It could become a real challenge whether to buy a router with a wireless 802.11ac or 802.11n standard. This is because most people don’t see the difference.
They don’t know what’s outdated, and they can’t tell which router is ideal for basic necessities like reading emails, news or the best standard for complex needs like watching movies or sports.
The following comparison between the two standards will help people make an informed choice when choosing a router for their specific needs.
What are 802.11ac and 802.11n?
The wireless network standard used in the world today was created by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, simply known as IEEE. The original standard (802.11) was established in 1997, and it’s available worldwide. It provided a data speed of either 1 or 2 MBTI/s. This standard is available at 2.4 GHz.
However, as network technology continued to advance, other standards were introduced, but home users should be mostly concerned with 802.11ac and 802.11n. The 802.11ac standard is relatively modern and has several improvements from 802.11n.
802.11n
This networking standard uses several antennas that help to increase data rates.
It’s sometimes referred to as MIMO, (Multiple Input and Multiple Output).
The network was developed as an amendment to the IEEE 802.11-2007 wireless networking standard with the purpose of enhancing network throughput over 801.11a and 802.11g.
This improvement came with a significant increase in the maximum data rate, which moved from 54Mbti/s to 600Mbit/s.
In simpler terms, connections with 802.11n support maximum network bandwidth of up to 300mbps. The 802.11n standard operates in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.
802.11ac
Finalized in 2013, the 802.11ac standard is among the most advanced and popular generation of WiFi signaling.
It utilizes dual-band wireless technology that supports simultaneous connections on 5GHz bands. 802.11ac offers backward compatibility to 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11b standards and can deliver 1300 Mbps.
What are the Differences Between 802.11ac and 802.11n?
While both 802.11ac and 802.11n serve the all-important purpose of helping people access data and information from the internet, they feature several differences in terms of range, speed, and capacity. These differences dictate which router is ideal for primary and complicated network requirements as explained below.
The Speed
When creating new wireless technology devices, manufacturers will always prioritize speed. However, with the wireless standards, whether new or old, the figures relating to speed can be very misleading.
- Theoretically, wireless devices with an 802.11ac standard are said to be capable of delivering 1300 megabits per second (MBps). This is over three times faster than the 450MBps attributed to devices with 802.11n standard.
However, devices with either 802.11ac or 802.11n standards don’t deliver anything close to these theoretical speeds. In fact, 802.11ac is only able of delivering 90MBps while 802.11n provides 30MBps.
The difference between the real speed and the indicated theoretical speeds is brought about by the fact that 802.11ac can support eight antennas with each one supporting 50MBps, but the fastest router in existence has only four aerials.
Manufacturers cannot fit eight antennas in one device because it adds to the costs and requires quite a lot of space. Furthermore, 802.11n can only support four antennas that deliver about 12.5MBps each.
While this may seem disappointing, the available speeds are still faster than most broadband connections.
They only become frustrating when it comes to transferring files between devices through wireless networks. Conclusively, it’s quite apparent that 802.11ac is faster than 802.11n.
Signal Range
Range refers to the distance through which a wireless standard can send signals.
- When comparing the range between 802.11ac and 802.11n, the foremost thing to note is that the former standard works only on the 5GHz spectrum while 802.11n operates on both 5GHz and 2.4GHz.
This is a vital point to keep in mind because lower bands travel further, so it may seem that 802.11n has a more extended range as compared to 802.11ac. But there’s a twist; 2.4GHz is used for almost every electrical appliance including cordless home phones, Bluetooth and microwaves. This means that signals on this spectrum receive a lot of interruption. It also implies that their efficiency is significantly lowered particularly at longer distances.
The devices with 802.11ac standard use beamforming—a wireless signal that’s produced by the router and sent directly to nearby devices, which minimizes the chances of interruption.
Furthermore, the beam-forming feature works by detecting the location of the device and intensifies the signal specifically towards that direction. This is entirely different from 802.11n devices, which send wireless signals in all directions whether they’re operating on 2.4GHz or 5GHz.
Therefore, the signals produced by the 802.11n standard are notably weaker at longer distances.
Capacity
The term capacity denotes the number of connected devices each standard can support at a go.
- For optimal performance, 802.11n can only support 40 devices while 802.11ac can accommodate 100 devices. This limitation is largely attributable to bandwidth rather than hardware.
With the wireless network, users share the internet on an AP system, which means that each one of them gets a portion of the shared bandwidth.
If 802.11n delivers 450MBps that need to be distributed to 50 devices; each user will only receive 9MBps. On the other hand, if 40 users shared bandwidth on an 802.11ac standard that delivers 1300MBps, each person would receive about 32.5 megabits per second.
When the real speeds and such factors as spectrum interference that affect bandwidth are considered in both scenarios, the shared amount of Megabytes is even less. This means that 802.11ac has a higher capacity than 802.11n technology.
Bottom Line
In conclusion, the difference between 802.11ac and 802.11n is speed, capacity, and range.
At a theoretical rate of 1300MBps, 802.11ac is three times faster than 802.11n, which delivers 450MBps. When it comes to range, 802.11ac delivers uninterrupted and stronger signals than 802.11n over the very same distance.
802.11ac clearly reigns over 802.11n when it comes to capacity as its bandwidth allows more users to connect to the same AP system.