802.11ac and 802.11n access points (APs)

[yasir shaikh]

What is difference between 802.11ac and 802.11n access points (APs)

[Philip D'Ath]

In short, speed.

802.11ac is an evolution of 802.11n.  You need a machine with an 802.11ac WiFi NIC to take advantage of it.  Currently there is 802.11ac wave 1 and wave 2.  Wave 2 is faster again.

Be wary of what you read.  There is a lot of marketing material making references to speeds that you will never see.

[Sandeep Choudhary]

Hi,

802.11n
- primarily 2.4GHz, can also use 5GHz band
- 150 Mbps per spatial stream, maximum of 4 spatial streams.
- 64-QAM
- MIMO

802.11ac
- 5GHz band only
- 433 Mbps per spatial stream, up to 8 spatial streams
- 256-QAM
- beamforming
- MU-MIMO

More info :

http://electronicdesign.com/communications/what-s-difference-between-80211n-and-80211ac

Regards

Don't forget to rate helpful posts

[Philip D'Ath]

I don't think I would describe 802.11n as being primarily for the 2.4Ghz band.  It does work in it, but with only three non-overlapping channels in most countries it is pretty restrictive.

We frequently turn off the 2.4Ghz band of many of our clients.  It stops dumb drivers from attaching to it by mistake and getting terrible performance.

[mohanak]

Refer the link : http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/aironet-3600-series/white_paper_c11-713103.html#_Toc383047844