Implementing Cisco Networking Solutions

Channel bonding

Legacy WLANs operate using 20-MHz channels. This limits the amount of data bandwidth that can be transmitted using these narrow channels. Newer standards allow the Wi-Fi systems to use two channels in a bundle and increase the channel bandwidth to 40 MHz. This enables the same RF channel to provide double bandwidth. In practice, the bandwidth of a double channel is slightly more than double. When two adjacent channels are bundled together, we also use the guard band that separates two consecutive channels and hence the bandwidth is slightly more than double.

Channel bonding is best if done in the 5-GHz band because the 2.4-GHz band has a limited number of channels (14), and if the channels are bundled, we get only one channel ...