802.11 Protocols Comparison
(Updated on 2021 July 13) When we buy electronic products such as mobile phones, tablets, and computers, we will pay more attention to the speed of processors and the capacity of memory.
We hope that electronic products can run faster and get online faster. However, the Internet speed does not only depend on the high-end electronic devices themselves
We need to understand the version of the network protocol, the new protocol supports faster network speed.
For example, we often say that a device supports 802.11, so what exactly is it?
What is 802.11 ?
802.11 is a set of protocols for implementing Wireless LAN communication in the 900 MHz and 2.4 / 3.6 / 5 / 60 GHz frequency bands. We know our home routers normally use 2.4 and 5 GHz.
What are 802.11 protocols we often meet ?
In our daily life, we often buy some network products which has different 802.11 wireless protocols: 802.11 a / b / g / n. Seems 802.11 was the newest one with highest speed in passed years. However, we might not realized the 802.11 ac protocol has already been the popular wireless protocol.
How 802.11 ac vs 802.11 n ?
Since 802.11 n was the best one before, then let's see how better 802.11 ad than 802.11 n.
Here we simply use the popular image which could be found on internet everywhere, such as forbes. We can see the speed simply: 802.11 ac could be up to 1300 Mbps, but 802.11 n only could be up to 450 Mbps.
(Update: The newest 802.11 aj and 802.11ay supports up to 15 Gbit/s and 20 Gbit/s)
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