RESEARCH BRIEF and PRESENTATION: MU-MIMO and 802.11ad Wi-Fi Evolve the User Experience

/ Internet of Things IoT, Personal Computing, Research, Research Papers, Semiconductor, Smartphone, Tablet, Wireless / By

In addition to 3G and 4G, Wi-Fi has been one of the backbones of the growth of wireless technology and devices, including the growth of the IoT (internet of things). Wi-Fi has gone through many stages in its evolution including multiple versions of 2.4 GHz 802.11 standards including 802.11a/b/g/n and 5 GHz 802.11ac.All of this is was enabled by unlicensed 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands of spectrum that have been made available for ‘public’ use without a license. In recent years, this has alsoWiFiLogo expanded to 60 GHz with 802.11ad, also known as WiGig, to help solve certain congestion issues on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. Service providers, operators, enterprises and others are looking to Wi-Fi to deliver the majority of their end-point connectivity to users and many mobile device makers and router makers are jumping on-board.

Research Brief Table of Contents

  • Summary
  • MU-MIMO Helps Solve Capacity and Bandwidth Issues
  • MU-MIMO Makes the Most of the Available Bandwidth
  • MU-MIMO Improves Range and Simultaneous Device Usage
  • OEMs Already Using MU-MIMO in Routers, Smartphones, and More
  • 802.11ad Brings More Bandwidth and Improved Experience
  • 802.11ad’s Weaknesses are Also its Strengths
  • Tri-Band Solutions are the Answer to Multiple Problems
  • The Use Cases for 802.11ad Span Both Consumer and Enterprise
  • 802.11ad is Transitioning to Mobile From Notebooks
  • Call to Action
  • Testing Methodology
  • Figure 1: Smartphone Feature Preference
  • Figure 2: Smartphone Wi­Fi Test Results

You can download the paper here.

Presentation Table of Contents

Patrick Moorhead presenting on MU-MIMO and 802.11AC WiFi
Patrick Moorhead presenting on MU-MIMO and 802.11AC WiFi
  • WiFi and integral part of the user experience
  • WiFi challenging the user experience
  • Enter tri-band (2.4, 5, 60Ghz.)
  • MU-MIMO real world testing
  • Exciting use cases with Mu-MIMO and 802.11AD
  • MU-MIMO devices already in the market
  • 802.11 AD device deployment progress
  • More information

You can download the presentation given at the Qualcomm 3G/LTE Summit here.

Companies Cited

  • Acer
  • Aruba
  • Asus
  • Chadwick Martin Bailey
  • Cisco
  • D-Link
  • Dell
  • HTC
  • Intel
  • Lenovo
  • LG Electronics
  • Linksys
  • Netgear
  • Qualcomm
  • Samsung
  • SiBeam
  • Tensorcom
  • TP-LINK
  • TRENDnet
  • Wi-Fi Alliance
  • Wilocity
  • Xiaomi
  • ZTE