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4x4 MIMO = 4 spatial streams?

1 posts by 1 authors in: Forums > CWDP & CWAP - Enterprise Wi-Fi Design & Analysis
Last Post: July 9, 2010:

By SimplyWifi July 9, 2010

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[quote]Does a 4x4 MIMO system mean it has to be using 4 spatial streams?[/quote]

Short answer is no. 4x4 just refers to the number of transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) radio chains, respectively. If you take a look at the Wifi Alliance certificate for that product (click the 'view' link once the page loads) you can see that it only supports 2 spatial streams.

http://www.wi-fi.org/search_products.php?search=1&advanced=1&lang=en&filter_company_id=1518&filter_category_id=1&filter_subcategory=&filter_cid=&date_from=&date_to=&x=52&y=16

Overall, this AP looks rather feature-poor.

To get a good explanation of 802.11n terminology and nomenclature I'd recommend checking out Marcus Burton's blog post about the first 3x3:3 certified access point:

http://www.cwnp.com/index/cwnp_wifi_blog/5202

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