802.11ac: A Survival Guide

Chapter 5. 802.11ac Planning

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else.

—Yogi Berra

Although most of the discussion in this book has been about speed, the real value of 802.11ac to the network administrator is that it increases the capacity of a wireless network. Whether the network needs to serve more clients with today’s level of throughput or today’s client load with higher throughput, the solution is 802.11ac.

Several intersecting trends are driving the need for increased capacity. Many new devices are built around the assumption that 802.11 coverage is ubiquitous and therefore do not have an alternative LAN technology for accessing networks. Of these new devices, most of them are battery-operated and portable, and do not even have the capability to connect to wired Ethernet networks. As traffic shifts onto the wireless LAN, it must support new demands for connectivity. Increased numbers of devices is only the first part of a one-two punch being delivered by users. After connecting so many devices to wireless LANs, users then change the type of applications in use. With improved computing power and display technology, the user experience is becoming significantly more media-heavy, with a special emphasis on streaming multimedia and especially video support. Combine an increase in the number of devices with increased demand for capacity from each device, and you have a recipe for congestion unless greater capacity is in the cards. As the improved performance ...