802.11ac: A Survival Guide Matthew S. Gast 802.11ac: A Survival Guide by Matthew S. Gast Copyright © 2013 Matthew S. Gast. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (http://safaribooksonline.com). For more information, contact our corporate/ institutional sales department: 800-998-9938 or [email protected]. Editors: Mike Loukides and Meghan Blanchette Cover Designer: Karen Montgomery Production Editor: Kristen Borg Interior Designer: David Futato Proofreader: Rachel Head Illustrators: Robert Romano and Rebecca Demarest August 2013: First Edition Revision History for the First Edition: 2013-07-22: First release 2015-07-17: Second release See http://oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781449343149 for release details. Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O’Reilly logo are registered trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. 802.11ac: A Survival Guide, the image of a common European eel, and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O’Reilly Media, Inc., was aware of a trade‐ mark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. ISBN: 978-1-449-34314-9 [LSI] For L., who reminds me it’s okay to have my head in the clouds sometimes. And for the NCSA instruction team who made me into a pilot so I can get there: Mike, Terence, Larry, Mike, John, Buzz, and John. Table of Contents Foreword. vii Preface. xi 1. Introduction to 802.11ac. 1 History 1 The Core Technology of 802.11ac 4 Beamforming and Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) 6 Operating Frequency Band for 802.11ac 8 802.11ac Product Development Plans 9 2. The PHY. 11 Extended MIMO Operations 11 Radio Channels in 802.11ac 12 Radio Channel Layout 12 Available Channel Map 15 Transmission: Modulation, Coding, and Guard Interval 17 Modulation and Coding Set (MCS) 17 Guard Interval 20 Error-Correcting Codes 21 PHY-Level Framing 21 The VHT Signal Fields 23 The Data Field 28 The Transmission and Reception Process 29 802.11ac Data Rates 32 802.11ac Data Rate Matrix 32 Comparison of 802.11ac Data Rates to Other 802.11 PHYs 35 Mandatory PHY Features 36 v 3. The MAC. 37 Framing 37 Frame Size and Aggregation 38 Management Frames 40 Medium Access Procedures 44 Clear-Channel Assessment (CCA) 45 Protection and Coexistence of 802.11ac with Older 802.11 Devices 48 Dynamic Bandwidth Operation (RTS/CTS) 50 Security 54 Mandatory MAC Features 56 4. Beamforming in 802.11ac. 59 Beamforming Basics 60 Null Data Packet (NDP) Beamforming in 802.11ac 65 Single-User (SU) Beamforming 69 Channel Calibration for Single-User Beamforming 70 Multi-User (MU) Beamforming 74 Channel Calibration for Multi-User Beamforming 74 Multi-User MIMO Transmission 78 MU-MIMO Implementation 82 5. 802.11ac Planning. 87 Getting Ready for 802.11ac 88 Catching the 802.11ac Technology Wave 89 Client Device Mix 91 Application Planning 93 Physical Network Connections 95 Security 98 Additional Planning Considerations 100 802.11ac Radio Planning 101 Available Radio Channels 101 Coverage and Capacity Estimates 101 Equipment Selection 106 Network Architecture for 802.11ac 109 Hardware Considerations 115 Building an 802.11ac Network 118 Channel Selection 118 Network Tuning and Optimization 120 Checklist 124 Glossary. 127 vi | Table of Contents Foreword Today, it’s easy to take Wi-Fi and its magical benefits for granted. Wi-Fi is a fundamental part of our Internet ecosystem—it’s hard to imagine a world without it. In fact, the world without Wi-Fi wouldn’t be the world we have; we’d be missing out on vast elements of the Internet’s potential. But the invention of Wi-Fi wasn’t inevitable. The technological innovation we call Wi-Fi required a major innovation in U.S. government spectrum policy. Wi-Fi is a use of spectrum on an unlicensed basis, and the Federal Communications Commission (the U.S. government agency created more than 75 years ago to manage communications, including those using electromagnetic spectrum) didn’t allow that type of use until 1985. Spectrum frequencies were assigned only on an exclusive li‐ censed basis. These exclusive licenses—granted to launch radio, TV, satellite, and back‐ haul transmissions—helped create tremendous economic and social value, so maybe it wasn’t a surprise that the FCC hadn’t authorized spectrum bands for unlicensed use. But then, along came an idea: there were some bands of spectrum that were lying largely fallow—at 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, and 5.8 GHz. Nobody could figure out what they could be licensed for. The bands were surrounded by other commercial uses, and transmis‐ sions at high or even moderate power levels or distances would cause interference. These became known as the “garbage” or “junk bands,” and they sat there. That is, until a brilliant policy innovator named Michael Marcus, an FCC staff engineer, suggested that this spectrum be made available for use without a license and on a shared basis, as long as the transmissions were at low power levels and they didn’t interfere with neighboring licensed uses. The bet was that innovators would figure out how to weave value out of that spectrum. Although it wasn’t framed this way at the time, the idea was simple, forward-looking, and in retrospect, obviously consistent with the great arc of American invention: provide a platform for innovation, and innovators will come. vii So on May 9, 1985, the FCC adopted a little-noticed Order on “spread spectrum tech‐ nology” that opened up the junk bands. And innovators got to work. Before long, someone had invented garage-door openers using unlicensed spectrum; then wireless microphones, cordless phones, Bluetooth, and eventually Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi has had staggering success: from a standing start, it’s now been adopted in roughly 200 million households worldwide. There are more than 750,000 Wi-Fi hot spots glob‐ ally, and over 800 million Wi-Fi-enabled devices are sold every year. And all of these metrics are growing. Devices and services built on unlicensed spectrum are an essential part of the U.S. economy: studies estimate that unlicensed spectrum generates as much as $37 billion annually for the U.S. economy. Wi-Fi hot spots in the United States increase the value of licensed broadband service by an estimated $25 billion a year. And the benefits have dovetailed into other key sectors: 80% of wireless healthcare innovations, for example, are now on done on unlicensed spectrum, according to one report. Unlicensed spectrum is transforming our homes, with amazing products already in the market offering entirely new and exciting ways to enjoy music and video, and other products to drive energy efficiency. Wi-Fi is a key basis of machine-to-machine communications—or the Internet of Things—a swiftly emerging market with potential to transform any number of sectors; we’ve had a 300% increase in connected M2M devices using unlicensed spectrum in the past five years, and that’s just the beginning. In other words, unlicensed spectrum is a boon for the American economy, and it con‐ tinues today to provide start-ups and innovators access to a test bed for spectrum that is used by millions, helping bring new technologies to consumers in a rapid fashion. Wi-Fi hasn’t been the only major spectrum policy innovation in the last three decades. The FCC pioneered spectrum auctions for the world in the 1990s—an alternative to the less-efficient, case-by-case administration of licenses through lotteries and comparative hearings—and has since conducted over 80 auctions, granting more than 30,000 licen‐ ses. These auctions have generated over $50 billion for the U.S. Treasury and, even more important, over $500 billion in value for the U.S. economy, according to expert economists. The FCC also, quite consequentially, began to grant spectrum licenses for flexible use, rather than strictly circumscribing use to particular purposes. Flexible spectrum rights help ensure spectrum moves to uses valued most highly by markets and consumers, and the FCC has been hard at work the past few years to maximize flexibility and remove outdated use rules and restrictions. viii | Foreword Together, licensed and unlicensed spectrum have given us the amazing mobile Internet ecosystem we enjoy today—smartphones, tablets, the new “apps economy,” and more. And the mobile revolution is driving economic growth, job creation, and U.S. compet‐ iveness. Nearly $250 billion in private capital has been invested in U.S. wired and wireless broadband networks since 2009; there’s been more private investment in ICT than any other U.S. sector, including by major oil and gas or auto companies. The U.S. is the first country deploying 4G LTE networks at scale, and in late 2012 we had as many LTE subscribers as the rest of the world combined, making us the global test bed for next generation 4G apps and services. The new mobile apps economy—a made-in-the-U.S.A. phenomenon—has already cre‐ ated more than 500,000 U.S. jobs, and more than 90% of smartphones sold globally in 2012 run operating systems developed by U.S.