Wi-Fi Has An Important Role In Wireless Networks

1. Introduction Today, Wi-Fi plays an important role with connecting users to the digital world. While it remains as the most popular technology for networking, it is crucial to understand the limit of certain wireless protocols and how it works in different situations. The most recent Wi-Fi protocol that this report will focus on is, 802.11ac, also known to be the next generation for wireless networks to be equipped with new technologies that could provide faster speeds, capacity, and range. The predecessor, 802.11n, wireless protocol had lower limitation of its full potential to keep the ever growing need of today’s wireless demand. 802.11n lacked the support of the increasing number of devices on the same network, as well as, supporting each device 's high usage of bandwidth. This includes, but not limited to, gaming, higher quality video streaming, more advanced client devices, data backup, and VoIP. As 802.11n was the standard wireless protocol to supporting everyday devices and applications, the ratification of 802.11ac has progressed in technology and its impact in wireless networking. Within just three years after the ratification of 802.11ac, this technology has become the new advanced Wi-Fi standard in the wireless ecosystem. Due to it being the most advanced standard available in today’s …show more content…
As quoted in ExtremeTech, “[t]he theoretical max speed of 802.11ac is eight 160 MHz 256-QAM channels, each of which are capable of 866.7 Mbps, for a total of 6,933 Mbps” in order to provide a higher transfer rate. In today’s real world environment, the true throughput capacity is limited from the client device and not the access points. Current high end products with 80 MHz, 3x3 spatial stream, and 256QAM have max data rate of 1300 Mbps and a throughput of 910 Mbps. This suggests that clients are not receiving the advertised speed by