802.11ac Wave 2

The 802.11ac Wave-2 WiFi standard represents an upgrade on the initial 802.11ac, or Wave-1, offering improved performance and supporting a higher number of connected devices. This standard operates exclusively on the 5 GHz band, providing faster data transmission rates compared to previous standards. One of the key features of the 802.11ac Wave-2 standard was Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO). This technology allows a Wave-2 access point to communicate with multiple devices simultaneously, enhancing network capacity and efficiency. Another significant feature was the support for 160 MHz channels, doubling the potential transmission speed compared to the 80 MHz channels of Wave-1. The standard also incorporates Beamforming technology, which directs the WiFi signal towards the devices instead of broadcasting it in all directions. Wave-2 also supports four spatial streams (4x4 MIMO4x4 MIMO: A wireless communication configuration that uses four antennas, each capable of both transmission (the multiple inputs) and reception (the multiple outputs). This arrangement facilitates the simultaneous transmission and reception of up to four independent data streams over the same frequency band,…), whereas Wave-1 only supports three.