Apple Plans to Offer 802.11ac 5G (Gigabit Wi-Fi) This Year! Why 5G?

Apple is reportedly planning to offer 802.11ac 5G (Gigabit Wi-Fi ) system to its users by the end of this year. This new 5G connectivity would be offered on all new AirPort base stations, Time Capsule, Apple TV, notebooks and potentially its mobile devices.

The new 802.11ac standard achieves much faster wireless networking speeds than the existing 802.11n specification (in use on the latest Mac, AirPort and iOS devices) by using 2 to 4 times the frequency bandwidth (from 80 to 160MHz), more efficient data transfers through sophisticated modulation, and more antennas (up to 8; existing standards support up to 4, while Apple’s Macs currently use up to 3).

Though, the an official standard by the 802.11 Working Group has not been announced yet, Apple is doing its best to adopt new fastest 802.11.ac standard and has made a considerable progress in this concern.

Why 5G (Gigabit Wi-Fi) Technology is Essential for Future Needs?

Digital-content consumption is on a steep incline, with video content expected to reach approximately 90 percent of global consumer traffic, according to Cisco’s 2011 Visual Networking Index Forecast. At the same time, Internet traffic is shifting rapidly from wired to wireless networks. The increased reliance on wireless networks, the explosion of video consumption and the growing number of wireless devices being used are all putting tremendous stress on legacy 802.11a/b/g/n networks. As a result, consumers are prone to experience deteriorated performance, choppy videos and slower load times. 5G (Gigabit Wi-Fi) technology only offers the remedy to these issues. Via: 5G Wi-Fi

Many chipset suppliers have already incorporated 5G (Gigabit Wi-Fi) technology in their latest chips for mobile and smartphone devices. Broadcom, a major Apple’s supplier of components, has also announced that the company will soon push out their chips supporting 5G connectivity, at CES 2012.

In addition to reaching networking speeds above 1 Gigabit (about three times as fast as 802.11n networks can manage), 802.11ac promises better networking range, improved reliability, and more power efficient chips, thanks to parallel advances in reducing chip size and enhancing power management.

For detailed information, you can visit AppleInsider.