There are arguments about not replacing APs one for one as technology gets better, but depending on the circumstances, reducing AP counts works against the promise of new super-high user throughputs in client-dense areas. So we’ll just cap this thought with the fact that, just based on how large our WLANs are becoming, upgrading today’s large wireless networks to .11ac is going to be big-time pricey.
And then there’s the question of when to move to .11ac. I do know that high-throughput wireless is wonderful for the likes of the right kinds of video, but at the same time all the advantages of a wireless hardware set like .11ac’s multiuser MiMO and x number of spatial streams are best realized when similarly capable clients are at the other end of a fancy AP’s transmissions. I also know that the same analysts are touting the explosive growth in mobile and handheld devices that won’t be able to fully take advantage of the full power of .11ac because of design constraints and if for no other reason that there is only so much you can humanly do with a highly portable device. For many users, good wireless is more than good enough, and better wireless isn’t even recognized as such.
If I could upgrade all of my 10,000 daily peak simultaneous clients to robust .11ac devices that got hundreds of megabits per second wireless throughput, how would I have to resize my uplinks to the core and Internet pipes? And in spaces where I have significant investment in Gigabit Ethernet to the desktop for stationary office workers, I’m finding now with .11n that, just because you can cut the cord and provide wireless connectivity to desktop workstations, it doesn’t mean that organizations want to just for the sake of going wireless. In these spaces, do I care whether someone can get 10-, 100- or 500-Mbps wireless throughput on their personal tablet that they insist on using occasionally? I’m not saying that I don’t care, I just don’t know if I do.
Costs. Timing. Clients that may or may not be able to leverage the upper end of the new hardware’s performance envelope. Balancing the siren song of new and hot with questions of true need and where precious IT dollars are best spent. These considerations are nothing new in our lines of work, but I have a feeling that 802.11ac and the inevitable mania that will herald its coming are going to have many of us worrying about them sooner than we might have planned for. Now’s the time to start pondering it, before the hype surrounding .11ac gets kicked into high gear and the boss starts asking, "Should we be thinking about .11ac?"
