Planning to buy a new router? Or just upgrading to a modern one?😎 Then you might be confused with a ton of terminologies and standards😕. Well, I’ll be explaining some of those giving more priority to the recent ones. So we all are familiar with Wi-Fi technology since our daily life really depends on it if not fully. The industry has come a long way in terms of Wi-Fi tech from the original IEEE 802.11 to the most recent IEEE 802.11ax. Now you may be wondering why this name?😬 Well, IEEE stands for Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, an organisation which is responsible for most of the technological standard naming. ‘Project 802’ was the project name for the developing LAN connection. We’ll have a glance at some of the standards below.
1.IEEE 802.11
This is the
original Wi-Fi standard created in 1997 providing high speed data transfer (in
terms of Mbps) back in the days. This one was highly vulnerable to interference
from other wireless signals. This was based on 2.4Ghz frequency band with a
maximum speed of 2 Mbps😄.
2. IEEE 802.11a
Created in
1999, this was the revised version from the original one with some huge
advantages👏. 802.11a had a top speed of 52Mbps and was based on 5GHZ band to
avoid interference from the most common 2.4Ghz band. 2.4Ghz band is so crowded
hence almost defenceless to noise since most of the wireless signals such as cordless
phones, baby monitors, Bluetooth, microwave ovens, etc is working in this band.
Although it offers a much higher speed, this one was limited by its range when
there are objects in the signal path☹.
3.IEEE 802.11b
This one
was also released in 1999 and helped much to popularise the Wi-Fi technology. With
a top speed of 11Mbps, it introduced a new modulation technology known as
HR-DSSS. To achieve a greater ranger, it was limited to use the 2.4Ghz band.
4.IEEE 802.11g
While
keeping the legacy of 2.4Ghz band from its predecessor, 802.11g was able to
provide a much higher speed of 54Mbps😦. This one came out in 2003 and lasted for
6 years till the next version was introduced. Almost all the devices
manufactured from 2003-2009 was equipped with this standard.
5.IEEE 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4)
This is
the 4th gen version of Wi-Fi technology hence commonly called as Wi-Fi
4. 802.11n was introduced in 2009 and was revolutionary with support for dual
band frequency (2.4Ghz or 5Ghz). Wi-Fi 4 was also the first one to introduce multi-channel
support with each band having 150Mbps data transfer rate. With 4*4 MIMO (Multiple-Input
and Multiple-Output) capability, this one can achieve a maximum speed of
600Mbps.
6.IEEE 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5)
With
support for additional broadcast channels, the 5th gen Wi-Fi
technology was finalised to 5Ghz band to achieve a higher data rate of 1.3Gbps😲.
This version also supports MU-MIMO (Multi-User Multiple-Input and
Multiple-Output) with QAM 64 modulation technique which resulted in more
reliable connection. Since 802.11ac is entirely on 5Ghz band, it had smaller
coverage area with less successful at penetrating solid objects and it is also
less prone to interference. The 5 GHz
WiFi band has six 80 MHz channels. Its initial release was in 2013.
7.IEEE 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6)
The latest WiFi technology available
today which is released in 2019. This 6th gen WiFi tech bought many
advanced features to the table including power-control methods, OFDMA
(Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access) modulation and much improved higher
order 1024-QAM. Even though practical speed will be much lower, Wi-Fi 6 has a
theoretical maximum throughput of 10Gbps😱 which is exactly equal to 10gigabit
ethernet connectivity. This standard was the first to introduce ‘cellular
technology’ to Wi-Fi by adding OFDMA modulation with the goal of achieving high
efficiency in devices. The use of OFDMA allowed the entire band to separate
into many partial channels so that up to 30 devices can be connected at once!
Wi-Fi 6 operates in both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands with tech giants like Apple and
Google trying to get 6Ghz band to WiFi tech which will be a game changer in the
future🤗.
So, what are the specific things that you must check before
selecting a router? First is obviously,
the Wi-Fi gen. But before you buy a Wi-Fi 6 certified router, make sure that your
client devices also support Wi-Fi 6 and technologies like MU-MIMO. Then only you
are going to get the maximum throughput of 802.11ax. If your devices don’t
support these, it’s better to stay with Wi-Fi 5 for now😑. Another major thing to
consider is the support for dual-band, so that even the 2.4Ghz band is crowded
with other devices, you can always switch to 5Ghz to have a better experience😎.
Hope this helped you in some way. Have a good day😍
Comments
Post a Comment