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What's next in Wi-Fi?

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jramskov

Occasional Visitor
Is there any new stuff on the way in the WiFi world or is Netgear Orbi simply the way to go for the forseeable future? (I would use them in bridge mode)
 
Is there any new stuff on the way in the WiFi world or is Netgear Orbi simply the way to go for the forseeable future? (I would use them in bridge mode)
2017 is the future of mesh

asus and tp link and norton and may other even billion join the mesh brigade , mesh is in its infancy and is the future of wifi , how and when you jump in is your choice but orbi is at the top of the pile right now :)

pete
 
The next step is 802.11ax. First routers should be appearing later this year. But as with MU-MIMO and 160 MHz bandwidth, there will be few devices that also support it.

The open question is whether 11ax will do anything to help performance of the devices you already have. Theoretically 11ax can provide some performance improvements. But reality will be another thing.
 
Thanks for the quick replies. From what I understand, what has been announced at CES will likely not be any better than the Orbi. I have a nice fast router (Turris Omnia), but I'm not sure the WiFi is good enough since I got a small complaint from the wife :) That's why I'm considering the Orbi. 2 of those in the house should make the wife happy :p

A quick Google search for 11ax told me that certification is scheduled for 2018, but perhaps I'm not looking at the right places.
 
Lack of a finalized standard did not delay the shipment of 802.11n and 802.11ac "draft spec" products. It will be the same with 11ax.

I will have more to say about 11ax. But the usual caveats apply to early adopters.
 
Ah, yeah of course. Not really interested in such products. Been using an Asus AC66U for the last couple of years and it's been fine except for the CPU which wasn't powerful enough. Transferring data to my NAS from my laptop would peg the CPU on the router and cause stutter in video streaming on our cabled AppleTV. The new router fixed that issue.
 
Transferring data to my NAS from my laptop would peg the CPU on the router and cause stutter in video streaming on our cabled AppleTV. The new router fixed that issue.
Was the transfer via Wi-Fi or Ethernet?
 
The next step is 802.11ax.


yes i did read about this on google news and as you say it will be seen to be believed if it does live up to the claims but its certain it will be the next big advertising gimmick on the box to impress the masses as they dive blindly into the next big thing :)
 
Was the transfer via Wi-Fi or Ethernet?
Transfer from laptop to asus router is wireless, rest is gbit wired. It also goes through a cheap netgear gbit switch.

Edit - my setup:
Wan (fiber box) - wifi router - netgear switch. Connected to that switch is: Synology NAS, AppleTV4, Yamaha receiver, Sonos Connect.
 
The next step is 802.11ax. First routers should be appearing later this year. But as with MU-MIMO and 160 MHz bandwidth, there will be few devices that also support it.

The open question is whether 11ax will do anything to help performance of the devices you already have. Theoretically 11ax can provide some performance improvements. But reality will be another thing.

Well that would be sometime 2018-2020 if the devices are not even AX ready or can it be done with FW?
 
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Yes that was wath i meant, that devices coming later on.
But i rather see that the 802.3bz standard: 2.5Gbps over Cat 5e, 5Gbps over Cat 6 comes before that.
 
But i rather see that the 802.3bz standard: 2.5Gbps over Cat 5e, 5Gbps over Cat 6 comes before that.

although its inevitable , i dont see domestic gear getting it as a standard for its lan ports for quite some time as there is no real call for it and for those that need it switches will available , imho its all about the price ceiling , that $500 limit that seems to scare most off will be hard to keep under esp if the start adding new standards all the time
 
AX is NOT just a firmware tweak for devices.

It's going to be new chips there... like Tim says, it's not a firmware tweak...

We likely will see some Draft-11ax stuff - and I certainly hope this is not a repeat of Pre-N days that caused a lot of problems for the 11b/g clients and neighboring AP's - 11ax has some features (OFDMA vs. OFDM) that can cause some airtime issues here...

FWIW - I was one of the earlier parties discussing MU-MIMO and the challenges there with interoperability (and the hard work needed for MU to work properly - QCA got it right first time out, but this was a really long bet for them)

That being said - Wired -- N-Base-T is a done deal, IMHO, as many of the SoC's are supporting this now, at least at the chip level... and the cost per port there is much lower than 10Gbe...

I think Multiple Point - whether true MESH, or variants thereof, will be a market driver - and the big vendors have jumped in after the startups blazed the trail.

And there - 802.11ac Wave 2 Meshing - that's where the possible value is going into 2017 - will we see MU-Meshing? LOL... just kidding, but this might be a good case for MU actually...
 
At last the first 2500BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45) ports with Auto Uplink product i seen and its a Netgear AC AP.
 
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