The biggest mistake network managers make lies in assuming that they
need to make a choice between 11a and 11g. That's just not the case. Yes,
it's true that the cost of a dual-band, dual-radio enterprise-class AP can be
20 percent higher than an 11g model. But with the cost of APs falling, that's
not much of a price premium, especially when you consider that installation
costs usually far exceed equipment costs. Some argue that because the cell
radius of 11a is smaller, they will need to install additional APs. That's true,
but there's no reason you have to provide 11a coverage everywhere in your
facility. Since 11a-only NICs are no longer sold, users can always fall back to
11g if they are outside of 11a coverage. Even if only 20 percent of your users
connect via 11a that translates into improved performance for every single
user because it reduces contention in both bands.
Another common mistake lies in looking at the installed base of laptop users
and concluding that because only a fraction have dual-band radios it won't pay
to add support for 11a. If that's the case in your organization, then someone
in purchasing is asleep at the wheel. With a price premium of $10 or so, almost
every organization should provision dual-band radios on their clients. Fortunately,
notebook manufacturers are increasingly installing 11ag NICs on enterprise-class
systems by default, so the extra cost is invisible.
Once 11a client penetration increases, your life will be a lot easier. Channel
planning at 5 GHz is a whole lot easier because there are many more non-
overlapping channels, which allows you to virtually eliminate the effects of co-
channel interference. If no contention is tolerable, as might be the case if you
are implementing wireless VoIP, you can also choose to implement WLAN
infrastructure from vendors like Meru and Extricom, which utilize sophisticated
RF scheduling algorithms that not only eliminate contention but also make
installation planning much easier.
So remember, for enterprise Wi-Fi, think 11a AND 11g, not 11a OR 11g.
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