Slashdot Mirror
Wireless LANs Face Huge Scaling Challenges
BobB writes with this excerpt from NetworkWorld:
"Early WLANs focused on growing the number of access points to cover a given area. But today, many wireless administrators are focusing more attention on scaling capacity to address a surge in end users and the multimedia content they consume (this is particularly being seen at universities). Supporting this involves everything from rethinking DNS infrastructure to developing a deeper understanding of what access points can handle. And 802.11n is no silver bullet, warn those building big wireless networks. 'These scaling issues are becoming more and more apparent where lots of folks show up and you need to make things happen,' says the former IT director for a big Ivy League campus."
You will find a large number of those individuals right here on /.
About a year or so ago there was a discussion about WiFi, and I mentioned that I wired my entire house with the standard 2 RG6U, 2 Cat5e, 2 fiber to every room, sometimes two drops in a room. I have jacks EVERYWHERE. People said I was nuts. I said I was future-proofing - they claimed wireless would get faster too. And the response is Of course it will get faster, but so will physical cable as we have seen.
The bottom line is that wireless can not and will not replace physical cable. It can only supplement. Primary connectivity should always be planned to be wired. Yes it's more expensive. A LOT more expensive. But you need it.
Wireless by nature is flaky. I can have a laptop 10 feet from an AP and it can drop connection (and I don't care what brand of laptop or AP you have - it happens.) Why? Because the primary wireless frequency, 2.4Ghz, is a cesspool. I find it highly obnoxious that the FCC refused to allocate a band specifically and ONLY for WiFi - especially considering how extremely important connectivity is in this modern world. But Alas, they are only concerned about how much money they can bring in via auctioning off a PUBLIC resource, selling it to a corporate entity which in return lets the public use that band for insane prices.