WLAN standards - the differences at a glance
With WLAN devices, there are numerous differences in performance. The standards used have been continuously improved since 1997. On the packaging of a product you can usually find out which standards your device supports.
An overview of the WLAN standards and their differences
Technically speaking, the standards differ in the channel width and modulation. The theoretically possible transmission rates are of particular interest to the user. In practice, however, these are usually only half as high.
- "WLAN 802.11" is the first standard from 1997. It transmits in the frequency range of 2.4 GHz and can only transmit a maximum of 1 MBit per second. That's why you won't find this standard these days.
- The first further developments are called "802.11a" (or "802.11h / j") and "802.11b". The latter also works in the 2.4 GHz band, but can reach transfer rates of up to 11 Mbit per second.
- "802.11a", on the other hand, uses the 5 GHz frequency range and can transmit 54 MBit per second. If you have devices that support a standard in the 5 GHz range, you should also use this. This means that there are far fewer connection problems.
- "802.11g" is working in the 2.4 GHz band again and can reach data rates of up to 54 MBit per second.
- "802.11n" is currently the most common standard. It supports widths of 2.4 and 5 GHz and data rates up to 600 MBit per second. With ranges of up to 70 meters in the house (depending on the walls), it is usually clearly sufficient for everyday use.
- "802.11ac" was only launched in December last year. In theory, this standard enables data rates of up to 1300 Mbit / s. However, you probably cannot achieve these values. In addition, there are currently only a few devices that use the new standard.
- The WLAN standard "802.11ad" is planned for the end of 2014. Since it operates in a completely new frequency range (60GHz), data rates of up to 7000 MBit per second should be possible directly in front of the transmitter. Another advantage: The frequency range is not yet used by other devices. The transmission quality also increases.
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