HomeComputingMobileInternetGamingElectronicsExtremeDealsExtremeTechComputingWhat is 802.11ax WiFi, and do you really need a 10Gbps connection to your laptop?What is 802.11ax WiFi, and do you really need a 10Gbps connection to your laptop?By Sebastian Anthony on June 18, 2014 at 3:29 pmComment
Share This articleIf you thought that your new 802.11ac router’s max speed of 1,300Mbps was pretty crazy, think again: With 802.11ac fully certified and out the door, the Wi-Fi Alliance has started looking at its successor, 802.11ax — and boy do the early draft specs and transfer speeds look good. While you will probably be hard pushed to get more than 400Mbps to your smartphone via 802.11ac, 802.11ax should be into the 2Gbps+ range. In a lab-based trial of technology similar to 802.11ax, Huawei recently hit a max speed of 10.53Gbps, or around 1.4 gigabytes of data transfer per second. 802.11ax is going to be fast. But what is it exactly?
What is 802.11ax WiFi?The easiest way to think of 802.11ax is to start with 802.11ac — which allows for up to four different spatial streams (MIMO) — and then to massively increase the spectral efficiency (and thus max throughput) of each stream. Like its predecessor, 802.11ax operates in the 5GHz band, where there’s a lot more space for wide (80MHz and 160MHz) channels.
With 802.11ax, you get four MIMO (multiple-input-multiple-output) spatial streams, with each stream multiplexed with OFDA (orthogonal frequency division access). There is some confusion here as to whether the Wi-Fi Alliance and Huawei (which leads the 802.11ax working group) mean OFDA, or OFDMA. OFDMA (multiple access) is a well-known technique (and is the reason LTE is so darn awesome). I suspect OFDA is just an alternative name for the same thing. In any case, OFDM/OFDA/OFDMA refer to methods of frequency-division multiplexing — basically, each channel is separated into dozens/hundreds of smaller subchannels, each with a slightly different frequency. By then turning these signals through right-angles (orthogonal), they can be stacked closer together and still be easily demultiplexed.
According to Huawei, the use of OFDA increases spectral efficiency by 10 times — which essentially translates into 10 times the max theoretical bandwidth. The Wi-Fi Alliance, speaking to GigaOm, says they’re targeting just a 4x increase in speed.
This lovely diagram shows you North America’s 5GHz channels, and where those 20/40/80/160MHz blocks fit in. As you can see, at 5GHz, you won’t ever get more than two 160MHz channels (and even then, only if you live in the boonies without interference from neighbors).How fast is 802.11ax?If we go for the more conservative 4x estimate, and assume a massive 160MHz channel, max speed of a single 802.11ax stream will be around 3.5Gbps (866Mbps for a single 802.11ac stream). Multiplying that out to a 4×4 MIMO network you get a total capacity of 14Gbps. If you had a smartphone or laptop capable of two or three streams, you’d be looking at some sickening connection speeds (7Gbps equates to around 900 megabytes per second; 10.5Gbps equates to 1344MB/sec).
In a more realistic setup with 80MHz channels, we’re probably looking at a single-stream speed of around 1.6Gbps — or a very reasonable 200MB/sec. Again, if your mobile device supports MIMO, you could be seeing 400 or 600MB/sec.
In a much more realistic setup with 40MHz channels (i.e. what you’d probably get in a crowded apartment block), a single 802.11ax stream would net you 800Mbps (100MB/sec), or a total network capacity of 3.2Gbps.
Obviously, if 802.11ax actually hits Huawei’s 10x figure, the numbers will be a lot larger. [Read: How to boost your WiFi speed by choosing the right channel.]
802.11ax range, reliability, and other factorsSo far, neither the Wi-Fi Alliance or Huawei has said a lot about 802.11ax’s other important features. Huawei says that “intelligent spectrum allocation” and “interference coordination” will be used — but that I think most modern WiFi hardware already does that.
It’s fairly safe to assume that the range will stay the same or increase slightly. Reliability should improve a little with the inclusion of OFDA, and with the aforementioned spectrum allocation/interference coordination features. Congestion might also be reduced (by the same aforementioned features), and because data will be transferred between devices faster, freeing the airwaves for other connections.
For the most part though, don’t expect any major changes with 802.11ax except for massively increased throughput. As we covered recently in our Linksys WRT1900AC review, 802.11ac is already pretty darn good; 802.11ax will just take things to the next level.
Linksys WRT1900AC router, on a BMWDo we need these kinds of speeds?As you may have already noticed, even 802.11ax’s slowest speed of 100MB/sec is pushing it for a hard drive — and, incidentally, it’s a lot faster than the eMMC NAND flash storage in most smartphones can handle, too. Best-case, a modern smartphone’s storage tops out at around 90MB/sec sequential read, 20MB/sec sequential write — worst case, with lots of little files, you’re looking at speeds in the single-megabyte range. Obviously, for the wider 80MHz and 160MHz channels, you’re going to need some SSDs (or an array of SSDs) to take advantage of 802.11ax’s max speeds.
Of course, not every use-case requires you to read or write data to a slow storage medium, though — but even so, alternate uses like streaming 4K video, still fall way short of these multi-gigabit speeds. Even if Netflix starts doing 8K in the next few years, 802.11ax has more than enough bandwidth — and anyway, the bottleneck isn’t your WiFi, it’s your internet connection. The current time frame for 802.11ax certification is 2018 — and I’m pretty sure that most of us will still be rocking sub-300Mbps internet connections by then.
Tagged In hardwaremobile computingwireless communicationsspectrumwifinetworking802.11ac802.115GHzOFDMAofdm802.11axShare This Article .article {margin:0px !important;}.AR_1 {margin :0 0 20px 0 !important;}.AR_2 {margin:0 0 20px 0;} CommentPost a Comment Mayoo“Linksys WRT1900AC router, on a BMW”
Because why not!
http://www.mrseb.co.uk/ Sebastian Anthony:)
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months ago and pretty much straight away was bringin in at least $78 per-hour .
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toddraynerartI give a up vote based solely on that factor alone. :)
Damonwell….. i was wanting to upgrade my core network (top of rack switch and server NiC’s) to 10G ethernet anyway, guess by the time i get it done my wifi might need it anyhow…
edit: I wonder how long untill enthusiast motherboards include a 10GBE nic onboard?
gadget_heroYou know what I really want… 10GbE switches and devices that have it built in, I have CAT6a wired in my house and 1x drive in my freeNAS box saturates 1GbE.
MaxIts stupid! It makes no difference because communications coporations are throttling your connection! And now they have the freedom to do it!
MayooWhat about LAN? A lot of companies needs to transfer large amount of data, wifi would not be a bottleneck anymore.
CookiesBeing on LAN doesn’t stop them from throttling your connection…
David TockerRead it again special-cookies…
CookiesI read it right.
Companies need to transfer large amounts of data.
Corporations can throttle your connection.
You realize that LAN connections can and are usually connected to the internet, right?
Being on LAN doesn’t stop them from throttling your internet connection.
It lets the those connected to the local area network operate at full capacity within it, but if you have a server located away from the LAN network, you’re still boned.
http://www.jeffkibuule.com Jeff KibuuleEveryone always seems to forget that the flip side of communications speed is power efficiency. If a tower/router can send you the same amount of data in 1/10th the time, you spend the other 90% sleeping the CPU and sticking the radios in a low power state, which equals better battery life. And in crowded areas like apartments, you end up with far less radio congestion, which means a better streaming/downloading experience for all.
http://www.mrseb.co.uk/ Sebastian AnthonyYep, very true (I do mention the congestion thing in the story).
But also, as I mentioned, storage (especially smartphones and hard drives) can’t really keep up with those kinds of speeds anyway.
Ralph PeeblesBut with PCIe ,Thunderbolt & the like coming out this year, it will probably be right on time for the high speed party that will be happening by then!
xcore fanyour stated max throughput points are off a little seb.
several factual points … as a basis here is the theoretical limits per QAM quadrature amplitude modulation exist today
Major Modulation Goal: Spectral Efficiency
Theoretical Bandwidth Efficiency Limits:
• BPSK 1 bit/second/Hz
• QPSK 2 bits/second/Hz
• 8PSK 3 bits/second/Hz
• 16QAM 4 bits/second/Hz
• 32 QAM 5 bits/second/Hz
• 64 QAM 6 bits/second/Hz
• 256 QAM 8 bits/second/Hz
• 512 QAM 9 bits/second/Hz
• 1024 QAM 10 bits/second/Hz
• 2048 QAM 11 bits/second/Hz
• 4096 QAM 12 bits/second/Hz
• 8192 QAM 13 bits/second/Hz
Note: The figures are theoretical limits and CAN NOT be achieved in practical radios.
currently The IEEE 802.11ac specification adds channel bandwidths of 80 MHz and 160 MHz with both contiguous and non-contiguous 160 MHz channels for flexible channel assignment. It adds higher order modulation in the form of 256 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), providing an additional 33-percent improvement in data rate. A further doubling of the data rate is achieved by increasing the maximum number of spatial streams to eight. – See more at: http://standards.ieee.org/news/2014/ieee_802_11ac_ballot.html#sthash.ECzTLbnZ.dpuf
and the current e.MMC v5.0 spec October 2013 JEDEC states that JESD84-B50: Embedded MultiMediaCard (e.?MMC), Electrical Standard (5.0) introducing an HS400 mode that offers additional improvement in terms of interface speed (up to 400 MB/s vs 200 MB/s in the prior version).
so in fact you have an 11ac today that can take 8 low power MIMO aerials/transceivers potentially using 8192 QAM 13 bits/second/Hz and the more likely 4096 QAM 12 bits/second/Hz choice and upto 400 MB/s e.MMC v5.0 today if they bother to make and sell such wireless SoC OC…
plus it should NOT need saying today, but you are better having the end devices being the bottleneck rather than the backbone of your Wireless LAN slowing your data throughput down.
if your consumer ISP is your bottleneck, then look for a 3rd party Gbit+ wireless MAN provider with direct wired links to the local internet peer points and bypass the crap consumer ISP for all your local friends collective use today for instance….
Angel HamThis is great for the holidays where the house is loaded with relatives (8 to be exact) who have the bad habit of bringing in their smartphones, their tablets, and their laptops, and then expect that EVERYTHING is going to connect just fine.
Ty SmithThis wont help with the number of connected devices… That will always be a limited factor. An AP can only “talk” to so many clients. Think of it as you trying to have a conversation with 3 or 4 people at the same time. You keep asking people to repeat themselves.
The only thing that can accommodate more wireless clients is an AP with more radios or more APs (on different channels)
Also they will be sharing the same slow ISP
http://www.something.com/ standardI’m disappointed you’re asking if we ‘need’ this.
When was it ever about ‘need’?
Any BSD drivers yet?
sdjvsijnvsnot everyone uses laptops i use a desktop same with most of my friends i hate some articles they dont even think about desktop users but otherwise Great Article! i think i may upgrade from my 9 year old modem DocSiS 1.1 and 2.0 compatible motorolla modem to this if it breaks anytime soon i doubt it will if its just a bad capacitor in the modem id just simply resolder a new one on.
xcore fanyou wont upgrade as you appear to falsely equate wired cable DocSiS with the totally different wireless 11ac/ax device/spec.
if you are in fact running a personally payed for DocSiS 1.1/2.0 then you would be wise assuming your cable providers edge cards take/give DocSiS 3.0/3.1 today then get DocSiS 3.x, and a totally separate wireless router attached to that.
jburt56Clearly the wifi that will give other routers the AX!!!
Ty SmithI don’t care how fast it is…an AP can only “talk” to one client at a time just like a HUB. If two clients try to talk to the AP at the same time it causes a collision and the packet’s resend. The more clients the more collisions. Give me a Switch and a wire anytime.
Edit: Now I see great Point to Point use for 802.11ax
SuperTechWhat kind of bandwidth do you need to stream/download 4K Tv shows, Movies and video games without lag/buffering? Because you know . . . . that is whats next.
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