“Look, Wi-Fi still kind of sucks,” Jim Salter writes for Ars Technica. “And marketing excesses aside, its worst problems all revolve around airtime distribution among multiple devices.”
“Unlike LTE (the protocol cellular data uses), 802.11 WI-Fi is a protocol with no central management, which leaves all nearby devices duking it out for airtime like angry, unsupervised toddlers,” Salter writes. “There’s only so much you can do to fix this problem without radically overhauling and replacing 802.11 itself—but as new 802.11 protocols emerge, they do their best.”
“Spoiler alert—despite the obvious congruency of 802.11ax and 802.11ay, one isn’t a successor to the other. 802.11ax is the protocol which will succeed 802.11ac as the next mainstream Wi-Fi protocol we all use at home and in coffee shops, hotels, and so forth,” Salter writes. “If you’re into the Wi-Fi Alliance’s new, supposedly simpler marketing, it’s Wi-Fi 6, compared to today’s Wi-Fi 5… assuming we conveniently ignore the Wi-Fi 4 that’s on the 2.4 GHz radio all of our Wi-Fi 5 devices also have.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, it gets even more confusing in the full article.
We continue to use and recommend eero’s 2nd generation Home Wi-Fi System which offers tri-band WiFi radios, simultaneous 2.4GHz, 5.2GHz and 5.8GHz wireless. 2×2 MU-MIMO, Beamforming, and IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac.
SEE ALSO:
Apple removes all AirPort products from online and retail stores – November 17, 2018
How to set up your home network for many Apple TVs, Macs, iPhones, and iPads – June 12, 2018
Apple begins to sell out of AirPort base stations – May 17, 2018
Requiem for the AirPort base station: A testament to everything Apple was and isn’t anymore – April 27, 2018
Apple makes yet another short-sighted decision: Apple has discontinued a product that it should have made a cornerstone of its home automation and entertainment ecosystem – April 27, 2018
Apple’s decision to discontinue AirPort products is the wrong decision at the wrong time – April 27, 2018
Apple pulls plug on AirPort Wi-Fi router business – April 26, 2018
eero’s new mesh WiFi system packs more power in an Apple-esque design – June 29, 2017
AppleInsider reviews eero Wi-Fi: ‘A solid option for Apple’s outgoing AirPort’ – February 27, 2017
With eero, you can kiss slow Wi-Fi goodbye forever – February 10, 2017
Another space Apple could really reinvent if they cared to instead of leaving it altogether.
… darn you to heck Tim Cook!
Yes = Church Lady