With high bandwidth 802.11AC enabled wireless mobile devices becoming almost commonplace these days, home users are starting to demand higher performance abilities from their wireless networks. With multiple devices from tablets to phones to notebooks demanding an increasing amount of bandwidth, those networks now need to satisfy some insatiable needs for speed. As a result, router manufactures have moved towards Multi-User Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output (?MU-MIMO?) configurations which combine multiple transmission streams into mega-sized connections that are aimed with a narrow focus at precise locations via advanced Beamforming.

This situation of rapidly expanding needs has had the side-effect of requiring the average router to have more and more processing power on tap. Sadly most first generation (Wave 1) 802.11AC routers are unable to keep up with these increased demands of transmission, reception, and packet collision avoidance. This is why ?Wave 2? 802.11AC controller chipsets were created, and why much more robust SoC's are required for signal processing. On the positive side the new Wave 2 routers promise better speeds, better long range performance, and better overall return on investment, even when comparing more mainstream Wave 2 models to older Wave 1 enthusiast-grade models.