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 also 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

- 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