Silex Technology America provides a variety of both single band and dual band Wi-Fi products. Depending on the application, a lower cost single band solution may be adequate. However,
as more Wi-Fi implementations move to dual-band, the cost premium is rapidly decreasing which in turn will further propagate this industry trend.

In this blog I will try to clarify the benefits of dual-band 802.11 implementations.

Dual-Band Benefits:

 802.11ag Combines Best of Both Worlds

Market Trend:

Due to the above benefits, dual-band solutions are increasingly being implemented in both enterprise and now consumer environments. Dual-band chipset growth is as follows (millions of units):

(Source: Techno Systems Research, 2010 Wireless Connectivity Market Analysis)

802.11n?

Wireless designs are now likely to be based on the new 802.11n standard. There are a variety of options for 802.11n but there will be both single-band (2.4 GHz) and dual band (2.4/5 GHz) solutions.

The “Apple Effect”

On January 27, 2010, Apple changed the world with the introduction of the iPad. Unit shipments for this revolutionary handheld tablet in 2010 have been projected to be over 13.8 million units (iSupply October 2010). Like previous successful Apple product introductions, the iPad has been designed with a great user experience in mind.

Part of the user experience was the decision is implement a dual-band WiFI solution to improve performance in streaming multi-media content and to improve overall wireless connectivity. While there have been initial problems reported with Apple’s implementation, Silex expects that other consumer device manufacturers will also follow Apple’s lead in implementing dual-band Wifi. Consumer adoption will result in a smaller cost difference between single and dual-band solutions which will further increase dual-band demand.