How is MIMO enabled on a WiFi router?

[AzJazz]

I have a Samsung SM-T800 tablet that supports MIMO.

How do I set up my dual-band Asus router to support this? Do I just have the 5GHz and 2.4 GHz bands set up to have the same SSID? I'm not sure how to get both bands connected simultaneously to the tablet.

 

[Klisetron]

As far as I'm aware, MIMO doesn't work across different bands (2.4 & 5GHz). That would be more like carrier aggregation in the Cell Phone industry. It works on one band with multiple antennae and that's what creates the multiple-input, multiple-output and allows for beamforming. This is most likely already turned on and handled by the firmware and not configurable. If you want your devices to easily handoff between 2.4 and 5 GHz then, yes, give the two the same SSID, otherwise, they'll practically be different WLAN's. I don't believe you're going to be able to connect to both bands at the same time, it's one or the other.

 

[thiggins]

MIMO is a technology that has been in use since 802.11n routers were introduced. It is used in 802.11n and 802.11ac standards.

You don't need to do anything to enable it. But you need an 802.11n or 802.11ac router. MIMO is used on both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands.

 

[wouterv]

Maybe to add some for clarification:
Any 802.11n or better router with more than one antenna naturely supports MIMO (multiple datastreams that add up, one antenna for each datastream, one 802.11n datastream is worth 150Mbps max).

The latest 802.11ac routers (e.g. The RT-AC88U) do support MU-MIMO, this better support Multiple Users, the standard is not fully developped though, supporting firmware is still beta.

For the best results, the clients and the router shall support the same standards, with the same number of antenna's (most tablets and phones do have only one antenna, most laptops do have two antenna's).

Simultaneously support for both frequency bands (2.4GHz and 5GHz), to sum the throughput is rarely supported by network adapters, with the network adapters I am aware of you must pick one frequency, in case of identical SSID's the network adapter selects the frequency with the best signal.