“It’s only the first day of CES 2018 in Vegas, but already a definite trend is emerging: AX Wi-Fi routers,” Chris Mills reports for BGR. “The new standard, 802.11ax, is the next big evolution in Wi-Fi. It handles multiple devices — like all your smart-home gadgets — much better than existing routers, and also has a headline-grabbing top speed of 6,000Mbps, about 300 times faster than the average home internet speed.”
“D-Link and Asus have already unveiled 802.11ax routers at CES this year, and you can expect to see more routers, as well as devices that can handle the speed, announced as the show goes on,” Mills reports. “802.11ax isn’t technically ready for commercial release just yet. The Wi-Fi Alliance, a consortium of companies that designs and certifies Wi-Fi standards, isn’t planning on certifying devices until later this year. The routers being unveiled at CES will have the hardware to support the standard, but devices that can use the speeds won’t be available for months.”
Mills reports, “But unlike some previous changes, 802.11ax isn’t so much about pushing top speeds — it’s more interesting for its ability to handle many devices at once, or work better in a congested radio environment.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: City dwellers, rejoice!
And just like that, mesh routing (the next great thing) has been kicked to the curb by 802.11ax?
Serious question for you techies out there:
Is there a reason that mesh routing won’t work under 802.11ax?
802.11ax is being implemented with Mesh Routing in-mind.
Qualcomm is betting 802.11ax Mesh WiFi is the future of connected homes.
A quick Google search for 802.11ax Mesh will provide you with more information.
All for naught if the ISPs cannot get the content to you.
I have an eero setup connected to Comcast that as I write is running at 124 Mbps down. I get my TV via DIRECTVNOW. There should be no problem getting an HD signal to my Apple TV or Roku or iPad or iPhone.
As I attempted to watch the College Football Playoff the ESPN feed stuttered and stammered even as other channels streamed perfectly well from DTVN. This has happened before on major sporting events and my guess is that AT&T has some work to do as they could not keep the pipes full for those of us watching the game online- and the ESPN was showing the same problem.
You can have a fast router and fast ISP connection, but if the servers supplying the content are not up to demand, streaming video is more a promise than a fact.