In order to service the dense environment adequately in a campus classroom/commons/lecture-hall environment - all available a & b/g channels should be used simultaneous in every given Wi-Fi cell.
With that being said - it is the station chipset mfg who determines which band a or b/g is selected as default if both are available - you will find that there are many variances here between station vendors. When designing for "a" - you will need roughly twice (2x) the number of traditional AP's to cover the same given environment (Similar RSSI) - due to significant attenuation impact on 5Ghz over 2.4. If you have all of the intelligence in the edge of the Wi-Fi network (in the AP) - and manage all MAC processing for all AP's in a given area in a single hardware processor - then you can have infinite MAC layer control when associating users and you can then more seamlessly load-balance b/g clients to a radios during that process. Also keep in mind - if line-rate QoS and Encryption are available in your device and processed at the edge (not the controller) - then there is no problem running voice in both bands simultaneously. Chad Frisby Xirrus 303.406.3222 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: Lelio Fulgenzi [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 2:48 PM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Deploying 802.11a alongside b/g Something to consider is reserving 802.11a for voice....if you have voip that is..... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- Lelio Fulgenzi, B.A. Senior Analyst (CCS) * University of Guelph * Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1 (519) 824-4120 x56354 (519) 767-1060 FAX (JNHN) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo." WJR ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher Davis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 4:45 PM Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Deploying 802.11a alongside b/g > Hi all, > > We are getting ready to deploy our first a/b/g access points soon and > (eventually) want to take advantage of the 802.11a radios. Has anyone > doing the same run into problems or special consideration that must be > minded when running 'a' and 'b/g' side-by-side? On one school's wireless > site I found mention of a problem where workstations with 'a/b/g' cards > will always select the 'b/g' network over the 'a' network if both use the > same SSID. The way they overcame it was by giving the 'a' network a new > SSID. Has anyone else had this problem or found a different way to > overcome it? > > Thanks, > Chris > > -- > Christopher Davis > Manager, Student Technology Services > Georgetown University Information Services > 202-687-4895 - <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Student HelpDesk - 202/687-4577 > > ********** > Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent > Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. > ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
