A new white paper from wireless networking test specialist LitePoint discusses how the new 802.11ac Wi-Fi specification will affect the requirements for test equipment necessary to validate the technology in both R&D and manufacturing environments for WLAN communication systems.
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The document initially covers the motivations, key features, and market forecast for 802.11ac, then reviews the current 802.11ac physical layer (PHY), and the applications enabled by new 802.11ac capabilities. It then goes on to describe how 802.11ac devices make use of the same OFDM modulation principles as 802.11n, but use wider channel bandwidth, higher modulation, more stream, and enhanced MIMO techniques to increase throughput and enable faster applications.
LitePoint contends that designers and manufacturers of 802.11ac devices need to understand the requirements for the new technology, not only to create their products, but also to ensure that their test equipment is able to tackle the challenges of accurately testing performance.
Read the white paper here.
See also:De-mystifying 802.11ac wireless