Wi-Fi standards: differences – these exist
Nowadays, almost nothing works without the Internet. You can connect a device to the Internet via cable or wirelessly via Wi-Fi. But Wi-Fi is not equal to Wi-Fi, because since 1997 always new standards were published, by which the performance of the connection is influenced.
Differences of Wi-Fi standards
Since 1997 numerous standards for Wi-Fi were published, which improved the performance of a Wi-Fi connection. If you want to buy a new Wi-Fi-capable device, it is always important to find out beforehand which Wi-Fi standards are supported by it, since different transmission rates are possible depending on the standard.
- The first standard was “Wi-Fi 802.11“. With each further development, a new or additional letter was written to the label. With this basic value, you can transmit a maximum of 1 Mbit per second. The frequency range is thereby at 2.4 GHz.
- “802.11b” also works with 2.4 GHz. However, a transmission rate of 11 Mbit per second was possible here.
- Almost simultaneously also “802.11a” came out. With this further development, it was possible to transmit up to 54 Mbit per second in the frequency range of 5 GHz.
- “802.11g” also offers a rate of 54 Mbit at 2.4 GHz.
- “802.11n” on the other hand already allows a transmission of 600 Mbit per second. In addition, a frequency range of 2.4 and 5 GHz is possible.
- For several years, there is already the standard “802.11ac“, with which you can transmit up to 1,300 Mbit per second. However, this is used in only a few devices.
- In addition, there is “802.11ad“, which operates in the frequency range of 60 GHz. Theoretically, 7,000 Mbit per second are possible.
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