Wave 2 builds upon wave 1 with some very significant enhanceme.
Ac wave 2 vs wave 1.
As such it supports all the data rates of 802 11ac 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.
The maximum physical layer theoretical rate for wave 1 is 1 3 gbit s while wave 2 can reach 2 34 gbit s.
Wave 2 on the other hand is more suitable for the demands of mobile devices as it has multi user mimo capabilities.
802 11ac wave 2 provides a significant boost in performance when compared to 802 11ac wave 1 and 802 11n.
So what are the differences between wave 1 and wave 2 products and features.
What s the functional difference between 802 11ac wave 1 and wave 2.
Some of key benefits of wave 2.
Wave 2 is a superset of 802 11ac wave 1.
Wave 2 can therefore achieve 1 gbit s even if the real world throughput turns.
Wave 2 of the 802 11ac standard builds upon wave 1 with the following key additional functionalities.
Now wave 2 has arrived and the pundits are out again saying your wired network needs to be upgraded to 2 5 or 5 gig ethernet depending on whose technology they re pushing.
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.
Wave 1 products have been in use in the market for about 2 5 years.
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.
Ultimately the right technology for your environment will be the technology that best supports your current needs.
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.
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.
Look at this comparison chart from cisco.
Related 802 11 ac vs 802 11 n.
It is referred as vht very high throughput specification.
It uses su mimo which means that multiple streams of data can only be sent or received between one device at a time.
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.
Wave 2 products started becoming available in 2015.