Cisco Aironet 1600 Deployment Manual page 48

802.11ac Primer – How is it different from 802.11n?
802.11ac Wave-2 features include: (Note this paper concentrates on Wave-1) as Wave-2 is still in flux.
Everything supported in Wave-1
•
Multi-user MIMO <Multiple Input Multiple Output> client enhancement
•
Bonding up to 160 MHz
•
Faster Ethernet uplinks exceeding GbE
•
Figure 61
Figure 62
So the net take-away is that 802.11ac permits faster speeds – allowing clients to take advantage of the
additional bandwidth and complex modulation for over-all performance enhancement while maintaining
backward compatibility with 802.11n and 802.11a/g systems already in place.
Cisco Aironet Series 1600/2600/3600 Access Point Deployment Guide, Release 7.5
48
1 Spatial Stream MCS rates for 801.11n (left) and 1 Spatial Stream MCS rates for
802.11ac
Channel bonding allows more usable bandwidth (similar to a multi-lane highway)