Legacy Open Mesh: A60 Versus A62 Device Comparison

Topic

This article discusses the differences between the A60 and A62 access points.

Environment

  • Open Mesh A60 access points
  • Open Mesh A62 access points

Description

The Difference

The A60 is a dual-band, 802.11ac Wave 1 wireless access point. The maximum theoretical throughput is 1300Mbps on the 5 GHz band, 450 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band, for a total combined theoretical throughput of 1750 Mbps (1.7 Gbps).

The A62 is a tri-band, 802.11ac Wave 2 wireless access point. It supports up to 1734 Mbps on the 5 GHz bands combined and 300Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band, for a total combined theoretical throughput of 2034 Mpbs (2 Gbps).

Feature and Specification Comparison

A60 A62
Speed 1.7 Gbps 2.0 Gbps
Radio Dual-Band (1 x 2.4GHz; 1 x 5GHz) Tri-Band (1 x 2.4GHz; 2 x 5GHz)
PoE Standard 802.3af Standard 802.3af/at or Passive 18-24V?1.34-1A
Range (approximate)
Indoor: 75-150’ indoor (3-4 walls) Indoor: 75-150’ indoor (3-4 walls)
Outdoor: 400-500’ Outdoor: 400-600'
Recommended users 50-100 75-150
WLAN Standard 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wave 1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wave 2
CPU Single-Core Qualcomm "Scorpion" Quad-Core Qualcomm "Dakota"
Memory 128MB DRAM 256MB DRAM
MIMO Type SU-MIMO MU-MIMO
Zero Config Plug & Play Yes Yes
Self Forming, Self Healing Mesh Yes Yes
Seamless roaming Yes Yes
Hardware Watchdog CPU Yes Yes
Free Cloud Management Yes Yes
Free iOS/Android Apps Yes Yes
Captive portal w/ bandwidth throttling, splash pages, and user controls Yes Yes
Public & Private SSIDs Yes Yes
Ethernet 2 x Gigabit 2 x Gigabit
Power Supply Options US/EU/UK/AU US/EU/UK/AU
LEDs Multi-color LED indicator Multi-color LED indicator
Operating temperature 0-50 C 0-50 C
Dimensions 6.5” x 6.5” x 1.2” 6.5” x 6.5” x 1.2”
Certifications FCC, IC, CE, RCM (CTick) FCC, IC, CE, RCM (CTick)

802.11ac Wave 1 vs. Wave 2

  • 802.11ac Wave 1 supports MIMO, up to an 80 MHz channel width, and up to three spatial streams of data transmitting simultaneously.
  • 802.11ac Wave 2 supports MU-MIMO, up to a 160 MHz channel width, and up to four spatial streams.

Tri-band over Dual-band

Dual-band operates with two radio bands to service both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz clients. The AP62 uses a Tri-band configuration, which includes an additional 5GHz radio for greater functionality in a high-density environment and service for a wider margin of devices.

MIMO / MU-MIMO

MIMO (Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output) uses multiple antennas on the access point, to transmit and receive multiple spatial streams of data simultaneously. The access point streams data to one client at a time under MIMO.

MU-MIMO (Multi-User Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output) connects to multiple clients at the same time to achieve a faster WiFi network.

Client Load

Figure 1: Example Client Load - UDP

Figure 2: Example Client Load - TCP