Wifi 'ac' backwards compatibilty

[Dolby]

I understand 802.11ac works on 5ghz frequency - but articles have stated backwards compatibility with standards a, b, g and n as well

'n' and 'a' I can understand - but b/g work on a 2.4ghz frequency.

How would this backwards compatibility work?

 

[isie]

I understand 802.11ac works on 5ghz frequency - but articles have stated backwards compatibility with standards a, b, g and n as well

'n' and 'a' I can understand - but b/g work on a 2.4ghz frequency.

How would this backwards compatibility work?

Works over both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands concurrently

I'm assuming you referring to a specific router / device here

 

[Dolby]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm not looking at anything specific - just the standards actually. I sell wifi, but I'm not technical - I do the commercial side of things. However I'm still interested and right now, we have no engineers in to ask.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/col...3_ns767_Networking_Solutions_White_Paper.html

802.11ac is a 5 GHz-only technology, so dual-band APs and clients will continue to use 802.11n at 2.4 GHz. However, 802.11ac clients operate in the less crowded 5 GHz band.

So all 802.11ac radios have a 2.4 and 5 radio - but the 2.4 is purely for the backwards compatibility? So pretty much an 802.11ac and 802.11n radio built in ?

 

[isie]

So all 802.11ac radios have a 2.4 and 5 radio - but the 2.4 is purely for the backwards compatibility? So pretty much an 802.11ac and 802.11n radio built in ?

Prety much yep though I am not sure if the standard is for all 5G devices to have both radios built in *though it would make sence to have it As you mentioned for backward compatibility.

 

[Dolby]

Thanks isie!

 

[eddief1]

I am mal at the IEEE for even allowing 802.11ac into the wild, you guys realise that it uses 160mhz of bandwidth in the 5ghz range, that is absolutely crazy, that is up from 20/40mhz on current 802.11n standard.

Buy buy 5GHZ band ...

 

[Roman4604]

I am mal at the IEEE for even allowing 802.11ac into the wild, you guys realise that it uses 160mhz of bandwidth in the 5ghz range, that is absolutely crazy, that is up from 20/40mhz on current 802.11n standard.

Its far more than that, you're only thinking about a single channel.

11n is already spec'd for bonding 4 x 40MHz = 160MHz (i.e. APs advertised as 600Mbps capable). 11ac goes way further allowing for 8 x 160MHz channels to be bonded, if I'm not mistaken this means a single AP can utilise the entire 4.9/5GHz range simultaneously.