Testing with 802.11a/b

[JimGeier]

Has anyone out there done any testing with a mix of 802.11a and 802.11b in the same network? I'm not that interested in hearing about range, but I was wondering if anyone has tested one of the dual 802.11a/b access points with a mix of 802.11a and 802.11b clients. Any successes or problems?

[Fozzy_wozzy_woo]

i know that Intermec www.intermec.com which are a vertical market wireless manufacturer produce accesspoints that work with duel radios.
802.11wlf and 802.11b accesspoints
802.11b and 802.11b accesspoint
and i have heard from people from the inside they will also be producing the 802.11a and 802.11b/g access points very soon.
so the access point will have a 802.11a card and a 802.11b card in one accesspoint. working over a 10/100/fiber optic internal network card.

the person you should talk with if you can get intouch with him, is (Greg.Lamb)intermec he works out of everet washington. as an access point tester that intermec produce.

I didn't tell you...

[JimGeier]

I recently did some testing with 802.11a and 802.11b at the Miami International Airport. We mostly did range tests to determine the optimum location for access points. You can see the results of this testing within an article that I wrote for 802.11-Planet: http://www.80211-planet.com/columns/article.php/1479831. We found some interesting results with 802.11a range and 802.11b channel reuse.

[Fozzy_wozzy_woo]

i have seen the report.
Which accesspoints were you using?
did they house both radio cards in one accesspoint?

When you did this did you think of installing a mesh network? or was it just a pure client to accesspoint connection required?

What are the fallbacks that were considered when one of the other companies install other accesspoints in the area and cause an interferance on the 5ghz/2.4 ghz band.? Has the airport stated that no other wireless networks will be installed to protect their investment.

Did you get any interfearance from the radar?

[JimGeier]

I can't disclose the AP vendor. I've thought of using a mesh network, but that seems too dependent on the presence of other users (in a public WLAN). I don't think that there will be a high enough concentration of users to make that type of solution work. In regards to interference, we didn't detect any problems from radar, but we did all of our testing indoors. I'm not sure on the policy that the airport will use for the future addition of WLANs. I'm recommending that all WLANs fall under central airport IT control so that management of channel usage is more effective.