Term Description
802.11ac 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) is a wireless networking standard that provides high throughput Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) in the 5GHz band.

Theoretically, 802.11ac has expected throughput of at least 1 Gigabit per second to all clients, and a single link throughput of at least 500 Mbps(megabits per second). This is accomplished by extending the air interface concepts embraced by 802.11n: wider RF bandwidth (up to 160 MHz), more MIMO spatial streams (up to 8), multi-user MIMO, and high-density modulation (up to 256 QAM).

802.11ac range may, or may not be as far as 802.11n Wi-Fi. 802.11ac operates exclusively in 5GHz frequencies while 802.11n can also transmit and receive in the crowded, but longer range with better wall penetration 2.4Ghz frequencies.

802.11ac Wave 2 is an update to the original 802.11ac spec that uses MU-MIMO technology and other advancements to help increase theoretical maximum wireless speeds to 6.93 Gbps.


Related: 802.11n, 802.11ax
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