We look into the next generation of wireless
technology and considers if it worth buying.
Over the past decade wireless communication
has moved from a novel way of extending one’s home network into a crucial part
of the modern gadget – focused world. Nowadays the PC is in the minority of
devices on a network, and even if your PC connects via wires, odds are that
most of the other devices connected do so via 802.11n.
As is the way with standards, 802.11n was
developed before the Smartphone revolution really took hold, and when tablets were
just a type of Window laptop that no one bought. It has delivered significant
advances over previous wireless standards, most notably with the potential to
use both the overcrowded 2.4GHz band and the much less interfered with 5GHz
band.
Nowadays we want more from our home
networks. That means usage models such as being able to stream high definition
content to the smart TVs or network media players in the lounge room, or to
play multiplayer games on everything from wirelessly connected consoles to laptops.
We also increasingly connect our smartphones and tablets to our home networks
to save on cellular data use.
It was these kinds of issues that informed
the development of the latest wireless standard to appear. Dubbed 802.11ac, or
Gigabit wireless, it not only brings faster wireless speeds, but is set to
implement a bunch of features designed to help with the changing needs of home
networks.
As is often the way with wireless
standards, the final version of 802.11ac has not been signed off on, yet most router
manufacturers have announced products with 802.11ac support. Netgear was the
first cab off the rank, launching its router months ago, and since then we have
seen companies like Belkin all announce products.
For those who have been through a few generations
of router upgrades, this should be worrying. 802.11n had an incredibly messy
launch, largely due to the fact that most manufacturers released ‘Pre-N’ or
‘Draft-N’ products before the standard was ratified (ratification is the term
used by the IEEE to denote that a standard is now official). These products
ended up with a lack of interoperability, and many early adopters got burned
buying hardware that didn’t work properly with ‘real’ 802.11n devices.
“The final version of 802.11ac will, at
worse, require a firmware update”
To get a picture of just why this isn’t the
case this time around, and to get a bit more of an idea of when we’ll be seeing
more than just 802.11ac routers on the market, we talked to Netgear and
802.11ac silicon manufacturer Broadcom.
Dubbed
802.11ac, or Gigabit wireless, it not only brings faster wireless speeds, but
is set to implement a bunch of features designed to help with the changing
needs of home networks.
Both Netgear’s VP of Product Management,
Retail Product, David Henry and the Senior Director of Product marketing for
Broadcom’s Mobile and Wireless group. Dinos Bekis, were quite keen to point out
that there were a few key reasons why the launch of 802.11ac would be smother
than the launch of 802.11ac.
As Bekisputs it “the industry learned
lessons with 802.11n”. The incompatibility mess of the various pre-ratification
standards meant that uptake of the technology was slow, and hurt product sales
even when the standard was finalized.
According to Henry the major improvement
this time around is that the vast majority of products are using Broadcom’s
silicon. This is in stark contrast to the 802.11n situation, which was
exacerbated by the fact there were several silicon manufacturers all pushing
competing (and incompatible) products.
When ratification of the standard finally
happens (we have been told to expect this in the Jan/Feb 2013 timeframe) both
Netgear and Broadcom are confident that any last minute changes will worst
require a firmware upgrade. There are some technologies that will also emerge
at later dates (much like the relatively late appearance of simultaneous dual
band 802.11n hardware), but the base functionality of 802.11ac is good to go in
the hardware already on the market.
Why now?
Despite the fact that there are numerous
routers now on the market, there aren’t any 802.11ac client devices for sale in
Australia. Both Netgear and Broadcom pointed out that Asus announced the first
802.11ac capable gaming laptop at Computex, but it has yet to actually ship.
When asked about this situation, Bekis
pointed out that Broadcom has now shipped client processors for PC/ laptops and
USB adapters, as well as chips for smartphones and tablets. He expects to see a
large number of 802.11ac compatible devices announced at CES in early January
2013, which the technology will receive its first widespread push.
Both
Netgear and Broadcom pointed out that Asus announced the first 802.11ac capable
gaming laptop at Computex, but it has yet to actually ship.
USB adapters should be appearing on the
market real soon, followed by 802.11ac enabled PCs and laptops. Broadcom
currently expects that smartphones with support for the standard will enter
production during the first quarter of 2013. Given this timeframe, we’d expect
that the CES announcements will focus more on home entertainment and computers,
while Mobile World Congress in late February will be the place that we’ll see
smartphones announced.
There are some overarching advantages given
by 802.11ac, that will affect all of these devices. The first is that the
technology runs purely over the 5GHz wireless band. Most 802.11n devices still
only support the notoriously interference-laden 2.4GHz band (despite support in
the standard for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless), and the simple act of moving
to 5GHz offers a raft of advantages.
“Expect to see a large number of 802.11ac
devices announced at CES 2013”
The first is range. The actual distance a
5GHz signal can travel is less than a 2.4GHz one, but the amount of data that
can be transferred is much larger. This means you will naturally get better
performance near the edge of a 5GHz signal than you would at the equivalent
distance from a 2.4GHz one. 5GHz also tends not to travel through walls very
well, which sounds like a problem, but actually means diminished interference
from nearby wireless networks.
“Expect
to see a large number of 802.11ac devices announced at CES 2013”
To get around potential problems will wall
penetration, 802.11ac will include standards based support for a technology
called Beamforming. While not new, this will be the first time it gets
implemented in a consistent manner. Beamforming basically involves a router
being smart with its signal, identifying where devices are physically located
and focusing the signal in that will likely be added once ratification occurs,
but the groundwork has been lain for it in current products.
The other major advantage that Henry
stresses is that in Netgear’s case its R6300 802.11ac router is being treated
as its premium product. This means that not only is 802.11ac performance great,
but the router itself uses the highest end components that Netgear can source.
This makes for a really solid all-round product, and Netgear’s local Senior
Director of Consumer Channels, Brad Little, told us that the R6300 is exceeding
expectations when it comes to sales, even beating out the top end N900 802.11n
router locally. Given the increasing importance of good wireless in the home,
this is indicative that people aren’t necessarily shopping on price and instead
focusing on getting the best performance they can.
Product based advantages
The actual advantages of 802.11ac will be
subtly different depending on which kind of device you are using. For the
connection of traditional computing devices, such as PCs and laptops, the major
advantage is the delivery of gigabit speeds in a wireless format.
Home entertainment devices are going to
benefit significantly from the increased speeds of 802.11ac. Ensuring that the
technology is capable of streaming HD content has been core to the development
of the about another wireless standard, 802.11ad, which is designed along
similar lines. According to Netgear the ad standard, which should be ratified
late 2013, is more of a complimentary product designed to deliver extremely
high bandwidth at short ranges, replacing technologies like HDMI.
One of the more interesting notions is just
how smartphones and tablets will benefit from the technology. This is an area
that Broadcom is particularly excited about, with Bekis pointing out to us that
the massive increase in bandwidth is likely to make for better smartphone
battery life. While this may seem counterintuitive, it actually makes a lot of
sense. Despite the fact that the 802.11ac chip users roughly same amount of
power as an 802.11n one when running full speed, the 802.11 ac chip ends up
using less power to transfer the same amount of data. Because data transfers at
a much higher speed, the radio in the phone only has to power on for a fraction
of the time that it does with 802.11n. This is a very similar philosophy to the
design of things like Intel’s Core processors, which are designed to sleep as
much as possible, only waking to get tasks done as quickly as they can before
dropping back to a low power state.
Buy on don’t buy?
Despite the fact that 802.11ac clients are
still to appear, there is definitely less risk involved with early adoption
than there was with early adoption than there was with 802.11n. if you are in
the market for a high end router the 802.11ac-based models are definitely worth
considering, especially if you plan to use the new router for many years to
come.
Netgear’s
R6300 is its flagship 802.11ac router
However if you aren’t currently on the
market for a router, then there is little reason to leap onto 802.11ac. By the
time you do need to upgrade your existing hardware there will likely be a wider
range of products to choose from, rather than handful of premium offerings currently
on the market.
All in all, 802.11ac is the most mature
wireless standard to date, thanks to everything from a development process
informed by the failures of the past through to the myriad tweaks and feature
enhancements designed to complement the ‘Post PC’ world in which home networks
host a multitude of different devices.
