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Next Generation Wireless - IEEE 802.11ac to IEEE802.11ax upgradation

Today I am going to talk about the next generation wireless networks and the IEEE standards. Earlier we are working on the standards 802.11ac and now IEEE have new standards for the next generation wireless standards as 802.11ax. Before we start with the 802.11ax, lets talk about the 802.11ac first.

Starting from the 802.11ac, 802.11ac is a faster and more scalable version of 802.11n. It couples the freedom of wireless with the capabilities of Gigabit Ethernet. 802.11ac achieves its raw speed increase by pushing on three different dimensions.

Fig 1.1- Sample Wired and Wireless Topology
What was there in 802.11ac while comparing to 802.11n standards ?
  • More channel bonding, increased from a maximum of 40 MHz with 802.11n up to 80 or even 160 MHz (for speed increases of 117 or 333 percent, respectively) 
  • Denser modulation, now using 256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), up from 64QAM in 802.11n (for a 33 percent speed burst at shorter, yet still usable, ranges) 
  • More Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO). Whereas 802.11n stopped at four spatial streams, 802.11ac goes all the way to eight (for another 100 percent speed increase) 

What is the change in the 802.11ac and what are the standards called now ?
IEEE 802.11ax is the next generation and the enhancement in 802.11ac standards. This standard, when ratified, will build on the success of 802.11ac and deliver better experience in a better experience in typical environments, and more predictable performance for advanced applications such as 4K/8K video, AR/VR, High Density-High Definition collaboration, and Internet-of-Things (IoT) everywhere

IEEE 802.11ax lets access points support more clients in dense environments and provide a better experience for typical wireless LAN networks. It also powers more predictable performance for advanced applications such as 4K video, Ultra HD, wireless office, and Internet of Things (IoT). Flexible wake-up time scheduling lets client devices sleep much longer than with 802.11ac, and wake up to less contention, extending the battery life of smart phones, IoT, and other devices. A higher sustained throughput of 5Gbps+

IEEE 802.11ax OFDMA technology lets even first-wave 802.11ax access points support eight spatial streams and deliver up to 4800 Mbps at the physical layer, depending on vendor implementation. All clients will achieve higher effective throughput at the MAC layer, for a better overall user experience. Up to 8×8:8 MU-MIMO RF capabilities – four times the throughput over 802.11ac

802.11ax is a dual-band 2.4- and 5-GHz technology, so 2.4-GHz-only clients can take advantage of its benefits right away. Most importantly, 802.11ax 2.4-GHz support significantly increases the range of Wi-Fi, adding standards-based sounding and beam forming, and enabling new use cases and business models for indoor and outdoor coverage.

IEEE 802.11ax was designed for maximum compatibility, coexisting efficiently with 802.11a/n/ac devices. Its new preamble (HE-SIG-A/B) follows the traditional 802.11a/g/n/ac preamble and extensions to request-to-send/clear-to-send (RTS/CTS) procedures for multiuser to help avoid collisions with older single-user mode users.

Fig 1.2- 802.11ac and 802.11ax wireless standards


As with every other recent Wi-Fi advances, 802.11ax is backward-compatible, building on existing technologies and making them more efficient. This scenario enables a graceful installed base transition with ever-increasing gains as the client base converges toward 802.11ax. 

802.11ax is worth considering as soon as it’s available, even if the client density for the technology is still evolving.