By Ki Grinsing

Overview

The new 5^th generation of Wi-Fi network (802.11ac) based products are coming to the shelf’s store. Even though 802.11ac is still draft (expected to be final end of the year), many wireless manufacturers are showing off their new 5G wifi routers. Netgear with its R6300 AC1300 Wi-Fi router is expected to be available in the store in Jun 2012. Buffalo is also introducing WZR-D1800H AC1300 – N900 dual band gigabit router.

What Buffalo D1800h Product Does

Buffalo WZR-D1800H – Click for spec details

So far Buffalo introduces two types of dual band wireless router, the first one is so popular WZR-HP-AG300H which is concurrent dual band N600 router with DD-WRT firmware. And the second one is the upcoming product which is based on 5G Wi-Fi network.

5G Wi-Fi network is the ideal solution to accommodate multiple wireless clients with hungry bandwidth applications such as 3DHD video streaming and gaming. It is reasonable since this 802.11ac standard is the future, the fastest wireless technology delivering the high bandwidth of up to 1300Mbps – three times the existing wireless N standards.

Theoretically the speed is exceeding the wired gigabit speed of your gigabit NIC adapter, but in the real world will it deliver gigabit wireless speed? You will justify it later; we know that wireless signal is prone to any types of signal attenuation and other environmental factors.

WZR-HP-AG300H Highlights

• Powered by 5G Wi-Fi technology
• Speeds up to 1300Mbps (three spatial data streams of 433 Mbps each) in 5GHz band, up to 450Mbps in 2.4GHz band
• Beamforming technology to maximize range and performance
• Backward compatible with 802.11a/b/g/n
• Gigabit Ethernet ports (4xLAN and 1xWAN)
• USB 2.0 port for storage port (DLNA compliant) or printer
• Setup is easy, utility supports all Windows and Mac

Besides the 5G wireless technology, the main difference between the WZR-HP-AG300H and WZR-D1800H is the firmware.  WZR-HP-AG300H is powered by DD-WRT firmware but WZR-D1800H is not.

Gigabit interfaces

How to maximize the performance of your Gigabit wireless network? Wireless is a share network; you can add more density of high speed wireless clients. And you may upgrade your wireless adapters that support wireless 802.11ac, the good news is Buffalo introduces WLI-H4-D1300 AirStation AC1300 / N450 4-Port Gigabit Dual Band Wireless Ethernet Bridge. You can add up to four devices such as XBOX, Blu-Ray, HDTV and other computers to the adapter to maximize connection to 5G Wifi network.

5G Wifi technology

WLI-H4-D1300 is based on this 5G Wifi network, dual band with speeds up to 1300Mbps (802.11ac 5GHz band) and 450Mbps (2.4GHz band). This wireless ac bridge is the solution to maximize the data throughput in connecting to the next generation of 5G wifi network.

Networking diagram

Networking diagram can be seen above where WZR-D1800H is the center of the network and the  WLI-H4-D1300 connects to the network with HDTV and XBOX console as the wireless clients. See also WLI-TX4-AG300N Wireless N Dual Band Internet Adapter

By Ki Grinsing