4 ms·

> I guess MU-MIMO helps in theory with that, but doesn’t seem to in practice. I'd really like to see some thorough testing on this. My hunch is that mimo and m

> I guess MU-MIMO helps in theory with that, but doesn’t seem to in practice. I'd really like to see some thorough testing on this. My hunch is that mimo and more importantly beam-forming is something that works under lab conditions if every wifi device in range uses chips from the same manufacturer as the AP, and even then probably still depends on moon phase. Except maybe if you buy really expensive pro gear. If some tech outlet would get a random assortment of popular APs and then test this stuff with a dozen phones and laptops that would surely be interesting.

halJordan 3y ago
Iirc tings like mimo and 1024, let alone 4k, qam don't work unless all clients can use it. So people who proudly say "I havent upgraded my phone is 5 years" are also the ones holding the wifi at 802.11n speeds
- astrange 3y ago
  Low end and IoT devices also tend to only support older WiFi, so you may have to put them on another network.
supertrope 3y ago
MU-MIMO was not popularly supported (iPhones never did). It requires devices to be in different directions from the AP. https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-features/why-you-don-t-need-mu-mimo/ https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-features/w... MIMO is very useful. It literally multiplies link rate. https://www.wiisfi.com/#MIMO https://www.wiisfi.com/#MIMO Beamforming has marginal benefit and is real. Up close your device already has max speed. Far away beamforming won’t help much. It’s in the between that helps, and mostly in the downlink direction as beamforming requires the transmitter have more antennas and DSP resources (aka the access point that’s not running on battery and does not have to be miniaturized like a smartphone). But the uplink direction is usually the range limiting factor. There’s Maximal Ratio Combining for the uplink direction but it again is not universally supported in APs.

halJordan 3y ago

Iirc tings like mimo and 1024, let alone 4k, qam don't work unless all clients can use it. So people who proudly say "I havent upgraded my phone is 5 years" are also the ones holding the wifi at 802.11n speeds

astrange 3y ago
Low end and IoT devices also tend to only support older WiFi, so you may have to put them on another network.

supertrope 3y ago

MU-MIMO was not popularly supported (iPhones never did). It requires devices to be in different directions from the AP. https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-features/why-you-don-t-need-mu-mimo/ https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-features/w... MIMO is very useful. It literally multiplies link rate. https://www.wiisfi.com/#MIMO https://www.wiisfi.com/#MIMO Beamforming has marginal benefit and is real. Up close your device already has max speed. Far away beamforming won’t help much. It’s in the between that helps, and mostly in the downlink direction as beamforming requires the transmitter have more antennas and DSP resources (aka the access point that’s not running on battery and does not have to be miniaturized like a smartphone). But the uplink direction is usually the range limiting factor. There’s Maximal Ratio Combining for the uplink direction but it again is not universally supported in APs.