IT Shops Coping With Overloaded 2.4GHz WiFi Band 165
alphadogg writes "Of the 470,000 Wi-Fi connections made on a recent day at Abilene Christian University, fully 94% used the 2.4GHz band, representing an extreme example of how today's surging number of Wi-Fi clients is crowding the band least able to accommodate them. At ACU, this is not considered a problem, at least not yet. In part, that's because of careful wireless LAN design and capacity planning. And partly because a goodly percentage of mobile devices that can run on the alternative 5GHz band, do so: on that same day, 47% of the school's laptops and desktops, and two-thirds of its iPads cruised on 5GHz, via either 802.11a or 802.11n. Yet relatively few of today's Wi-Fi clients support 5GHz."
WTF?? (Score:2, Insightful)
47%
And it is getting worse (Score:4, Insightful)
Look at the number of smartphones, e-readers, laptops and Android tablets out there that don't support 5 GHz. With the premium price of some of these gadgets I'm surprised vendors are trying to shave expenses by getting 2.4 GHz-only 802.11n chipsets.
If you get an opportunity, let the vendor or salesman know you one of the features you look for is 5 GHz capability. Make a point of it.
Re:wi-fi needs an evolutionary upgrade (Score:5, Insightful)
The 2.4Ghz problems will evolve the same way on the 5Ghz band
Not really. 2.4G has 3 bands. 5G has, depending on the country has 4 to 8 times as many. Make that 2 to 4 when you turn on dual channel bonding, and then you are talking worst case 6 channels. That means that you can tesslate the 5G band much closer together, without APs that are on the same channel getting as close to each other (and no, dropping Tx power isn't a perfect solution to that problem on the 2.5G band.)
So it's much easier to microcell on the 5G frequencies, in fact AP density can be cranked up absurdly high.
802.11a (Score:4, Insightful)
Look for 802.11a support. It requires the 5 GHz band.