I'm looking at setting up a network with full WiFi coverage.
Right now I'm still comparing access points to mesh.
I see the options for AC access points offer wireless bandwidth in excess of 1Gbps. Like AC1200.
What I don't understand is how this is possible given the Ethernet backhaul is running at max 1000 Mbps.
I get that the total bandwidth is shared among all devices connected to that access point, and also between the 2.4 & 5 GHz bands.
Still, given that the AP can only send & receive data at the gigabit speed of the backhaul, the total bandwidth available to all clients must be limited to a gigabit?
Is there something I'm missing?
Because it seems pointless to get faster than 1000Mbps AC access points.
Best Answer
The IEEE has proposed IEEE 802.3bz for 2.5 (Category-5e and Category-6 cable) and 5 Gbps (Category-6 cable) ethernet on UTP to complement the existing 10GBASE-T (Category-6a cabling) standard. There is the NBASE-T Alliance that has a lot of companies signed up to take advantage of the new standard. This was driven in large part by faster WAPs.
Cisco also has an option to allow two 1000BASE-T network connections between some WAPs and switches to be combined in a single channel. Cisco now some switch modules and WAPs that work with the NBASE-T standard.
Other companies are also releasing products that work with the NBASE-T standard.
As it stands today, this is going to be expensive, enterprise-grade equipment, and not for home networking, as your original question asks.