Is There Too Much Enthusiasm Over Wireless?

lukOh asks: "in the US, 802.11b/g (2.4Ghz) devices use an 83Mhz-wide frequency range; in-use channels spanning 22Mhz and centered on one of 11 5Mhz steps (badly named as "channels"). This means there should be no more that 3 networks in close proximity, 5 'channels' far from each other, to avoid harmful interference. Now, in the middle of the mixed area where I am, the number of usable WLANs (SNR>20dBm) has gone from 10 to an unworkable number of 20, in just one month. Has the community/the market overestimated the practicality of wireless networks? Are we generally relying too much on such a young, IMHO immature technology made on 'startups hope' and broken firmwares? How can this mess possibly be handled in a working environment, especially the moment your boss asks you to give him access to 'the wireless'?" "Access points can be easily detected, but the same isn't always true for every single client (or Bluetooth device) searching or using a network. Bluetooth itself employs the same 2.4Ghz range with 1Mhz-wide channels and much less power. To avoid interference a device jumps channel-to-channel, when the currently selected one is busy.

Most WLANs are managed by less-than-perfect SOHO access points. Connecting to an AP in such an environment is a gamble (even from 1ft away), especially when: WPA/WPA2 must be used; 802.11g stability is a dream; anywhere up to 7 networks are on the same 'channel' (1 and 11, being the most used, are standard on many devices); and now 'channel wars' are very common (i.e. 2 or more users concurrently hunting to set a free channel for their network, making the entire range unusable for hours)."

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[Mateito]

The extention of the 802.11b standard into 802.11g is a pain the arse for exactly this reason. All access-points should be limited to work on only channels 1,6 or 11, and rate limited so that anything too far away simply drops off, rather than throttling.

802.11a has a much better frequency spacing (8 non-overlapping channels in most juridstiction, 4 in the others), but many countries won't let you use it outside. The penetrating power at 5GHz is also less than at 2.4GHz.

Has wireless been overhyped? Hell yeah, but all we are seeing is the same problem that we all had when everybody went out and bought a 900Mhz cordless phone.

We need to either compress the channel bandwidth (OFDM with few channels around the center frequency), which would give less bandwidth per channel, extend the number of non-overlapping channels available. Jacking up the frequency would give better overall throughput and less channel conflict at the cost of range.