Less Is the New More

I’m trying to get some of my partners and clients to get out of the mentality that “more is better” when it comes to cranking out Wi-Fi power, particularly in environments where there is a shared backhaul mesh. Most of them just crank it up and expect everything to just automagically work better, but doing so can cause serious network problems.

For example, consider a campus environment where you have tons of student devices slamming access points, such as large conference areas. In these environments, you have lots of collision on the 1 through 11 on 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g (and soon, 802.11n) channels. In these situations, it’s better to split out those users on different access points so that they don’t (a) congest the 2.4 GHz spectrum (1, 6, or 11 in most indoor cases; but often 1, 4, 8, or 11 in large outdoor muni mesh environments), or (b) crank down the power in certain areas to force the users to connect to the “correct” access points.

Also, why blast out the signal and risk causing the laptop to get a signal, but not be able to send *back* the signal? I see this all the time, and it’s frustrating to users. I tell the wireless admins that Wi-Fi devices listen before they talk (CSMA/CA), so if there is noise out there from another BSS stations on that channel, that client device will wait until there is an opening. And when there is an 11b client in the area, everyone on that WAN suffers (more info here).

So, you’ve got two choices here: use a good radio that can receive faint signals of distance laptops that receive your signal or stop cranking up the power on shitty radios. Seriously, folks…less is the new more here.