When buying a router, we often see wifi4, wifi5, wifi6, or 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax information, what does this information represent? In fact, this is the Wifi protocol standard of the main routers on the market. Today’s article will briefly introduce the Wifi protocol standard.
To briefly introduce, the standard we call "WiFi" was formulated by a business alliance (WIFI ALLIANCE) formed by a number of network equipment manufacturers. At present, the standards supported by mainstream routers on the market are generally 802.11n, 802.11ac, and 802.11ax. In order to facilitate consumers to determine what grade the router belongs to, WIFI ALLIANCE uses wifi4, wifi5, and wifi6 to refer to 802.11n, 802.11ac, and 802.11ax.
(1) 802.11n is wifi4, which was formulated in 2009 and has a maximum theoretical bandwidth of 600Mbps. This is the first time that the 2.4G/5G frequency band is simultaneously supported under the wifi protocol standard. At present, the price of routers that still use the 802.11n protocol standard on the market is relatively cheaper and suitable for families or small groups. For example, if you see "300Mbps Wireless N AP/Router", you can judge that it belongs to Wifi4.
(2) 802.11ac, or wifi5, was formulated in 2013. It was upgraded to 80MHz bandwidth and 256QAM modulation standard, which increased the single stream bandwidth to 433Mbps. For the ac standard supporting 4*4MIMO, the theoretical maximum bandwidth can reach 1733M . Has completely tied the Gigabit standard of wired networks. However, 802.11ac can only work in the 5G frequency band, and many devices in the home still need the support of the 2.4G frequency band, so all routers that support 802.11ac are backward compatible with the 802.11n standard. At present, routers on the market that use the 802.11a protocol standard are mainstream products. Wifi is fast and the signal is relatively more stable. For example, "1200Mbps 11AC Wireless Dual Band Smart Router" belongs to Wifi5. This type of router supports both 2.4G and 5G frequency bands.
(3) In 2019, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced that it will officially launch the Wi-Fi 6 certification program. At present, some manufacturers in the market have already sold wifi6 protocol standard products. 802.11ax, also known as wifi6, will achieve higher-order modulation (1024-QAM), higher bandwidth (160M bandwidth), and more complete MU-MIMO (multi-user multiple input multiple output), making the theoretical bandwidth reach 9607.8M . What’s more worth looking forward to is that WiFi 5 only supports the 5G frequency band. Technically, it cannot completely replace the WiFi 4 that supports the 2.4G frequency band. The latest Wi-Fi 6 standard can work in both 2.4G and 5G frequency bands. This will be completely in the future. It replaces the previous wifi4 and wifi5 standards and is more convenient to use. At present, there are few products in the market that meet the wifi6 standard and they are expensive.
Currently Sopto Technology can provide routers that comply with wifi5 and wifi6 protocol standards, welcome to consult.
Tags : wifi , wifi router , wireless router , FTTx
— END —
