The coverage of wireless networking standards in Chapter 9 of your textbook is relatively brief and is already becoming outdated. 802.11 ac was a relatively new standard when the textbook was updated in early 2015. 802.11 Wave 1 products were just beginning to hit the market and there was still some uncertainty about what features would be required and optional within Wave 2. As of today (October 2018), Wave 1 products are firmly established in the business-oriented marketplace and they’re starting to appear in home-oriented products. Wave 2 product shipments are ongoing. Look for recent reports of their market at sites like Cabling Installation and Maintenance and check out newer features like Multiuser MIMO.
Your task in this assignment is to research both 802.11ac standards as would be needed to update and expand the coverage of that standards and its base technologies in Chapter 9. You’ll answer a group of structured questions to demonstrate the adequacy of your research and your mastery of the related topics.
Questions
- What are the key differences between 802.11ac Wave 1 and Wave 2? You can use a bullet list to answer this question with a word or phrase describing each difference followed by 1-2 sentences that summarize the difference.
- 802.11ac Wave 2 is heralded by some as the first true gigabit wireless standard.
What features of the standard must be supported and enabled to maximize throughput to levels approaching or exceeding gigabit speeds?
Does the standard live up to the hype? In other words, will real users operating within realistic deployment scenarios experience gigabit data throughput on a regular basis? - 802.11ac Wave 2 supports parallel “conversations” between access point and clients on the same frequency at the same time. How is this possible? In other words, what technology(ies) are used to avoid the parallel “conversations” from “colliding” with one another? Briefly describe how that/those technology(ies) work.
- Some 802.11ac Wave 2 access points will use 8 transmit antennae. Can the 8 antennae support downstream connections between the access point and 8 different clients at the same time on the same frequency? Why or why not?
Sample Solution
