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RF Basic Background: 2.4G and 5G Band

03/26/2020 34 People found this article helpful 104,796 Views

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    Description

    RF Basic Background: 2.4G and 5G Band

    Resolution

    There are currently five widely adopted standards for 802.11 wireless network. There are 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11 g, 802.11n, and 802.11ac. 802.11ac is the newest and highest capacity standards, while older client devices may not be able to utilize the newer standards. Following table lists the main characters for these five wireless standards. 

    802.11(X) 802.11a 802.11b 802.11g 802.11n 802.11ac
    Standard Approved 1999 1999 2003 2009 2013
    Frequency Band 5 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4/5 GHz 5 GHz
    Channel Width 20 MHz 20 MHz 20 MHz 20/40 MHz 20/40/80/160 MHz
    (160M is optional)
    Non-Overlapping Channels 24 3 3 3/24 24
    MIMO/SISO SISO SISO SISO 4x4 MIMO 8x8 MIMO
    Data Rate 54Mbps 11Mbps 54Mbps 600Mbps
    (3x3, 40MHz)
    1.3Gbps
    (3x3, 80MHz)
    Compatibility 802.11a 802.11b 802.11b/g 802.11a/b/g/n 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
    • 2.4G Band Channels
    • 5G Band Channels
    • 2.4G vs 5G (Pro's and Con's)
      • ?RF interference??
      • Radio frequency barriers


    2.4GHz Band Channels

    In 802.11b/g/n 2.4Ghz radio band, there are 11 22MHz wide separate channels but only three channels (1, 6, and 11) are  non-overlapping . APs and STAs operating in one of these three channels don't interfere with APs and STAs running in the other two channels.

     

    # Channel Frequency (GHz) Location Comments
    1 1 2.412 North America
    North America: C#1-#11
    Europe: C#1-#13
    Japan: C#1-#14
               (802.11bg: #14 only)
    2 2 2.417 North America
    3 3 2.422 North America
    4 4 2.427 North America
    5 5 2.432 North America
    6 6 2.437 North America
    7 7 2.442 North America
    8 8 2.447 North America
    9 9 2.452 North America
    10 10 2.457 North America
    11 11 2.462 North America
    2.4G Band Channel List
    Five possible combinations of non-overlapping channels for 2.4G band. The red color set  in the below picture is recommended. Therefore, to deploy more APs, you are required to try hard to utilize channel 1, 6, and 11. Howerver, for 802.11n 2.4G? when using 40MHz channel width, only one AP can be deployed. Hence, 40 MHz operation in the 2.4 GHz band should be avoided.
    Image
    2.4G  Channel map


    5GHz Band Channels


    In 802.11a/n/ac 5Ghz radio band, there are 24 20MHz wide separate channels and 23 channels are non-overlapping in North America. APs and STAs operating in one of these channels don't interfere with APs and STAs running in the other channels.  However, due to possible interference with radar systems, only the  top four (Indoor Only) and buttom five (North America) channels are commonly used. For the rest 15 channels, the Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) is must applied.
     

    DFS monitors the region frequency of the radar signals. If radar signal is detect on the channel which AP is using, DFS will block the transmission on the channel and randomly switch to another channel to avoid the interference with the region radar system.
      
    # Channel Frequency (GHz) Location Comments
    1 36 5.180 Indoor Only
    North America:C#1-#24
    Europe: C#1-19
    Japan: C#1-#19 
    2 40 5.200 Indoor Only
    3 44 5.220 Indoor Only
    4 48 5.240 Indoor Only
    5 52 5.260 DFS Required
    6 56 5.280 DFS Required
    7 60 5.300 DFS Required
    8 64 5.320 DFS Required
    9 100 5.500 DFS Required
    10 104 5.520 DFS Required
    11 108 5.540 DFS Required
    12 112 5.560 DFS Required
    13 116 5.580 DFS Required
    14 120 5.600 DFS Required
    15 124 5.620 DFS Required
    16 128 5.640 DFS Required
    17 132 5.660 DFS Required
    18 136 5.680 DFS Required
    19 140 5.700 DFS Required
    20 149 5.745 North America
    21 153 5.765 North America
    22 157 5.785 North America
    23 161 5.805 North America
    24 165 5.825 North America
    5G Band Channel List
    Image
    5G  Channel map
    In 5 GHz band, higher data rates (wider channel width) means fewer available channels. With 802.11a, there are a total of 24 non-overlapping channels available, but with 802.11ac, achieving the maximum data rate will reduce the number of non-overlapping channels to two for 80MHz and only one for 160 MHz wide (including DFS).
     
      Including DFS Excluding DFS
    Channel Size North America Europe North America Europe
    40MHz 8  

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