Hello.
Some devices description mention “Dual-concurrent” and some says just “dual-band” or similar. Is there any difference?
I think dual-concurrent implies that you can use both bands at the same time. In contrast, there are dual-band devices where you can only choose between either 2.4 ghz or 5ghz, but cannot use both in parallel.
Is that a theory or you can give example?
I have a capAC, it has a separate 2.4 band and a 5hz band. I use separate wifi settings for both.
In addition I can create Virtual wifi connections using those bands as the parent interface.
This allows.
- separate SSID
-separate security settings
-separate vlans.
(guest wifi for example, or 2.4ghz video cameras separated from 2.4ghz streaming media)
All other wifi settings remain the same as the parent.
This also of course diminishes the capacity of that band depending upon traffic load.
My understanding is that more powerful MT wifi devices have four bands one can distribute (separately) 2x2.4 and 2x5.
I think @anav’s example is not the best one.
Perhaps a better one: quite a few devices are single-radio single band (e.g. RB951G). Those can support multiple SSIDs but as @anav explained they share physical settings (including channel number and Tx power).
Then quite a few are dual radio, dual band devices (e.g. RBD52G), each radio is totally independent from the other one and mostly operate in different frequency bands (i.e. one in 2.4GHz, the other in 5GHz; frequency bands are hardware limited on each radio). They can operate concurrently and client device can conect to any of them at any time (setup permitting). Or even both of them at the same time if client device has such hardware capability (not many are). Thus such device is a “dual-concurrent” one.
And then there devices featuring single dual-band radio (e.g. RBMetalG-52SHPacn) which can operate in one of supported bands (either 2.4GHz or 5GHz, but not both at the same time). Hence these devices are “dual-band” devices.
I don’t think a MikroTik device which is dual-band but not dual-concurrent is (currently) existing. But I do know that my ISP in the past has provided a dual-band WiFi router that could only operate on one band at a time. So these really do exist.
I think Groove 52 ac and Metal 52 ac devices are pretty much currently existing, aren’t they? And both are dual-band non-concurrent types …
Ok, i see now, thanks. Indeed there are models with selectable bands.