Cisco Aironet 2702i AIR-CAP2702I-E-K9 Folheto

 

 

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3. When Is 802.11ac Happening? 

802.11ac is being aggressively standardized, as shown in 

. A mature Draft 3.0 was completed in May 

2012, at over 300 pages. The Wi-Fi Alliance used 

this draft as the basis for an initial “Wave 1” certification in 

mid-2013. 

IEEE continued to refine the 802.11ac amendment based on a continuous improvement process driven by industry 

experts. This process created a sequence of drafts and culminated in the publication of the ratified version. It was 

completed at the end of 2013. 

In parallel, the Wi-Fi Alliance is expected to develop a Wave 2 certification that encompasses a wider range of 

802.11ac features, such as four spatial streams, 160-MHz operation, and MU-MIMO. The launch date of this wave 

is yet to be determined, as shown in 

. 

Figure 9.    Timeline for 802.11ac Standardization and Certification 

 

4. How Does 802.11ac Affect Me? 

One issue not to worry about is compatibility. 

802.11ac is carefully designed to be maximally forward and backward compatible with 802.11a/n devices. In fact, 

the 802.11ac design is even simpler and more thorough than 802.11n compatibility with 802.11a devices, as 

shown in 

. 

An 802.11ac device must support all the mandatory modes of 802.11a and 802.11n. So an 802.11ac AP can 

communicate with 802.11a and 802.11n clients using 802.11a or 802.11n formatted packets. For this purpose it is 

as if the AP were an 802.11n AP. Similarly, an 802.11ac client can communicate with an 802.11a or 802.11n AP 

using 802.11a or 802.11n packets. Therefore, the emergence of 802.11ac clients will not cause issues with existing 

infrastructure.