What Is MU-MIMO, and Do I Need It on My Router?

More and more, the internet becomes central to everything we do at home. Watching movies, playing video games, and video chatting with family all require constant access. But with so much extra bandwidth necessary to push data to your wireless laptops, desktops, streaming devices and Smart TVs, will the routers of today be able to handle the demands of tomorrow?

Enter MU-MIMO technology, a new feature that our soon-to-be overtaxed routers will need to evenly divide bandwidth among your devices. But is MU-MIMO currently worth the cost? Can your household even take advantage of everything it has to offer?

What Is MU-MIMO?

“MIMO” stands for “Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output”, and it refers to the way bandwidth is broken up by a router and pushed to individual devices. Most modern routers use “SU-MIMO”, or “Single User, Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output”. With these routers, only one device can receive data at any given time. This means that if you have one person watching Netflix and another watching Youtube, if you were to start both those streams at the exact same time, one device would get priority while the other had to wait until the first had buffered a few bits of data for itself.

Usually, you won’t notice a slowdown. Even though SU-MIMO routers can only open up one stream at a time, they do so in very rapid succession, which to the naked eye looks like a solid stream of data. To borrow an analogy, think of it like a Pez dispenser strapped to a carousel: everyone standing around the circle is eventually going to get a piece of candy, but the carousel still needs to make one full rotation before all the members of the network are satisfied.

“MU-MIMO” routers, on the other hand (“Multiple User, Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output”) are able to break up this bandwidth into separate, individual streams that each share the connection evenly, no matter the application. MU-MIMO routers come in three flavors: 2×2, 3×3, and 4×4, which refers to the number of streams that they can create for each device in your household. This way, the MU-MIMO carousel can simultaneously send Pez flying in four directions at once. Without getting too technical, this is like each device getting its own “private” router, up to four total in 4×4 MU-MIMO loadouts.

The main benefit here is that instead of each stream being periodically (albeit very, very briefly) interrupted by the time it takes for the carousel to spin around once, a MU-MIMO router can keep its signal constant for those four devices, and fairly distribute the bandwidth to each without compromising the speed of any of the others at the same time.

The Drawbacks of MU-MIMO

All this sounds great, right? It is, but as with most network-related features, there’s one big drawback: in order for MU-MIMO to actually work, both the router and the receiving device need to have full MU-MIMO compatibility in order to communicate with one another.

Currently, MU-MIMO routers are only able to broadcast over the newer 802.11ac wireless protocol, a signal that many devices haven’t been updated to decode just yet. Even fewer devices actually have MU-MIMO. As of this writing, there are a only few laptops that have MU-MIMO-ready wireless receivers, and a select number of smartphones and tablets that come with a Wi-Fi chip that knows what to do with a MU-MIMO stream (like the Microsoft Lumia 950).

That means that even if you drop the extra coin on a router with MU-MIMO capability (usually about $50 more, depending on the model), it will likely be a number of years before every device in your home is able to use the feature as intended. Yes, you can buy a compatible MU-MIMO wireless USB dongle for desktops or laptops, but they’re quite a bit more expensive than regular SU-MIMO receivers, which could prevent some users from taking the plunge.

Also, there’s the issue of maxing out your available streams. Right now MU-MIMO tops out at four streams, which means that if you add a fifth device to the network, it will have to share a stream with another device in the same way a SU-MIMO router would, which sort of defeats the purpose.

Last, there’s the fact that MU-MIMO broadcast signals work on a directional basis, and can only be split up when devices are in different locations around the house. For example: if you’re streaming a movie to the living room on the TV and your kids are connecting their Nintendo 3DS on the couch only a few feet away, by default both devices will be forced to share the same stream. Because of the way that MU-MIMO streams work, there’s currently no workaround for this, which means if you live in a small apartment or do most of your browsing from the same room, MU-MIMO won’t provide any extra benefits over SU-MIMO.

Do I Need It On My Router?

If you have four or fewer MU-MIMO compatible devices connecting simultaneously from opposite ends of the house, then a MU-MIMO router could be a good pick for you.

For example, if you’ve got a hardcore gamer in one room sharing a connection with someone else who’s trying to watch a 4K Netflix stream in another, MU-MIMO could be worth it in the long run. Of course, this would only make sense if both the streaming device and the laptop have the ability to decode a MU-MIMO signal at all.

However, if you’re still on DSL and don’t even have that much bandwidth to go around in the first place, no router (MU-MIMO or otherwise) will be able to increase the base download/upload speeds you get from your ISP. MU-MIMO is simply a bandwidth management tool, one that only works within the parameters of the speed you’re already getting from the jack coming out of the wall.

For the time being, MU-MIMO will probably be reserved for packed households with devices that demand a lot of individual bandwidth, and do so in separate rooms. Otherwise, the increased cost of the newer technology will be prohibitive for the standard buyer until these types of usage patterns become more common and router manufacturers can bring the price down.

Google's Unknown Features

Many Features You Probably Don’t Know.

Google is more than just a search engine. Yes, you already know Google owns Youtube, and all about Google Glass…but how many of Google’s interesting and underutilized features do you know about? Google has a bunch of extras ranging from useful learning tools to simple fun.

Some of the awesome things you can do with Google include:
(just click on the name of fact to try)

Set a timer

Explore Mars

Take a virtual flight through Google Earth, press CTRL + Alt + A

Get a bunch of resources on anything in one page

Find new, free fonts

Plan your Wedding (google terminate this)

Learn how to pronounce long numbers

Search flights and avoid airline websites

Hand-write characters you can’t type to translate

Build stuff with LEGO

Explore beyond our galaxy

Have Google fetch your info

Learn some geography trivia

Play Atari Breakout

Compare the popularity of words through history

Ask for reminders for things you search with Google Now

Look at high resolution pictures of famous art

To open a task manager specifically for Chrome, press Shift + Esc

Always know how long the drive is with Google Now

…and never forget where you parked

Featured photo credit: PageRank/Google Inc. via velocityagency.com

Google Beta Testing Program

If you’d like to get the latest and greatest features in the Google app as they’re pushed out, now you can. Google has just opened up beta testing for the Google app on Android, which means you’ll get first dibs on the newest tweaks as they come out.

This news comes to us from some folks on Reddit, who noticed a Google Now card that recommended they sign up for the beta test because they have shown an interest in technology. If you don’t see the Now card in your feed, there’s no need to worry – we have the sign up page for you linked below.

So, how do you sign up? Just like with many other beta testing programs, all you need to do is head to the beta testing link attached below, then press the button that reads become a tester. After that, head to the Google Play Store, and an update to the Google app should be waiting for you. If an update isn’t yet available, that’s okay. Just wait a few minutes and an update should pop up or it may be take one or two days.

I’ve just installed the latest beta version and I’m not seeing any differences so far. If you’re seeing anything new, be sure to let us know in the comments below!

• Head to this link to become a beta tester

What Is IoT ?

The “Internet of things” (IoT) is becoming an increasingly growing topic of conversation both in the workplace and outside of it. It’s a concept that not only has the potential to impact how we live but also how we work. But what exactly is the “Internet of things” and what impact is it going to have on you if any? There are a lot of complexities around the “Internet of things” but I want to stick to the basics. Lots of technical and policy related conversations are being had but many people are still just trying to grasp the foundation of what the heck these conversations are about.

Let’s start with understanding a few things.

Broadband Internet is become more widely available, the cost of connecting is decreasing, more devices are being created with wifi capabilities and sensors built into them, technology costs are going down, and smart phone penetration is sky-rocketing. All of these things are creating a “perfect storm” for the IoT.

what is the Internet of things?

Simply put this is the concept of basically connecting any device with an on and off switch to the Internet (and/or to each other). This includes everything from cell phones, coffee makers, washing machines, headphones, lamps, wearable devices and almost anything else you can think of. This also applies to components of machines, for example a jet engine of an airplane or the drill of an oil rig. As I mentioned, if it has an on and off switch then chances are it can be a part of the IoT. The analyst firm Gartner says that by 2020 there will be over 26 billion connected devices…that’s a lot of connections (some even estimate this number to be much higher, over 100 billion). The IoT is a giant network of connected “things” (which also includes people). The relationship will be between people-people, people-things, and things-things.

How does this impact on us ???

The new rule for the future is going to be, “anything that can be connected, will be connected.” But why on earth would you want so many connected devices talking to each other? There are many examples for what this might look like or what the potential value might be. Say for example you are on your way to a meeting, your car could have access to your calendar and already know the best route to take, if the traffic is heavy your car might send a text to the other party notifying them that you will be late. What if your alarm clock wakes up you at 6 am and then notifies your coffee maker to start brewing coffee for you? What if your office equipment knew when it was running low on supplies and automatically re-ordered more? What if the wearable device you used in the workplace could tell you when and where you were most active and productive and shared that information with other devices that you used while working?

On a broader scale the IoT can be applied to things like transportation networks “smart cities” which can help us reduce waste and improve efficiency for things such as energy use; this helping us understand and improve how we work and live. Take a look at the visual below to see what something like that can look like.




The reality is that the IoT allows for virtually endless opportunities and connections to take place, many of which we can’t even think of or fully understand the impact of today. It’s not hard to see how and why the IoT is such a hot topic today, it certainly opens the door to a lot of opportunities but also to many challenges. Security is big issues that is oftentimes brought up. With billions of devices being connect together what can people to do make sure that their information stays secure? Will someone be able to hack into your toaster and thereby get access to your entire network? The IoT also opens up companies all over the world to more security threats. Then we have the issue of privacy and data sharing. This is a hot button topic even today so one can only imagine how the conversation and concerns will escalate when we are talking about many billions of devices being connected. Another issue that many companies specifically are going to be faced with is around the massive amounts data that all of these devices are going to produce. Companies need to figure out a way to store, track, analyze, and make sense of the vast amounts of data that will be generated.

At the End !
Conversations about the IoT are (and have been for several years) taking place all over the world as we seek to understand how this will impact our lives. We are also trying to understand what the many opportunities and challenges are going to be as more and more devices start to join the IoT. For now the best thing that we can do is educate ourselves about what the IoT is and the potential impacts that can be seen on how we work and live.

Ref.: wikipedia.org, IoT Asia