5Ghz Proliferation

[CAWJames]

Evening all,

 

I am currently planning our wireless networks, as in placement, when it struck me I hadn't really thought about 2.4 vs 5Ghz, so I adjusted my plans to be half the AP's serving 5Ghz client and the other half 2.4Ghz, staggering them around, so areas have equal of both.

 

But then I had another thought, wouldn't it be better to put more 5Ghz AP's in high use zones and only a few 2.4 here and there to cover those legacy devices still about

 

Does anyone actually know what the general breakdown is these days for equipment having 5Ghz or not?

 

I mean it must be quite high now, apart from the odd iPhone 4 and behind, all iPads are 5Ghz capable and laptops have had the kit in them for years now. I could be wrong, but in theory I shouldn't see much 2.4Ghz traffic at all, well as long as the device prioritizes to the better frequency of course!

 

So 8 AP's, 3 2.4Ghz and 5 5Ghz, methinks and watch the associations and then help desk calls for lack of wireless!

 

There was a question in there somewhere!

 

Thanks

 

James

[snagrat]

Why not just have dual band APs that serve both 2.4 and 5Ghz?

 

I would always have 5Ghz every where and if you really wanted 2.4 only in certain APs then configure it that way.

[Roberto]

As snagrat says, just get APs that can support them both. This should be most reputable brands these days.

 

Or to put it another way: If the brand of AP you're looking at does not support 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz properly on each access point, then you're definitely looking at the wrong type of access point.

[soveryapt]

As others have said, go dual band. I see Wireless pretty much like computers, get the most up to date your money can buy at the time, thus future proofing yourself as best you can.

 

I don't know what system you're considering, but I can highly recommend the Ubiquiti Unifi Kit.

 

They have a range of devices, but you would really want to be looking at the UAP Pro (UniFi | Ubiquiti Networks, Inc.) or UAP AC (UniFi | Ubiquiti Networks, Inc.) both of which are Dual Banded devices that can be deployed using POE (though I would check cabinets as I have used them with the Ubiquiti Tough Switch, but I think the Pros are meant to be compliant with POE standards so you might not need them). All you need is a half decent box to run the controller software on (initially I had ours on our DC, but then I moved it to our Mac Mini Server as that was doing nothing other than the odd updates for iPads when they needed reimaging etc, but at home I run it on an old-ish Ubuntu Server perfectly fine).

 

You have the likes of Ruckus and stuff out there of course, but Unifi is, in my opinion, just as up to the job but comes with a rather nice cost saving on the other such kit out there. The schools and offices I've installed have loved it, so fewer problems than previous systems they've had in place.

[njc235]

Most, if not all vendors have dual radio APs. If you are planning for the future, consider the ac option too. A very interesting post by wotnowires on this page....http://www.edugeek.net/forums/wireless-networks/138054-meru-vs-ruckus-4.html

[Norphy]

 

Does anyone actually know what the general breakdown is these days for equipment having 5Ghz or not?

 

We have an Aruba system with simultaneous dual band access points. Obviously your mileage will vary but I'm looking at our wireless controller to see what bands are being used at the moment. The breakdown that I'm getting is as follows:

 

297 wireless devices

 

114 at 5GHz

183 at 2.4GHz

 

That of course doesn't necessarily mean that those devices using the 2.4GHz range are only capable of it but there are a lot of cheap phones, laptops and tablets still being sold which aren't dual band, not to mention there are plenty of legacy devices out there too. Also bear in mind that 2.4GHz signals travel further and are better at penetrating walls as well. 5GHz is useful in that it may allow higher speeds and is less congested but don't discount 2.4GHz altogether.