Video requires 802.11ac

The 802.11ac standard addresses these new business requirements to achieve the goal of higher data rate and greater link reliability by sophisticated RF architectural enhancements that include:

Wider channel support – 802.11ac mandates support of 80MHz wide channels with optional 160MHz wide channels to achieve higher data rates than are achieved with 802.11n.

Table 1 - 802.11ac Data Rates by Channel Width

	Channel Width
#Spatial Streams	20 MHz	40 MHz	80 MHz	160 MHz
1	86 Mbps	200 Mbps	433 Mbps	866 Mbps
2	173 Mbps	400 Mbps	866 Mbps	1.73 Gbps
3	288.9 Mbps	600 Mbps	1.3 Gbps	2.34 Gbps
4	346.7 Mbps	800 Mbps	1.73 Gbps	3.46 Gbps

Achieving higher data rates, however, comes at a cost: fewer available channels in the 5 GHz band. With 802.11a, there are a total of 24 non-overlapping channels available, but with 802.11ac, achieving the maximum data rate possible reduces that number to two for 80MHz and only one for 160 MHz wide channels.

Table 2 - Available 802.11ac Channels

	Including DFS*		Excluding DFS
Channel size	US	EUROPE	US	EUROPE
40 MHz	8	9	4	2
80 MHz	4	5	2	1
160 MHz	1	2	--	---

* DFS = Dynamic Frequency Selection – for avoiding interference with Weather Radar

Achieving maximum data rates with 802.11ac can be an insurmountable “coverage” challenge for traditional Wi-Fi vendors (see Table 3) for whom it is imperative to have at least three non-overlapping channels for adequate pervasive coverage. Meru’s technology is built with a single channel architecture and can maximize the performance and coverage of a 802.11ac-class solution, making Meru the de facto vendor able to deploy facility-wide solutions.