The IETF experience is that enough people run 802.11a to take significant load off of the {b,g} network. Marshall On Feb 15, 2007, at 9:45 AM, Pickett, McLean (OCTO) wrote:
Works well if everyone has 802.11a/g card. That's been my biggest concern with deploying 802.11a recently.
McLean
-----Original Message----- From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu] On Behalf Of Todd Vierling Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2007 12:02 AM To: Suresh Ramasubramanian Cc: Marshall Eubanks; Carl Karsten; NANOG Subject: Re: wifi for 600, alex
On 2/14/07, Suresh Ramasubramanian <ops.lists@gmail.com> wrote:
4. Isolate the wireless network from the main conference network / backbone so that critical stuff (streaming content for workshop and other presentations, the rego system etc) gets bandwidth allocated to it just fine, without it being eaten up by hungry laptops.
The oft-overlooked 802.11a is great for this purpose when there isn't enough wiring infrastructure to drop a RJ45 in all the necessary conference rooms. Whereas 802.11[bgn] has only three (or four, depending on who you quote) mostly non-overlapping frequencies -- even less when MIMO is in use -- 802.11a has eight *completely* non-overlapping standard channels. In nice open conference hall space with at most two walls in the way, the rated shorter range of 11a is actually not so noticeable because of the lack of radio noise.
2.4GHz is soooooo last decade. ;)
(The 802.11[bgn] density where I live is so high that I resorted to installing 802.11a throughout my house. Zero contention for airwaves and I can actually get close to rated speed for data transmission.)
-- -- Todd Vierling <tv@duh.org> <tv@pobox.com> <todd@vierling.name>