Wireless Networking: The Benefits of Investing in the Right Equipment
Ever had poor connection or out-of-range WiFi areas in your office or home? Or having to reset the Wireless Access Point (WAP) frequently due to bad connectivity? With the proper investment, you can implement a solid, high performance wireless network, rather than fumbling around with a consumer grade device.
Consumer wireless devices are usually a low-grade router that is bundled with a wireless antenna. They generally run on low end hardware, because it is normal for a home network to support 10 devices or less. They’re also inexpensive. In a business use case though, this will ultimately cause you much strife; limited WiFi signal, performance, management and security become common problems. Business owners and decision makers should be weighing the cost of downtime vs the cost of a larger upfront investment.
Enterprise-grade Wireless APs, such as the Cisco Meraki MR42 or Ruckus Wireless R700 series can offer more features and have a more intelligent and powerful radio than some of the most commonly used consumer grade APs (like the TP Link Archer C7 or Apple Airport Extreme).
What should I be looking for when purchasing wireless equipment for my office?
Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) are continuously evolving at a fast pace. The newest generation of Wi-Fi signaling, as of this writing, is the popular 802.11ac. It offers many advantages over the former 802.11n. The list below describes features that are being supported by some wireless equipment vendors offering 802.11ac, and are becoming critical when choosing the right access points. The features include:
Power over Ethernet (PoE): This feature eliminates the need to have AC power outlets, while feeding the device through the Ethernet network. Note: Your network switch(es) must support this feature as well.
Wireless intrusion detection/protection: This feature can detect and/or prevent rogue access points and clients. This is a critical feature for wireless security, and can prevent anyone from randomly plugging in their own wireless device to circumvent your network security protocols.
Beam-forming: This feature helps to increase the signal power by trying to avoid signals from cancelling each other out at the receiver.
MU-MIMO: Stands for “Multi-user Multiple Input Multiple Output” and is a new feature in 802.11ac (Wave 2) that can focus the signal on a particular client. This significantly improves the streaming of high bandwidth data, such as video.
Noise reduction: This feature uses active and passive noise detection to automatically modify the signal to adapt to a specific environment.
Multiple SSIDs: A feature that allows multiple wireless segments, separate traffic, and the ability to create different security measures from a single device. For instance, Corporate and Guest networks.
Cloud-managed wireless: This feature gives the ability to allow the WLAN to be managed remotely, without a physical “controller” in your server room.
Choosing the best product for your office; a technical breakdown
The below chart shows some of the differences between enterprise-grade and consumer grade WAPs. All the devices shown are next generation or standard 802.11ac and their radio type is dual-band (simultaneous), 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Their coverage area cannot be entirely defined by the Radio Output Power; however corporate devices include high performance antennas and noise reduction features that make a significant difference on signal coverage.
On the consumer side, we have the TP-LINK Archer C7, which is considered one of the best consumer grades WiFi devices according to The Wire Cutter on July 2016, because of the low price and great coverage that provides. In theory, its 3 internal/external antennas can offer complete coverage for a 4000 square feet. Additionally, the Apple AirPort Extreme, which is considered one of the most expensive consumer grade WiFi routers, offers reliability, high data rate and can cover up to 5000 square feet, with antenna adapters/extenders. These numbers may sound amazing, but the square footage is not a good indicator because it doesn’t take into consideration the entire environment, such as walls, floors, elevator shafts, etc.
In a Small Office/Home Office environment, these consumer WAPs can provide good coverage area in optimal environmental conditions, at a fair speed and low price. For basic web browsing, and light video/audio streaming it’s a good choice. On the other hand, where several members are using large amounts of data at the same time, and where security is critical, these devices are not a good choice.
Corporate networking equipment can be installed anywhere from small offices, schools, or even as large as an airport. These networks have the capability of creating large mesh topologies, which simply means that you can have one SSID (network name) run over many wireless access points to cover a large area. The Cisco Meraki MR42 is considered one of the best 802.11ac (Wave 2) on the market and the pioneer in cloud-managed networking. Its array of antennas gives resilience in high-density radio environments and can automatically optimize the frequencies to avoid RF interference and noise. Additionally the Ruckus Wireless R700 can support high speeds at longer distances, and with a higher user capacity.
Before anything else, a wireless site survey of your office (or if you’re moving, your new space), should be performed by a knowledgable IT vendor. However, when reviewing potential products, here are a few questions that you can start with:
How many devices will be running on your wireless network? This will determine the amount of WAPs you’ll require.
What are your security requirements? This will determine which model you’ll require.
What existing network equipment do you have now? This will determine if you will need to purchase any additional equipment to support your network.
Buying a consumer grade device for any type of business network will be very attractive from a price perspective. You’ll quickly see, however, that the true costs will add up in the form of recurring management, repairs, adjustments, and unsatisfied users. Corporate grade devices offer meaningful benefits that optimize the user experience, making it easier to adjust to the high traffic that a business demands.
Is your business moving to a new office space? Use the information above to get an idea of what you’ll need for your upcoming move. Feel free to reach out in the comments, or visit leveldesk.com to see how we can help make the process easier and more efficient.
Leveldesk is a New York Technology Consulting Company
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