Nowadays, network has become a part of our daily life. We get used to the behaviour that we turn to Internet for help to solve a problem or we look through the website to know what happened around us, just like we go to bed at night. Being able to get access to the network is important for us. In the past, there was only wired network. But now, there is wireless network which makes it more convenient for us to surf the Internet. We know that a wireless network is very similar to a wired network with one big difference: devices don’t use Ethernet network cable to connect to the router. Instead, they use radio wireless connections called Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity), which is a friendly name for the 802.11 networking standards supported by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). We know that access point (AP) is a central device that is common used in wireless network. But sometimes we hear something like Wi-Fi range, frequency band or Wi-Fi standard. Do you know what they refer to? This article is going to introduce things you have to know about wireless network.
The Wi-Fi range refers to the coverage area of an access point’s Wi-Fi signal. Generally speaking, in a good and stable wireless network, the maximum distance for wireless device to receive Wi-Fi signal can reach about 150 feet from the access point. However, this distance will change based on the capability of access point. In addition, there are some other factors that will have an impact on the performance of Wi-Fi signal, such as the power of the devices involved, the environment, the Wi-Fi standard and so on. Among them, the impact of Wi-Fi standard is relatively large, and it will be introduced in the latter part of this article.
The frequency band refers to the radio frequencies used by the Wi-Fi standard: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. The 2.4 GHz and 5 Ghz bands are currently the most popular, collectively being used in all existing network devices. Generally, the 5 Ghz band delivers faster data rates than 2.4 GHz band, but its Wi-Fi range is a little less than that of 2.4 Ghz band. Depending on the standard, some wireless routers use either the 2.4 GHz or the 5 GHz band, while others that use both of these are called dual-band wireless routers, such as Linksys DD-WRT WRT1200AC.
The Wi-Fi standard determines how fast a wireless network can be and how much signal area it can cover. To understand what the Wi-Fi standard is, you have to learn about the development history of Wi-Fi standard.
802.11b: This was the first commercialized wireless standard. It offers a top speed of 22 Mbps and operates only on the 2.4 GHz frequency band. The standard was first available in 1999 and is now totally obsolete.
802.11g: Introduced in 2002, the 802.11g standard marked the first time wireless networking was called Wi-Fi. The standard offers the top speed of 54 Mbps but operates on the 2.4 GHz band. It is also becoming obsolete.
802.11n or Wireless-N: Available since 2007, 802.11n has been the most popular Wi-Fi standard, with lots of improvements over the previous ones, such as making the range of the 5 GHz band more comparable to that of the 2.4 GHz band. The standard operates on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands and it offers a top speed of 600 Mbps.
802.11ac: Sometimes referred to as 5G Wi-Fi, this latest Wi-Fi standard operates only on the 5 GHz frequency band and currently offers Wi-Fi speeds of up to 1,750 Mbps (or even faster with latest chip) when used in the quad-stream (4×4) setup. The standard also comes with the 3×3, 2×2, 1×1 setups that cap at 1,300 Mbps, 900 Mbps and 450 Mbps, respectively.
Network technology has move forward without stopping its step. And now there are 802.11ad and 802.11ax Wi-Fi standard for wireless network. Besides, the later standards are backward compatible with the earlier ones.
Network is of close link with our life, bringing us incomparable convenience on our life and work, especially wireless network. It is necessary to know some knowledge about wireless network. I hope this article is helpful for you when you choose wireless devices and solve some problems related to wireless network. To build a good wireless network, FS.COM provides quality Ethernet network cable, such as Cat5e cable, Cat6 cable and Cat7 cable. Also, it provides wireless access point.
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