{"id":58013,"date":"2013-09-03T21:31:34","date_gmt":"2013-09-04T01:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbach.net\/blog\/index.php\/"},"modified":"2022-08-25T12:54:17","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T16:54:17","slug":"802-11ac-clears-the-way-for-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/802-11ac-clears-the-way-for-collaboration\/","title":{"rendered":"802.11ac Wi-Fi Clears the Way for Collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.uh.edu\/engines\/epi2079.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-107912 size-medium\" title=\"802.11ac Wi-Fi Clears the Way for Collaboration\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Train_old_tyme.jpg?resize=150%2C104&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"802.11ac Wi-Fi Clears the Way for Collaboration\" width=\"150\" height=\"104\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Train_old_tyme.jpg?resize=150%2C104&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Train_old_tyme.jpg?resize=75%2C52&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Train_old_tyme.jpg?w=500&amp;ssl=1 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>The emerging <strong>gigabit <a title=\"802.11ac\" href=\"http:\/\/whatis.techtarget.com\/definition\/80211ac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">802.11ac<\/a>, <\/strong>Wi-Fi standard is the current darling of the hype machine. The standard will be finalized in <strong><a title=\"OFFICIAL IEEE 802.11 WORKING GROUP PROJECT TIMELINES - 2013-07-24\" href=\"http:\/\/grouper.ieee.org\/groups\/802\/11\/Reports\/802.11_Timelines.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 2014<\/a>. <\/strong>However, that has not stopped manufacturers from shipping 802.11ac <a title=\"WD ships 802.11ac My Net router and media bridge\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20131009212438\/http:\/\/reviews.cnet.com\/8301-3243_7-57549727\/wd-ships-802.11ac-my-net-router-and-media-bridge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">routers<\/a>, <a title=\"Trendnet's first 802.11ac router now shipping\" href=\"http:\/\/reviews.cnet.com\/8301-3132_7-57571167-98\/trendnets-first-802.11ac-router-now-shipping\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">access<\/a> <a title=\"AirPort Express Shortage Hints at Imminent 802.11ac Refresh\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gottabemobile.com\/2013\/09\/03\/airport-express-shortage-hints-at-imminent-802-11ac-refresh\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">points, <\/a><a title=\"Cisco Unveils Cloud-Based 802.11ac Access Point\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eweek.com\/networking\/cisco-unveils-cloud-based-802.11ac-access-point\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">and<\/a> <a title=\"Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 and 5.8 official\" href=\"http:\/\/www.slashgear.com\/samsung-galaxy-mega-6-3-and-5-8-official-11277403\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mobile<\/a> devices. <a title=\"Shortel\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190210160526\/https:\/\/www.shoretel.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shortel<\/a> (<a title=\"NASDAQ: SHOR\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mitel.com\/about\/newsroom\/press-releases\/mitel-completes-acquisition-of-shoretel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">SHOR<\/a>) recently provided their opinion on what this means for your business.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ieee802.org\/11\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-107914\" title=\"IEEE 802.11ac\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/ieee802-11-logo-1.jpg?resize=100%2C53&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"IEEE 802.11ac\" width=\"100\" height=\"53\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/ieee802-11-logo-1.jpg?resize=75%2C40&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/ieee802-11-logo-1.jpg?resize=150%2C80&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/ieee802-11-logo-1.jpg?w=301&amp;ssl=1 301w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><\/a>The article points out that more people are using mobile apps and devices. Shortel calculates that a typical worker may have three <a title=\"IP address\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/IP_address\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener wikipedia noreferrer\">IP addresses<\/a>, while digital natives may have up to<strong> six IP addresses<\/strong>. These stats suggest that <strong>mobility has become a must-have<\/strong> and the author claims that 802.11ac can meet the needs of increasing mobility because <a title=\"Understanding IEEE 802.11ac VHT Wireless\" href=\"http:\/\/electronicdesign.com\/communications\/understanding-ieee-80211ac-vht-wireless\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">802.11ac<\/a> is faster, more reliable, and delivers <strong>more Wi-Fi capacity<\/strong>. 802.11ac is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Faster &#8211;<\/strong> 802.11ac is three times faster than <a title=\"802.11n\" href=\"http:\/\/searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com\/definition\/80211n\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">802.11n<\/a> Wi-Fi. 802.11ac will deliver up to 1.3 Gbps, which is about three times faster than 802.11n. This capacity will be ideal for real-time applications, such as <a title=\"Voip\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190710223245\/https:\/\/www.wikinvest.com\/concept\/Voip\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener wikinvest noreferrer\">IP voice<\/a> and streaming video. Faster data throughput means better battery life for mobile devices, too.<\/li>\n<li><strong>More reliable &#8211;<\/strong>\u00a0802.11ac is more reliable with less interference. 802.11ac operates at 5 GHz, which is far less crowded than the <a title=\"ISM band\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/ISM_band\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener wikipedia noreferrer\">2.4 GHz band<\/a> that by 802.11b\/g\/n access points \u2014 as well as cordless phones, automatic garage door openers, and other home appliances. That means that there\u2019s less interference from other Wi-Fi-enabled devices, which will result in a better user experience.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Improved throughput.<\/strong> 802.11ac uses multiple antennas for transmitting and receiving RF signals, and that means better data throughput. More specifically, <a title=\"MIMO (multiple input, multiple output)\" href=\"http:\/\/searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com\/definition\/MIMO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MIMO<\/a>, or <a title=\"MIMO\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/MIMO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener wikipedia noreferrer\">Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output<\/a>, is key to providing wireless performance that is more switch-like, compared to the shared media nature of 802.11n.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wi-fi.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-107918\" title=\"W-Fi Alliance logo\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/wifi-alliance.png?resize=100%2C87&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"W-Fi Alliance logo\" width=\"100\" height=\"87\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/wifi-alliance.png?resize=75%2C65&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/wifi-alliance.png?resize=150%2C131&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/wifi-alliance.png?w=250&amp;ssl=1 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><\/a>Shortel believes that Gigabit Wi-Fi can be a real asset for <strong>unified communications, streaming media,<\/strong> and other bandwidth-hungry apps. They plan to use the greater capacity of <a title=\"IEEE 802.11ac\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/IEEE_802.11ac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">802.11ac<\/a> to support more devices and more apps. In the workplace, teams want to engage and share without hassle using <strong>modern collaboration tools<\/strong> with the devices of their choice creating the need for <strong><a title=\"Bring your own device\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bring_your_own_device\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener wikipedia noreferrer\">BYOD<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The newest generation of workers are <strong><a title=\"digital natives\" href=\"https:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/research\/youthandmedia\/digitalnatives\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">digital natives<\/a><\/strong>, who are more inclined to use <strong>videoconferencing<\/strong> for quick chats or to share ideas. In addition, many people use tablets to stream media, and more organizations are turning to streaming media over Wi-Fi for <strong>digital signage<\/strong>, training, company meetings, and <strong>customer support<\/strong>. And those bandwidth-hungry applications will love the new gigabit Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https\/\/www.mondaynote.com\/2010\/07\/25\/understanding-the-digital-natives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-107920\" title=\"Wave 1 802.11ac only offers incremental benefits over 802.11n\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/digital_native.jpg?resize=100%2C56&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Wave 1 802.11ac only offers incremental benefits over 802.11n\" width=\"100\" height=\"56\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/digital_native.jpg?resize=75%2C42&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/digital_native.jpg?resize=150%2C84&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/digital_native.jpg?w=399&amp;ssl=1 399w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><\/a>Shoretel reassures those that have deployed an 802.11n WLAN recently, you don\u2019t need to be in a hurry to move to 802.11ac. You can be confident in the investment that you made, as the first-generation 802.11ac will offer only incremental benefits over 802.11n. But if you are replacing old Wi-Fi or expanding your wireless LAN or looking to downsize your wired network in favor of wireless, you should weigh the options between 802.11n and the new 802.11ac.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>rb-<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>802.11ac will only get faster, the theoretical max speed of 802.11ac is just shy of <strong>7Gbps<\/strong>, which you will never see in the wild, but don&#8217;t be surprised to see link speeds of 2Gbps or more in the next few years. At 2Gbps, you\u2019ll get a <strong>transfer rate of 256MB\/sec<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>To reach such Wi-Fi speeds, chipset and device makers will have to figure out how to make <strong>second-generation chipsets<\/strong> with four or more 802.11ac streams in software and hardware. The engineers at <a title=\"Broadcom\" href=\"http:\/\/www.broadcom.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Broadcom<\/a> (BRCM), <a title=\"Qualcomm\" href=\"http:\/\/www.qualcomm.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Qualcomm<\/a> (<a title=\"NASDAQ : QCOM\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tradingview.com\/symbols\/NASDAQ-QCOM\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">QCOM<\/a>), <a title=\"Marvell International LTD.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marvell.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marvell<\/a> <a title=\"Marvell International LTD.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marvell.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(<\/a><a title=\"NASDAQ: MRVL\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tradingview.com\/symbols\/NASDAQ-MRVL\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MRVL<\/a>), and\u00a0<a title=\"Intel\" href=\"https:\/\/www.intel.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Intel<\/a> (<a title=\"HASDAQ : INTC\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tradingview.com\/symbols\/NASDAQ-INTC\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">INTC<\/a>) are already working on ways to implementing four and eight-stream 802.11ac solutions. A lot of work will need to be done by the chipset and device makers to make sure that advanced features, such as <a title=\"Beamforming technology thwarts network degradation from tablet-turning\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20171103164812\/http:\/\/searchnetworking.techtarget.com\/news\/2240177697\/Beamforming-technology-thwarts-network-degradation-from-tablet-turning\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">beamforming<\/a>, comply with the standard and are <strong>interoperable<\/strong> with other 802.11ac devices.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In general, then, you can certainly expect some impressive speeds from 802.11ac in situations where you don\u2019t need the performance and reliability of wired GigE. But I do not believe that 802.11ac will replace a wired Gigabit Ethernet network just yet.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>What do you think?<\/p>\n<h6>Related article<\/h6>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eweek.com\/networking\/cisco-unveils-cloud-based-802.11ac-access-point\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cisco Unveils Cloud-Based 802.11ac Access Point<\/a> (eweek.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><a title=\"Ralph Bach\" href=\"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/new-resume\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ralph Bach<\/a>\u00a0has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his\u00a0<a title=\"Bach Seat\" href=\"https:\/\/rbach.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bach Seat<\/a> about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on <a class=\"broken_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/rb48334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">LinkedIn<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ralph.bach.14\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rbach48334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a>. Email the Bach Seat\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:\/\/bach.seat@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wireless Gigabit IEEE 802.11ac Wi-Fi is a boom to BYOD &#038; collaboration in places where you don\u2019t need the max performance reliability of wired GigE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[3044,1883,1885,169,1242,76,476,93,1884,1879,1886,1003,997,1882,1881,579,25,1880],"class_list":["post-58013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wireless","tag-3044","tag-802-11ac","tag-brcm","tag-broadcom","tag-byod","tag-ieee","tag-intc","tag-intel","tag-marvell","tag-mimo","tag-mrvl","tag-qcom","tag-qualcomm","tag-shor","tag-shoretel","tag-wi-fi-2","tag-wireless","tag-wlan"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58013"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130766,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58013\/revisions\/130766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}