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Showing posts with the label 802.11a

The Missing Channels on 5GHz in the UK : 120, 124, 128

In my recent article : ' WiFi Channels On The 5GHz Band In The UK ', I noted that although the 5GHz channels 120, 124 and 128 are unlicensed channels available for use by WiFi equipment in the UK, it appears that a few major WiFi equipment manufacturers do not allow their use (in the UK or EU). I spoke with a major vendor representative today who advised me that the 3 channels are available for use, but that an update to the ETSI standard  301 893 v1.5.1  introduced some detection techniques for various military equipment used in the EU. However, many access points that were already manufactured (or using chip-sets that had already been manufactured) did not support the granularity of detection that is required for this equipment. So, it was decided to simply disable support for the affected channels. Apparently, later APs which use an updated chip-set will not be subject to the same limitations (once a few firmware updates are sorted out). I had a poke about in the stand

Which 5GHz Channels Does My Device Support?

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I've been on a bit of a 5GHz quest recently, trying to get to grips with all of the nuances of supporting WiFi devices on this rather (in my mind) troubling band. Until fairly recently, it seems that the default band of choice for many WiFi devices has been 2.4GHz (802.11g/n). But as the whole 'bring your own device' area has exploded, networks require more high-density deployments, 802.11ac is on the horizon and consumer grade devices are starting to support 5GHz in increasing numbers, it looks like 5GHz is going to transition to being the band of choice over the next year or two. However, there seem to be a number of considerations that need to be taken in to account when delving in to the 5GHz 'wonderland'. There are far more non-overlapping channels available (19 in the UK) compared to 2.4GHz (generally 3 channels), which is going to potentially deliver much better performance gains (with the mitigation of co-channel interference, lower noise floor etc.). Ho