I'm not sure if anyone else has confirmed this issue or not - I've just noticed a lot of people complaining about wireless issues on Lumia devices running the 8.1 developer preview so I figured I would share some info. After a good deal of testing, I can confirm that there is an issue with wireless AC on the Nokia Icon running 8.1 (dev preview).
I tested 4 Icon's on Cisco 2700 APs as well as the ASUS (RT-AC68U). Two units were running 8 and the other two were running 8.1.
Devices running WP 8 worked very well on G/N/AC- on both brands of wireless access points
Devices running WP 8.1 (dev preview) worked very well on G/N but very poorly on AC. The problems were the same on both Cisco and Asus access points. While on AC, throughputs were limited to roughly 2mpbs and range was very low. In addition, 8.1 devices on AC would not properly roam between the multiple Cisco access points (with a WLC) - they would only "fail-over" roam, meaning they would only move to a better AP when the connection to the existing access point was completely broken. (This is likely a side effect of issue causing the poor range)
WP8 devices did not exhibit any of this behavior - throughputs were considerably higher (28mbps-limited by our test network,) range was much greater, and roaming between APs went as expected.
On both networks, disabling AC and running the WP 8.1 clients on the N network resolved all of these issues.
So, long story short... if you have a fairly new router/access point that offers wireless AC, you will likely get better performance from your WP8.1 device on an G or N network. Some routers/access points will allow you to broadcast different SSIDs, so creating a new SSID that only uses G/N may be the best approach for people who have other devices connecting to an existing SSID that utilizes AC. Hopefully the Cyan firmware will resolve this issue.
*A spectrum analyzer was used to rule out interference on both 2.4 and 5ghz bands.
I tested 4 Icon's on Cisco 2700 APs as well as the ASUS (RT-AC68U). Two units were running 8 and the other two were running 8.1.
Devices running WP 8 worked very well on G/N/AC- on both brands of wireless access points
Devices running WP 8.1 (dev preview) worked very well on G/N but very poorly on AC. The problems were the same on both Cisco and Asus access points. While on AC, throughputs were limited to roughly 2mpbs and range was very low. In addition, 8.1 devices on AC would not properly roam between the multiple Cisco access points (with a WLC) - they would only "fail-over" roam, meaning they would only move to a better AP when the connection to the existing access point was completely broken. (This is likely a side effect of issue causing the poor range)
WP8 devices did not exhibit any of this behavior - throughputs were considerably higher (28mbps-limited by our test network,) range was much greater, and roaming between APs went as expected.
On both networks, disabling AC and running the WP 8.1 clients on the N network resolved all of these issues.
So, long story short... if you have a fairly new router/access point that offers wireless AC, you will likely get better performance from your WP8.1 device on an G or N network. Some routers/access points will allow you to broadcast different SSIDs, so creating a new SSID that only uses G/N may be the best approach for people who have other devices connecting to an existing SSID that utilizes AC. Hopefully the Cyan firmware will resolve this issue.
*A spectrum analyzer was used to rule out interference on both 2.4 and 5ghz bands.
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