Related 802 11 ac vs 802 11 n.
Ac wave 2 vs wave 1.
Wave 2 referring to products introduced in 2016 offers a higher throughput than legacy wave 1 products those introduced starting in 2013.
11ac is supported by wave 1 products using 20 40 and 80 mhz channels all in the 5 ghz bandwidth.
It uses su mimo which means that multiple streams of data can only be sent or received between one device at a time.
Wave 1 wireless otherwise known as the first version of 802 11ac was created largely with laptops in mind.
801 11ac the so called wave 1 arrived with much fanfare early last year and despite the hype it did not saturate our wired networks.
Wave 2 builds upon wave 1 with some very significant enhanceme.
Whether you re implementing wave 1 or wave 2 the bottom line is that 802 11ac of any generation offers considerable improvements over older legacy products.
What s the functional difference between 802 11ac wave 1 and wave 2.
802 11ac wave 2 provides a significant boost in performance when compared to 802 11ac wave 1 and 802 11n.
Some of key benefits of wave 2.
Wave 2 on the other hand is more suitable for the demands of mobile devices as it has multi user mimo capabilities.
Wave 2 can therefore achieve 1 gbit s even if the real world throughput turns.
It is a 802 11 family of standard which is developed to deliver high data rate and it extends capability of 11a b g n standards.
This page compares 11n vs 11ac vs 11ad to provide difference between 11ac wave1 and 11ac wave2 802 11 standards.
With the addition of support for 160 mhz wide channels and the modulation and coding scheme mcs rates of 802 11ac wave 2 provides new maximum phy rates based on the number of spatial streams and modulation shown in figure 1.
As such it supports all the data rates of 802 11ac wave 1.
So what are the differences between wave 1 and wave 2 products and features.
Wave 2 products started becoming available in 2015.
It is referred as vht very high throughput specification.
Wave 1 products have been in use in the market for about 2 5 years.
Wave 2 is a superset of 802 11ac wave 1.
The maximum physical layer theoretical rate for wave 1 is 1 3 gbit s while wave 2 can reach 2 34 gbit s.
In some cases this is combined with the older 11n in the 2 4 ghz bandwidth for compatibility with devices that can only use 11n.
Look at this comparison chart from cisco.
Ultimately the right technology for your environment will be the technology that best supports your current needs.