Clear Flow Beam 5

There are 3 main factors when considering the specification of a WiFi device; processing power, transmission power, and bandwidth. Processing power is determined by the number and quality of the processing chips used in the device. 

Said chips are the brain of the device; the more powerful/numerous they are directly related to the efficiency and capability of the unit when handling data. 

Transmission power or TX power is the maximum signal output the device is capable of without the aid of additional antennae (measured in dBm). 

This relates to the device’s ability to transmit over a distance; the larger the distance, the greater the required TX power. TX power also gives an indication of the device’s ability to function in dense environments where multiple walls will be a factor. 

Lastly we have bandwidth; bandwidth refers to the theoretical maximum 2-way throughput of a device. For example; a 300Mbps WiFi device is called such as it is capable of up to 150Mbps download and 150Mbps upload simultaneously, totaling 300Mbps ‘bandwidth’. Bandwidth essentially represents how much data can be passing in and out of your WiFi unit at any given point. 

The larger the bandwidth the greater the number of possible connections, as well as the bandwidth allocated to each connection. Bandwidth is however limited by the incoming broadband speed so it is not always the best measure of how well an access point will perform, the other two factors are usually more important.