Frequently Asked Questions of WAC730

ProSAFE WAC720 and WAC730 and everything 802.11ac
Frequently Asked Questions
6. What is the benefit of stronger encoding with
256 QAM?
Stronger encoding gives each transmitted bit of data more granular
specification or representation, such that if one bit of data is
corrupted, it is easier to correct the data without retransmission.
Take the easiest example, if you are sending one byte of data and you
can only represent that byte of data as True or False, if this data is
corrupted, you don’t know if the original data is true or false. If you
represent the one byte of data as 10 Trues or 10 Falses, and if the
data is partially corrupted, for example, you receive 9 True and 1 False,
you can reliably guess that the originally transmitted data really is true.
7. What is the benefit of wider channel bandwidth?
To squeeze the data through the medium to the destination, it is
analogous of a car driving on a highway. If the highway has only one
lane, you may get stuck behind someone slow. If the highway now
doubles to two lanes, you have a better probability to go faster. This is
analogous to 802.11ac standard of increasing the channel bandwidth
from 40 MHz to 80 MHz. But keep in mind that the medium (or in
our real world example, highway) is not an infinite resource, so wider
bandwidth has some trade-os such as frequency reuse that will need
to be handled with more intelligent controller-based algorithms for
frequency re-use assignment (which NETGEAR will implement on our
controller code).
8. What are the key dierences between Wave 1 and
Wave 2 802.11ac?
Wave 2 introduced the concept of Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO).
MU-MIMO allows the simultaneous transmission of data to multiple
clients. This is analogous to Hub (802.11ac Wave 1) and Switch
(802.11ac Wave 2) in the wired world. For example, MU-MIMO
will allow the AP to transmit one stream to a WiFi phone and
simultaneously, transmit two streams to a laptop. Wave 1 utilizes
Single User-MIMO (SU-MIMO) – the ability for an AP to send multiple
streams to one device at a time (requiring the device to have more
than 1 antenna).
NETGEAR WAC740 (planned to be released by summer 2016) will be
based on the Wave 2 standard.
9. What is Ensemble Mode management?
Ensemble Mode Management allows centralized configuration and
management of up to 10 like APs as a single group, without the need
for an on-premise controller. With Ensemble, all management is
performed remotely through a single secure management IP address
to the master Access Point’s web browser. As the management
function is hosted on the AP, operational administrative tasks that are
relevant to traditional controller architectures are eliminated — the
purchase, update, support renewal, and HW maintenance of a separate
controller is not required . This is perfect for small and medium
enterprises that do not have the in-house IT resource to support.
Ensemble Mode Management is oered at zero cost allowing SMBs
the opportunity to step up from standalone Access Point deployments
into a transparent and self-organized Wi-Fi network.
10. Can I mix WAC720 and WAC730 in the same
Ensemble group?
No. Ensemble management manages like models of Access Points in
the same group. Users can configure two separate ensemble groups in
the same subnet by defining distinct Ensemble names. WAC720 and
WAC730 need to be defined in separate Ensemble groups.
11. Should I wait for 802.11ac Wave 2 or should I
implement Wave 1 today?
Wave 1 solutions today, such as WAC720 and WAC730 come with
significant performance and reliability improvements over 802.11n
products at a nominal price premium (typically less than 10%). As
trac requirements increase in enterprises, many deployments today
will benefit immediately from the upgrade to 802.11ac Wave 1. Most
of the client devices today are based on Wave 1, and an upgraded
infrastructure can benefit fully without waiting for Wave 2. Note that
Wave 1 APs won’t support Wave 2 clients in MU-MIMO mode.
12. Should I buy NETGEAR 802.11n or ac product?
NETGEAR continues to oer customers cost eective 802.11n
solutions. For many customers, 802.11n is considered ‘good enough’
where dual band APs can be bonded to support 900Mbps throughput.
Consider that the analyst group, IHS Infonetics, pointed to 802.11n
still commanding a clear presence with 1/3 of sales in 2016 in their
Q414 WLAN equipment market share report, with 11ac forming the
remaining lion’s share. At the same time, both WAC720 and WAC730
oer an aordable ‘step up’ in WiFi performance for more demanding
environments. Both operate in either standalone or Ensemble mode
for centralized group management of up to 10 like AP’s without
additional hardware, licenses or support fees. If a customer wants
immediate controller or cloud based deployments, then existing
NETGEAR 802.11n AP managed solutions should be positioned.
Customer’s happy to use WAC720 or WAC730 in standalone or
Ensemble mode will benefit from both being WC7600/WC9500
and Business Central Wireless Manager ready. Controller support is
planned for Q1 ‘16 with Cloud support to follow shortly aerwards.