Electronic – Why is wired Ethernet losing its speed advantage over wireless

data-rateethernettcp/ipwifiwireless

This has been bugging me for a while now. I did a couple wireless transmission courses back in my university days and it's a known fact that wireless transmission is hard. Partly because it's a shared channel, physical objects can be in the way, air provides quite a bit of loss, etc.

So why is wireless transmission catching up to Ethernet in terms of transmission speed?

We see MKBHD in this video going to some street with a phone and getting over 1Gbps. Surely a reserved and shielded Ethernet channel should give us 1Tbps right?

I feel we are just not trying enough on the Ethernet side of things. Is it the case?

Best Answer

Wired ethernet is not losing its advantage. There are standards out there for 10Gig Ethernet (802.3ae), 40Gig Ethernet (802.3ba), and 25Gig Ethernet (802.3bq). These are primarily backbone/backhaul standards.

It's not an apples-to-apples comparison to compare 20-year-old (1 Gb Ethernet) or 25-year-old (100 Mb/s "Fast Ethernet") technology to the latest in wireless just because that's what's available in the consumer market.