WiFi Alliance Expands "Certified" AC Standards

The WiFi Alliance just made it easier for IT directors to pick out client devices with the latest and greatest 802.11ac Wave 2 capabilities. The latest revision to the "Certified" stamp for 802.11ac indicates wireless gear with some key new operating standards.

Multi-User, Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MU-MIMO)
This Wave 2 AC feature improves upon Single User MIMO technology, which allows one client device to communicate wirelessly with an access point across multiple spatial streams at the same time. Before MIMO, client devices could only transmit on one radio spatial stream at a time.

Image from ontheflywifi.net

Multi-user MIMO now allows multiple client devices to simultaneously transmit and receive data from a compliant access point, which is an important innovation to meet the increased density and demand more and more wireless clients are placing on wireless networks. Most mobile devices these days only have enough antennas in them to communicate across 1 or 2 spatial streams. However, access points often have 3 or 4 spatial streams available. MU-MIMO allows an access point to use all of those spatial streams to serve data requests from more devices at once. Moving forward, 802.11ac "Certified" devices will support Multi-user MIMO.

160 MHz Channels
The 802.11ac standard allows devices to utilize significantly larger channel bandwidths. While 802.11n only permitted 20 MHz and 40 MHz channels on the 5 GHz band, with 802.11ac, 80 MHz, and 160 MHz sized-channels are possible. The bigger the channel, the higher the data transfer rate.

The previous version of the Certified stamp for 802.11ac only guaranteed use with 80 MHz channels. The new version promises compatibility for 160 MHz channels.

Image from meraki.cisco.com

However, it's worth noting that the leading WiFi experts still only recommend 20 MHz channels be used in high-density areas, because the 5 GHz frequency band has room for significantly more channels at that size. When you crank things up to 180 MHz, there are only two non-overlapping channels available, and your data transmissions are subject to much more interference, which in turn slows down your transfer rates. While it's nice to know the "Certified" AC stamp means 160 MHz is supported, the actual use-cases for channels of that size are going to be very rare -- even if you can manage to find a clean RF environment to use them in.

Four Spatial Streams
The latest "Certified" indicator from the WiFi Alliance means the device can operate on four spatial streams, a boost from the three promised previously. That means a potential 33% boost in transfer speeds over the same devices communicating with only three spatial streams.

When it comes to designing your network infrastructure, it's important to remember that the slowest device in a data chain will act as a bottle neck within that chain, and WiFi is no exception. Having 802.11ac Wave 2 access points throughout your building won't impact a performance boost over Wave 1 APs if your client devices aren't also rated for Wave 2 features. While Wave 2 clients are still few and far between (the technology is still fairly new), this new certification standard for 802.11ac from the WiFi Alliance will make it easier for IT to ensure their wireless devices are all firing on the same cylinders.

Cicso Meraki releases wave 2 access points, among other new products

Cisco Meraki is kicking off 2016 with key releases from all four of its products families: wireless, switching, security appliances, and mobile device management. The most noteworthy addition, is an 802.11ac wave 2 access point, crashing the market at an aggressive $1099 price point.

Meraki's new MR42 802.11ac Wave 2 access point

The MR42 sports 3x3 radio chains with wave 2's signature multi-user MIMO. It also includes a 4th radio chain dedicated to blue tooth. With multi-user MIMO in full swing, the new access point is capable of an aggregate data rate of up to 1.9 Gbps - communicating simultaneously with MU-MIMO compliant client devices. While MU-MIMO devices still have yet to hit the market, wave 2 access points currently represent the cutting edge in high-density WiFi solutions for the looming future of bring-your-own-device dynamics. WiFi experts agree that the capacity limits of 802.11n, 802.11ac wave 1 access points, and their single-user MIMO capabilities will fall short of efficiently servicing the wireless connectivity needs of the device volume we'll see by 2020. Those who want to be prepared for that future now, would do well to consider adopting 802.11ac wave 2 access points.

In Meraki's switching department, new fiber switches with 16 and 32 SFP interfaces are now available in the MS 410 series. These models feature two SFP+ (1/10 GbE) uplinks (four of them in the 32 port model), and are virtually and physically stackable up to 8 units. The MS410-16 hardware is priced at $8,500, while the 32 port version (MS410-32) is $15,000.

MS 410-16, Meraki's new 16 port, fiber aggregation switch

When it comes to security appliances, Meraki announces the MX65 and MX65w. These new firewalls feature 2 dedicated internet ports for failover, eight 1 Gig ethernet ports, along with 2 PoE+ lan ports and support up to 50 concurrent client devices. The additional ethernet ports mean cost savings for smaller network deployments, as investing in an additional switch may not be necessary to enjoy Meraki's layer 7 management capabilities in switching. The MX65w packs the same punch, but with 802.11ac wireless capabilities also built in. Hardware MSRP is $945 for the MX65, and $1,245 for the MX65w. For small office deployments, the MX65w potentially represents an all-in-one solution for not only a stateful firewall and redundant internet uplinks, but also enterprise, gigabit switching, and 802.11ac wireless connectivity.

Meraki's new MX65w: an all-in-one firewall, switch, and 802.11ac access point

Finally, Meraki rounds out its surge of product updates in a number of improvements to their mobile device manager solution, Systems Manager / Sentry. Systems Manager now includes support for Android for Work applications, FileVault2 integration, as well as added Windows 10 network options. Additionally, new Windows 10 and OSX features make desktop management easier, and include a more powerful and user-friendly installer. Systems Manager is always free to try and use for up to 100 devices. For networks needing to register more than 100 devices, MSRP is $40 per device per year, $80 per device per 3-years and $120 per device per 5-years.

All of these new additions make Meraki's cloud-based solution and industry leading layer-7 management more attainable for smaller enterprise networks. All this and more are available on our website, www.copperwifi.com, with additional discounts available on Meraki orders over $5,000.