Meraki announces Wi-Fi 6 access points

davidvan
Meraki Alumni (Retired)
Meraki Alumni (Retired)

Meraki announces Wi-Fi 6 access points

Happy Monday everyone! You may have heard about our announcement of MR45 and MR55, our new high-density Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) compatible devices. These APs, combined with the new aggregation and access switches we launched over the last several months help lay the foundation for seamless, high-efficiency network performance even in dense wireless environments.

 

mGig family.jpg

 

While the Wi-Fi 6/802.11ax amendment has a long list of new features, at its core, the purpose of Wi-Fi 6 is to deliver consistent performance and high throughput, in the real world. With features like OFDMA, MU-MIMO (DL & UL), 1024 QAM, BSS Color, Wi-Fi 6 will be able to deal with congested wireless areas much more elegantly.

 

Some of the capabilities of the new Meraki MR models:

 

MR55

  • 8x8 with MU-MIMO and OFDMA and 1G/2.5G/5G Ethernet
  • 5.9 Gbps aggregate frame rate (136% increase over MR53)
  • Additional MCS Rates 10 & 11
  • Sleek “vessel” design
  • PoE requires 802.3at compliance
  • All the other Meraki MR benefits (Meraki dashboard, APIs, Wireless Health, quad-radio architecture, Umbrella integration, etc.)

 

MR45

  • 4x4 with MU-MIMO and OFDMA and 1G/2.5G/5G Ethernet
  • 3.5 Gbps aggregate frame rate (40% increase over MR53)
  • Additional MCS Rates 10 & 11
  • Sleek “vessel” design
  • PoE requires 802.3at compliance
  • All the other Meraki MR benefits (Meraki dashboard, APIs, Wireless Health, quad-radio architecture, Umbrella integration, etc.)

 

We’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the new products and how you’re thinking about your Wi-Fi 6 deployments. Hit the “Reply” button below and tell us!

9 REPLIES 9
davidvan
Meraki Alumni (Retired)
Meraki Alumni (Retired)

Considering that Wi-Fi 6 APs can handle higher client counts, I was curious to take a look at the average daily client count at Meraki HQ in San Francisco. The number of average daily clients has increased steadily from about <1,000 to now being over 1,200 pretty consistently. A solid 30% increase over the last 12 months. Good luck to our IT team!

 

Client Count San Francisco HQ.png

 

BrechtSchamp
Kind of a big deal

With all those antennas, I'm impressed that they don't need UPoE!

kYutobi
Kind of a big deal

Should be an interesting year with this.

Enthusiast
Heath
Conversationalist

Looking forward to this!

NolanHerring
Kind of a big deal

@davidvan Thanks!

 

Just to confirm though, these look like they are '802.11ax compatible' since they don't support UL-OFDMA, correct?

 

Do you know when you guys will get 802.11ax certified access points?

Nolan Herring | nolanwifi.com
TwitterLinkedIn
davidvan
Meraki Alumni (Retired)
Meraki Alumni (Retired)

@NolanHerring That is correct. I have no public timeline for you. However, we do know that the 802.11ax standard will not be ratified until late this year (likely).

 

FYI, we have an FAQ posted here on some of these questions

 

@NolanHerringI just checked the Cisco C9100 AP's and they also only support downlink OFDMA.
So it could be that the standard is not 100% set on doing scheduled vs unscheduled UL-OFDMA transmissions or like the Meraki document states that in most use-cases, especially in high density the traffic is by far the biggest in the downstream direction.


@GIdenJoe wrote:

@NolanHerringI just checked the Cisco C9100 AP's and they also only support downlink OFDMA.
So it could be that the standard is not 100% set on doing scheduled vs unscheduled UL-OFDMA transmissions or like the Meraki document states that in most use-cases, especially in high density the traffic is by far the biggest in the downstream direction.


I saw that too, they only have one model that is 'certified' and can perform DL-OFDMA, the 9120 model.

 

5555.JPG

 

 

Nolan Herring | nolanwifi.com
TwitterLinkedIn

Oh the 9120 is fresh off the shelf then.
Indeed in that datasheet there is mention of both DL AND UL-OFDMA

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