RESEARCH BRIEF and PRESENTATION: MU-MIMO and 802.11ad Wi-Fi Evolve the User Experience

In addition to 3G and 4G, Wi-Fi has been one of the backbones of the growth of wireless technology and devices, including the growth of the IoT (internet of things). Wi-Fi has gone through many stages in its evolution including multiple versions of 2.4 GHz 802.11 standards including 802.11a/b/g/n and 5 GHz 802.11ac.All of this is was enabled by unlicensed 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands of spectrum that have been made available for ‘public’ use without a license. In recent years, this has alsoWiFiLogo expanded to 60 GHz with 802.11ad, also known as WiGig, to help solve certain congestion issues on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. Service providers, operators, enterprises and others are looking to Wi-Fi to deliver the majority of their end-point connectivity to users and many mobile device makers and router makers are jumping on-board.

Research Brief Table of Contents

  • Summary
  • MU-MIMO Helps Solve Capacity and Bandwidth Issues
  • MU-MIMO Makes the Most of the Available Bandwidth
  • MU-MIMO Improves Range and Simultaneous Device Usage
  • OEMs Already Using MU-MIMO in Routers, Smartphones, and More
  • 802.11ad Brings More Bandwidth and Improved Experience
  • 802.11ad’s Weaknesses are Also its Strengths
  • Tri-Band Solutions are the Answer to Multiple Problems
  • The Use Cases for 802.11ad Span Both Consumer and Enterprise
  • 802.11ad is Transitioning to Mobile From Notebooks
  • Call to Action
  • Testing Methodology
  • Figure 1: Smartphone Feature Preference
  • Figure 2: Smartphone Wi­Fi Test Results
You can download the paper here.

Presentation Table of Contents

Patrick Moorhead presenting on MU-MIMO and 802.11AC WiFi
Patrick Moorhead presenting on MU-MIMO and 802.11AC WiFi
  • WiFi and integral part of the user experience
  • WiFi challenging the user experience
  • Enter tri-band (2.4, 5, 60Ghz.)
  • MU-MIMO real world testing
  • Exciting use cases with Mu-MIMO and 802.11AD
  • MU-MIMO devices already in the market
  • 802.11 AD device deployment progress
  • More information
You can download the presentation given at the Qualcomm 3G/LTE Summit here.

Companies Cited

  • Acer
  • Aruba
  • Asus
  • Chadwick Martin Bailey
  • Cisco
  • D-Link
  • Dell
  • HTC
  • Intel
  • Lenovo
  • LG Electronics
  • Linksys
  • Netgear
  • Qualcomm
  • Samsung
  • SiBeam
  • Tensorcom
  • TP-LINK
  • TRENDnet
  • Wi-Fi Alliance
  • Wilocity
  • Xiaomi
  • ZTE
Anshel Sag
VP & Principal Analyst |  + posts

Anshel Sag is Moor Insights & Strategy’s in-house millennial with over 18 years of experience in the IT industry. Anshel has had extensive experience working with consumers and enterprises while interfacing with both B2B and B2C relationships, gaining empathy and understanding of what users really want. Some of his earliest experience goes back as far as his childhood when he started PC gaming at the ripe of old age of 5, building his first PC at 11, and learning his first programming languages at 13.

Anshel Sag
VP & Principal Analyst |  + posts

Anshel Sag is Moor Insights & Strategy’s in-house millennial with over 18 years of experience in the IT industry. Anshel has had extensive experience working with consumers and enterprises while interfacing with both B2B and B2C relationships, gaining empathy and understanding of what users really want. Some of his earliest experience goes back as far as his childhood when he started PC gaming at the ripe of old age of 5, building his first PC at 11, and learning his first programming languages at 13.