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D-Link Router

Faster Wi-Fi: It's something we all require. Fortunately, it's likewise something we can have, even on a budget. It's not but about fast Internet speeds to and from your service provider. Information technology'south also virtually transferring files betwixt devices in your dwelling or part, streaming video from a network-attached drive to a television, and gaming with the lowest network latencies possible. If you're looking for faster Wi-Fi performance, you want 802.11ac — it'due south that simple.

In essence, 802.11ac is a supercharged version of 802.11n. 802.11ac is dozens of times faster, and delivers speeds ranging from 433 Mbps (megabits per second) up to several gigabits per 2nd. To reach that kind of throughput, 802.11ac works exclusively in the 5GHz band, uses plenty of bandwidth (80 or 160MHz), operates in up to eight spatial streams (MIMO), and employs a kind of applied science chosen beamforming that sends betoken straight to customer devices.

If you're currently using an 802.11n router — or an even older 802.11b/g model, like the perennial favorite Linksys WRT54G — and are thinking of upgrading to 802.11ac, here's what y'all need to know.

How 802.11ac works

Years ago, 802.11n introduced some exciting technologies that brought massive speed boosts over 802.11b and chiliad. 802.11ac does something similar compared with 802.11n. For example, 802.11n supported four spatial streams (4×four MIMO) and a channel width of 40MHz. But 802.11ac can utilize eight spatial streams and has channels up to 80MHz broad — which can and then exist combined to make 160MHz channels. Even if everything else remained the same (and information technology doesn't), this means 802.11ac has 8x160MHz of spectral bandwidth to play with versus 4x40MHz — a huge difference that allows 802.11ac to squeeze vast amounts of information across the airwaves.

To heave throughput farther, 802.11ac also introduces 256-QAM modulation (up from 64-QAM in 802.11n), which squeezes 256 different signals over the same frequency by shifting and twisting each into a slightly different phase. In theory, that quadruples the spectral efficiency of 802.11ac over 802.11n. Spectral efficiency measures how well a given wireless protocol or multiplexing technique uses the bandwidth available to information technology. In the 5GHz ring, where channels are adequately broad (20MHz+), spectral efficiency isn't so important. In cellular bands, though, channels are frequently only 5MHz wide, which makes spectral efficiency very important.

802.11ac besides introduces standardized beamforming (802.11n had it, merely information technology wasn't standardized, which made interoperability an issue). Beamforming transmits radio signals in such a way that they're directed at a specific device. This tin increment overall throughput and make information technology more consequent, as well equally reduce ability consumption. Beamforming tin be done with smart antennae that physically move to track a device, or by modulating the aamplitude and phase of the signals so that they destructively interfere with each other, leaving simply a narrow, interference-free beam. The older 802.11n uses this second method, which can be implemented by both routers and mobile devices.

Finally, 802.11ac, like 802.11 versions earlier it, is fully backwards compatible — so you tin buy an 802.11ac router today, and it should piece of work just fine with your older 802.11n and 802.11g Wi-Fi devices.

How fast is 802.11ac?

In theory, on the 5GHz band and using beamforming, 802.11ac should have the same or better range than 802.11n (without beamforming). The 5GHz ring, thank you to less penetration power, doesn't have quite the same range as 2.4GHz (802.11b/g). Simply that's the trade-off we have to make: There merely isn't plenty spectral bandwidth in the massively overused 2.4GHz ring to allow for 802.11ac's gigabit-level speeds. Equally long as your router is well-positioned, or y'all have multiple routers, it shouldn't matter much. The more important factors will be the transmission ability and antenna quality of your devices.

And finally, the question everyone wants to know: Just how fast is Wi-Fi 802.11ac? As always, there are 2 answers: the theoretical max speed that can be achieved in the lab, and the practical maximum speed you'll most probable receive at home in the real world, surrounded past lots of betoken-attenuating obstacles.

WiFi 802.11acThe theoretical max speed of 802.11ac is viii 160MHz 256-QAM channels, each of which are capable of 866.7Mbps, for a total of 6,933Mbps, or just shy of 7Gbps. That'due south a transfer rate of 900 megabytes per second — more than you can clasp down a SATA 3 link. In the real world, cheers to aqueduct contention, yous probably won't go more than two or iii 160MHz channels, so the max speed comes downwardly to somewhere between 1.7Gbps and 2.5Gbps. Compare this with 802.11n's max theoretical speed, which is 600Mbps.

In situations where yous don't need the maximum functioning and reliability of wired gigabit Ethernet — notwithstanding a proficient selection for situations requiring the highest performance — 802.11ac is certainly compelling. Instead of cluttering up your living room by running an Ethernet cablevision to the abode theater PC nether your Television receiver, 802.11ac now has plenty bandwidth to wirelessly stream the highest-definition content to your game console, gear up top box, or home theater PC. For all simply the most enervating utilise cases, 802.11ac is a  viable alternative to Ethernet.

The future of 802.11ac

802.11ac will only go faster, besides. As we mentioned earlier, the theoretical max speed of 802.11ac is just shy of 7Gbps — and while yous'll never hit that in a real-world scenario, we wouldn't exist surprised to meet link speeds of 2Gbps or more than in the next few years. At 2Gbps, you'll get a transfer charge per unit of 256MB/sec, and suddenly Ethernet serves less and less purpose if that happens. To reach such speeds, chipset and device makers will demand to implement four or more 802.11ac streams, both in terms of software and hardware.

We imagine Broadcom, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Marvell, and Intel are already well on their way to implementing four- and eight-stream 802.11ac solutions for integration in the latest routers, access points, and mobile devices — but until the 802.11ac spec is finalized, second-moving ridge chipsets and devices are unlikely to emerge. Chipset and device manufacturers have enough of work ahead to ensure advanced features, such as beamforming, comply with the standard and are inter-operable with other 802.11ac devices.

Now read: How to boost your Wi-Fi speed by choosing the right channel.

Sebastian Anthony wrote the original version of this article. It has since been updated with new information.

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