Next Generation 802.11ac Wireless LAN Technology with 1Gbps Throughput

WiFi is one of the most preferred LAN communication protocol due to its easy compatibility and convenience for usage in digital home. While consumer PC products have just started to migrate to much higher bandwidth 802.11n, now the work on next generation WLAN standard definition is already in progress. Named as 802.11ac, it is expect to boost the network bandwidth up to 1Gbps, on par with what can be achieved by wired networking in today’s PC world.

The design goal has been focused much on how to scale up its bandwidth significantly. If you aware, 802.11n has able to push its data rate up to 300Mbps utilizing its MIMO technology, which is already few times higher than conventional 802.11b/g standard, but it will never enough to cater for much higher resolution media streaming in digital home. No information on what kind of technology it will be based on, but some details such as backward compatibility to existing 802.11x, automatic detection of legacy networks, training for wider channels are already in the plan for further discussion and execution. And the next step would be definition on the structure of packet, PHY (physical layer) and MAC (media access control), QOS (Quality of Service), Error Correction technique and many more with final intention to have an ultra high wireless bandwidth protocol suitable for various usages.

However, you may still need for quite a while before it is ready by 2013.