What is Beamforming?

Why do we need Beamforming?

Signal interference

Wireless communication is kind of like road traffic. The difference being that on-going cars have are balanced to achieve faster and safer driving, but wireless communication is far more unstable. In usual cases, when wireless communication started, the network device’s antenna would broadcast wireless signals in all directions. That is why signals are easy to interfere with each other.

Signal attenuation

Worse still, wireless signals are prone to attenuation over long distances and between physical obstacles. The most typical example is a 5 GHz WiFi signal. Unlike a 2.4 GHz signal, it is hard for a 5 GHz signal to penetrate solid objects and performance might deteriorate more rapidly as distance increases.

To improve these issues, since the 5th generation WiFi (WiFi 5) standard-802.11ac, Beamforming has been introduced to wireless networking. Beamforming is super effective that helps signal processing. In simple words, it aims to assist access points or routers in finding their clients and strengthening the WiFi signal in a specific direction.  

How does Beamforming work?

This is how Beamforming works. When sending data, routers first detect the location of clients and collect other related conditions of the transmission paths. According to these variables, routers can adjust and focus their signals to direct them towards clients, resulting in faster and more stable connections.

By targeting their beams instead of radiating data in all directions, the WiFi signals can reach farther. This also reduces collision among different data transmissions.

What products are equipped with Beamforming?

MR50G                                                                                                                AC10                                                                                                                                MR70X

AC1900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router                                        AC1200 Wireless Dual Band Router                                                                     AX1800 Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6 Router

Check the Specification or Datasheet of the product on the MERCUSYS official website to know whether which products support Beamforming or not.