Samsung Future Wi-Fi Tech Is 5 Times Faster Than 802.11ac

Wi-Fi standards keep improving for wireless routers. Once the internet connection speed is sufficiently good then it comes down to how fast of a wireless connection that your internet router can support.

Samsung are presently testing technology for the next generation of Wi-Fi signals known as 802.11ad. The speed bump with this new wireless router technology takes the maximum throughput from 866 Mbps presently with the 802.11ac standard right up to 4.6 Gbps. This means that a 1 GB movie could be downloaded in about 3 seconds.

60 GHz is the New 5 GHz

The key to speeding up wireless access is moving from the choices of 2.4 GHz and the less congested 5 GHz right up to the unused 60 GHz frequency. The spanner in the works with 60 GHz is that in the past few years of testing it has been found that 60 GHz wireless signals have a little problem penetrating walls. This means router signals couldn't get to the office next door or from the lounge to the bedroom upstairs in the home. Big problem.

Beam Forming

How do you get the message across the best? Speak directly to the intended receiver of the message. This simple logic has been used with a new technology nicknamed “beam forming” which the WirelessHD and WiGig standards bodies have been investing considerable time in to resolve the issue with 60 GHz wireless transmissions.

A special beam forming antenna was created with equipment that could isolate where the connected client was located and then beam the wireless signals directly at that location rather than spreading the wireless signal in all directions as wireless routers do today.

This idea of beam forming has already found its way to some of the most expensive 802.11ac internet routers even though they don't suffer the same issues with getting signals thought physical barriers like walls. This beaming technology has now solved the long standing issue of distance with the 802.11ad 60 GHz wireless standard.

Samsung expects to begin releasing 802.11ad routers later next year when the technology has been finalized. The 60GHz frequency band is generally not licensed globally and so it is quite suitable for use in wireless communications.

How About 8.2.11ax?

Even more advanced than the 802.11ad, the 802.11ax is likely to appear within the next 3-4 years as a viable replacement for wireless transmissions.

The total transfer speeds are likely to reach or exceed 2 Gbps compared to current 802.11ac technology using the 5GHz frequency which maxes out at about 400 Mbps. Huawei tested a speed of 10.53 Gbps which equates to 1.4 gigabytes per second. Essentially that's a 720p movie every second and a BluRay 1080p movie downloaded every 10-30 seconds.

Crazy Fast Streaming Speeds

802.11ax uses 4x4 MIMO which allows for multi-stream network communications. With the maximum of 3.5 Gbps per stream, a 4x4 MIMO network can achieve 14 Gbps on the maximum end. To put this in perspective, 7 Gbps is roughly 900 megabytes a second. Even Ultra 4K HD movies that Hollywood currently uses for digital recording purposes on movies and TV production will have zero lag issues when streaming at these speeds.

Bottleneck When Downloading Large Files

For people who like to download large media files and store them on a hard drive the issue will be different because currently hard drives can only record data at about 100 megabytes a second. SSD drives are faster and can reach 500 megabytes a second.

Essentially saving files to a storage device will end up being the bottleneck for media downloads. Streaming movies without recording them gets around such an issue. Internet browsers that loads pages into RAM memory which is extremely fast anyway will not suffer such a bottleneck effect. As a result it is likely the speed experienced by regular web surfers and those wanting to download big media files will not be the same unless storage devices get faster.

802.11ax Specification Being Worked Out

Details on the exact standard specification are still being worked out but the faster 802.11ax. It is likely to see the light of day in 3-4 years. As long as internet speeds to the home keep up then it looks likely that wireless internet routers will be able to deliver blistering speeds and improved range.