Typically, we focus on the speed of mobile data connections, and sometimes on those related to fiber optic connections, but ignore the others, and all are part of the same communications network that works so that the information come to us in a more fluid way. The arrival of Bluetooth 5.0 has been overlooked , for example, and the WiFi connection does not enjoy too much audience either.
But Intel is ready to launch chips with a new standard, one that aims to bring the current maximum speed of a WiFi connection 55% further with WiFi ax. Maybe you do not have any devices with Wi-Fi, or even devices that support Wi-Fi, but they’re all about to look like antediluvians. Intel will start manufacturing chips that support the new WiFi ax standard, and promises more than interesting speeds.
55% faster than the current WiFi ac
Whenever we refer to this type of speed, we talk about theory, because in the laboratory, afterwards, peaks of speed are produced that help, in short, to establish means, and with the averages, the different information that reaches the press is elaborated. The current WiFi ac, for example, is capable of reaching speeds close to 7Gbps, which translates into practice in about 900 megabytes changing place every second.
This is achieved thanks to the fact that it has eight 256-QAM channels of 160MHz each. Each of these eight channels is capable of transferring data at about 870Mbps, giving the total of the 7Gbps that we mentioned previously. But this is talking about maximum speed because in real life it is usual to use no more than two or three of these eight channels, which leaves the speed in about a third, around 2 or 2.5 Gpbs.
The tests communicated by Intel have been carried out with Huawei equipment and have been tested in their laboratories. In these, Huawei has obtained maximum speeds of 10.53Gbps, which can translate into a maximum transfer of 1.4 gigas per second. 55% more than the maximum speed of the aforementioned WiFi ac that now boasts the title of the fastest WiFi standard.
The new WiFi ax, or WiFi 802.11ax, operates in the 5GHz band as WiFi ac and uses MIMO-OFDA, acronyms that correspond to multiple input multiple output with orthogonal frequency multiple access division. An interesting gibberish to affirm that it combines channels and frequencies to offer a more optimized transfer and, therefore, a much higher shipping speed.
Although the chips adapted to this new standard WiFi ax will begin to take place this year, the WiFi Alliance estimates that mass adoption will not occur at least until 2019. It seems that the arrival of the new high-speed WiFi networks will coincide almost in the time with the commercial 5G landing. Soon everything will go much faster, and the beneficiaries will be the users.