What does 802.11ax bring to wireless networks ?, 802.11ax surfaced

What does 802.11ax bring to wireless networks ?, 802.11ax surfaced

In 2017, manufacturers such as Broadcom, Qualcomm, and Marvell launched 802.11ax chips, and downstream wireless vendors also released experimental AP or wireless routing products that support the 802.11ax protocol. Not surprisingly, 802.11ax will be commercially available in 2018.

As a matter of fact, as powered by 5g, WLAN is also moving towards high bandwidth, large connections, and low latency. 802.11ax now plays a role in promoting the evolution of WLAN. Since its launch, the 802.11 protocol family has gone through the development process from B, a/g, and n to ac, and the data transmission rate has been continuously improved, from the earliest 2 Mbps to 11 Mbps, 54 Mbps, and 450 Mbps, to the theoretical transmission rate of 802.11ac wave1 is 1.3 Gbps, and the bandwidth of 802.11ac wave2 is increased to 1.73 Gbps.

There is no doubt that 802.11ax is the new army of WiFi technology, and is the next generation of 802.11ac. Although the technical standards are being developed, most of them are in the wireless field.

What are the characteristics of 802.11ax? What does it bring to wireless?

802.11ax accelerates wireless connections, which many people think. Indeed, 802.11ax delivers a higher transmission rate. It introduces a higher-order modulation and encoding scheme 1024QAM. Compared with the highest 256QAM in 802.11ac, the encoding and modulation efficiency is higher. The association rate of each 80 Mbps bandwidth space stream has increased from 433Mbps to 600 Mbps, the theoretical maximum association rate (mbps bandwidth, 8 spatial streams) is increased from Gbps to about Gbps.

However, "fast" is not the core of 802.11ax. The core of 802.11ax is OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing), which is derived from LTE technology, this gives the terminal a more stable and reliable multi-user concurrent transmission mode independent of MU-MIMO. Unlike the 802.11a/g/n/ac technology, the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation method is used in high-density access environments, in the past, a single channel can only be used by a single user within the same time. The OFDMA mechanism can provide a small (but exclusive) sub-channel for multiple users at the same time, thus improving the average transmission rate of each user.

To better understand it, the core of 802.11ax is to have more powerful concurrency capabilities. The initial focus of the design scenario is the intensive environment. In other words, the initial design idea will be different from the traditional 802.11. The purpose is to increase the data throughput in a crowded network space. Because of 802.11ac and earlier protocols, the actual data throughput that can be provided in user-intensive environments is significantly reduced.

The 802.11ax standard will improve the Wi-Fi performance in multi-user environments (such as exhibitions, high-speed trains, and gymnasiums, the high throughput can be maintained even if users are very intensive by improving the spectrum efficiency, better managing crosstalk, and enhancing the bottom layer protocol of the PHY (Media Access Control Data Communication.

In addition, 802.11ax has introduced more networking features in the LTE field, such as space reuse (SR) technology. In the past, the coordination between APs was poor, and there was still "noise" between them. The networking features of 802.11ax greatly improved anti-interference.

In addition, 802.11ax has good protocol compatibility. It supports both 2.4G and 5G Hz frequencies, and the structure of the leading frame is almost unchanged, compatible with 802.11a/B/g/n/ac, there is no need to worry about the elimination of massive existing Wi-Fi terminals in the 802.11ax era.

What is necessary to upgrade 802.11ax?

Someone may ask, I am using 802.11ac very quickly. What is necessary to upgrade 802.11ax? Indeed, the answer to this question should be combined with the scenario. In traditional enterprise office environments, 802.11ac is sufficient to meet the requirements. In addition to purchasing new APs, you can upgrade 802.11ax when the device is updated during iteration. However, in high-profile scenarios such as exhibitions, high-speed railway stations, and gymnasiums, 802.11ac is indeed facing a bottleneck, which is a matter of improving 802.11ax. As we mentioned above, the OFDMA technology is designed to solve high-density concurrency. Therefore, such scenarios should focus more on 802.11ax.

In addition, driven by application scenarios, 802.11ax may be deployed faster, such as AR/VR and 4 K video. These applications require higher network throughput, their maturity and development will inevitably have a significant impact on the implementation of 802.11ax.

Is the industrial chain of 802.11ax mature and commercial?

In other words, although the upstream has been actively promoting 802.11ax, there are another important factor in its commercialization. That is, terminal devices, including laptops and mobile phones. Therefore, this requires the maturity and evolution of the entire industrial chain. According to the current information, terminal popularity is only a matter of time. The first batch of regions will be listed in the second half of 2018. Some insiders make predictions that at least 2019 of the regions in 30% will support 802.11ax.

However, the upgrade and evolution of Wireless terminals are necessary to "build roads first", because with the popularity of Wi-Fi, there are more and more concurrent connections and more short packets. Traditional Wi-Fi protocols have no advantages in handling large concurrency and a large number of short packets. The improvements and optimizations targeted at these scenarios of 802.11ax will support better application experience.

In summary, the maturity and commercialization of 802.11ax are similar to those of 5g. Although they are applicable to unused application scenarios, they overlap in some fields. Technically, although the two are not mutually compatible, they are also being integrated to a certain extent.