Wave 2 Wi-Fi may be a sleeper, but it's great for some
On Wednesday, the Wi-Fi Alliance launched its certification program for IEEE 802.11ac Wave 2, a technology that’s been on the market for more than a year.
Wave 2 can deliver up to 6.8Gbps (bits per second) and lets an access point talk to more than one device at a time. But due to issues like timing and wired backhaul, Wave 2 adoption has been relatively slow.
The new technology builds on the first wave of 802.11ac, which started to emerge in 2013 and now makes up nearly three-quarters of the Wi-Fi market in terms of revenue. The new wave adds a few features with real advantages, at least for some users.
Most importantly, multiuser MIMO (or MU-MIMO) improves the MIMO technology that already let Wi-Fi transmit over more than one stream through the air. Now, an access point can use those streams to talk to more than one client device at a time. They no longer have to take turns.
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