Wifi 6 - OFDMA & MU-MIMO

[ulmartin@cisco.com]

Hi Everyone,

I have being reading about OFDMA & MU-MIMO:

MU-MIMO -> An AP can talk to more than one device at the same time

OFDMA -> An AP can divide a channel in different chunks to talk with multiple devices at a time (with less bandwidth). (a channel of 20 Mhz can be divide in 4 chunks for example )

I know how they work at least in theory... but.. Do they Work together ? (if yes... How?)

And how thos new features will empower the 2.4 Ghz band ? (as all the related documents talk about)

My curiosity come from the fact that 100% of my clients use wireless and this new improvement brings doubts about it.

Regards, Ulises.

[Haydn Andrews]

a good podcast done by Clear to Send on this topic:

https://www.cleartosend.net/wifi6-80211ax-overview/

[patoberli]

First of all, the new Cat 9000 series APs don't yet support OFDMA, this will be included in a future software release.
Second, OFDMA (and also MU-MIMO) only works if you have several clients with capable adapters (MU-MIMO requires 802.11ac Wave 2 and OFDMA requires 802.11ax adapters with drivers supporting it).
In other words, unless your APs and clients are upgraded with new adapters, those features don't (yet) bring you anything. This will change in the upcoming 3 years of course. Make sure, if buying new laptops, that they have 802.11ax cards built in, or at least 802.11ac Wave 2 ones (check the datasheet if they really support MU-MIMO).