Networking InfoBrief

pg 2

An IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Linksys

Our Neglected Workhorse

The Home Network

First, it was just our PCs connecting to the Internet, our desktops and laptops.

Then video game consoles. Then smartphones, tablets, televisions, Blu-ray players,

media streamers and home automation devices.

The average home has more than 8 devices connecting to the Internet, and

they’re not used for just sending emails and tweets. We’re streaming movies and

TV shows in high denition, we’re video chatting with our friends and family, and

we’re playing video games against competitors around the globe, all on dierent

devices and often at the same time.

All of it relies on that connection to the Internet, and at the heart of it all sits the

humble home network router. Over the years, routers have boosted their speed

and range tremendously, from the lowly 11 megabits per second of 802.11b at the

beginning of the century to the 1.3 gigabits found in some 802.11ac routers today.

But a lot of that capacity goes to waste, causing trac jams in our homes that lead

to jittery video chats and interrupted video streams. The latest Wi-Fi technology,

MU-MIMO, hopes to change all that — not with more power, but more ecient

use of the throughput already available.

The average home has more

than 8 devices connecting

to the Internet, and they’re

not used for just sending

emails and tweets.

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