Wireless Access

Hi,

 

11ac on a mixed client environment (a,g,n,80Mhz), how would it work, Is this going to bring down the overall performance. Are 80Mhz, 40 Mhz, 20Mhz use different a channel combination, are they going to serve client simultaniously. Could someone help with information.

 

Thanks 

11ac is backward compatible with a/g/n devices so it will revert back to 20/40 Mhz channels depending on the type client associated but this will impact the performance on your 11ac clients.

It's already been mentioned that this will impact high performance clients yes.

 

If this is your primary focus, I'd suggest looking at a traffic management profile (part of QOS), potentially with preffered access?

 

There's plenty of information about this in the high density VRD (and basic manuals too). I'd recommend having a good read!

 

http://www.arubanetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/DG_HighDensity_VRD.pdf

 

Granted, this only goes as far as 802.11n, but the principal/concept is similar.

 

If you plan moving to 802.11ac slowly, i would not mix 802.11n ap with 802.11ac aps...

If you company got many floors, you could change one floor to 802.11ac, and so on, but you in one floor dont start mixing AP 225s and AP 135s  as it will slow performance when someone roaming from one AP to another.

 

Cheers

Carlos

Also, be sure to consider if 80Mhz channels are even possible in your network.  In enterprises where AP density is high, 80Mhz channels may not be realistic because of high channel re-use, resulting in co-channel interference.