90 m (300 ft) at 1 Mbit/s.
• 802.11g
• Up to 38m indoors and 140m outdoors
• 802.11n
• Up to 70m indoors and 250m outdoors
• 802.11ac
• Similar to 802.11n (70m indoors)
• 802.11ax
• Up to 1,000m outdoors *theoretical
  

801.11ac wireless / 5G Wi-Fi

It is very important to understand the throughput per device is 500Mbit/s maximum. This is nevertheless twice s fast as the 801.22n. This is close range. At greater distances, speeds can hit 50Mbit/s and 100Mbit/s which is still very fast and enough for hi-def streaming.

Theoretically, this specification will enable multi-station WLAN:

• at minimum throughput of 1 gigabit per second on the device
• a maximum single link throughput of at least 500 megabits per second (500 Mbit/s).

This is accomplished by extending the air interface concepts embraced by 802.11n: wider RF bandwidth (up to 160 MHz), more MIMO spatial streams (up to 8), multi-user MIMO, and high-density modulation (up to 256 QAM).

802.11n wireless

IEEE 802.11n-2009 is an amendment to the IEEE 802.11-2007 wireless networking standard to improve network throughput over the two previous standards 802.11a and 802.11g with a significant increase in the maximum net data rate from 54 Mbit/s to 600 Mbit/s (slightly higher gross bit rate including for example error-correction codes, and slightly lower maximum throughput) with the use of four spatial streams at a channel width of 40 MHz.

802.11n standardized support for multiple-input multiple-output and frame aggregation, and security improvements, among other features.

802.11g wireless

IEEE 802.11g-2003 or 802.11g is an amendment to the IEEE 802.11 specification that extended throughput to up to 54 Mbit/s using the same 2.4 GHz band as 802.11b. This specification under the marketing name of Wi-Fi has been implemented all over the world. The 802.11g protocol is now Clause 19 of the published IEEE 802.11-2007 standard.

802.11b wireless

IEEE 802.11b-1999 or 802.11b, is an amendment to the IEEE 802.11 specification that extended throughput up to 11 Mbit/s using the same 2.4 GHz band. This specification under the marketing name of Wi-Fi has been implemented all over the world. The amendment has been incorporated into the published IEEE 802.11-2007 standard.

802.11 is a set of IEEE standards that govern wireless networking transmission methods. They are commonly used today in their 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n versions to provide wireless connectivity in the home, office and some commercial establishments.

802.11b cards can operate at 11 Mbit/s, but will scale back to 5.5, then 2, then 1 Mbit/s (also known as Adaptive Rate Selection) when the signal weakens.

802.11a wireless

While 802.11b was in development, IEEE created a second extension to the original 802.11 standard called 802.11a. Because 802.11b gained in popularity much faster than did 802.11a, some folks believe that 802.11a was created after 802.11b. In fact, 802.11a was created at the same time. Due to its higher cost, 802.11a is usually found on business networks whereas 802.11b better serves the home market.

802.11a supports bandwidth up to 54 Mbps and signals in a regulated frequency spectrum around 5 GHz. This higher frequency compared to 802.11b shortens the range of 802.11a networks. The higher frequency also means 802.11a signals have more difficulty penetrating walls and other obstructions.

802.11ac wireless

IEEE 802.11ac is a wireless networking standard in the 802.11 family (which is marketed under the brand name Wi-Fi), developed in the IEEE Standards Association process, providing high-throughput wireless local area networks (WLANs) on the 5 GHz band. The standard was developed from 2008 (PAR approved 2008-09-26) through 2013 and published in December 2013 (ANSI approved 2013-12-11).

The specification has multi-station throughput of at least 1 gigabit per second and single-link throughput of at least 500 megabits per second (500 Mbit/s). This is accomplished by extending the air-interface concepts embraced by 802.11n: wider RF bandwidth (up to 160 MHz), more MIMO spatial streams (up to eight), downlink multi-user MIMO (up to four clients), and high-density modulation (up to 256-QAM).

802.11ax wireless

802.11ax is all about improving speeds and reliability in multi-device and crowded environments, from town house complexes and flats, to stadiums and universities, where there are many devices.

Here's some of what Wi-Fi 6 is expected to accomplish:

• Better performance/robustness in outdoor and multi-path (cluttered / congested) environments
• More overall bandwidth per user for ultra-HD and virtual reality streaming
• Support for more simultaneous streams of data with increased throughput
• More total spectrum (2.4GHz and 5GHz, eventually bands in 1GHz and 6GHz)
• Said spectrum split into more channels to enable more routes for communication
• Packets contain more data and networks can handle different data streams at once
• Improved performance (as much as 4x) at the maximum range of an access point
• Ability to offload wireless traffic from cellular networks where reception is poor

What is QoS (Quality of service)?

QoS allows you to priorities devices and applications over others. For example, VOIP and streaming traffic can be prioritized over IOT devices, or FTP applications. This is especially important if you have many devices on a network competing for bandwidth.