Take Advantage of WiFi 6E Without the Complexity

0:01 welcome to news on the feed wi-fi 6e is

0:04 here it opens up a world of

0:05 possibilities but also a new level of

0:07 complexity managing a network for three

0:10 frequency bands is easier said than done

0:12 unless you got a few tricks up your

0:14 sleeping fortunately our guest today

0:16 christian gilby wrote a recent blog

0:18 sharing some tips to help us maintain

0:20 our sanity christian let's start with

0:22 good why is everyone jumping on the

0:24 wi-fi 6e training

0:26 yeah so i think it's really about

0:28 capacity so what does 6e really

0:30 introduce for the industry

0:33 it's expanding the rf spectrum adding

0:35 the 6 gigahertz frequency up until now

0:38 we're in the 2.4 and 5 gig

0:40 so there's depending on the regulatory

0:43 domain like in

0:44 the americas for example it's 1200

0:47 megahertz additional that's effectively

0:49 a doubling of the available frequency

0:51 which translates into the wi-fi channels

0:53 that you can actually run the traffic on

0:55 and that's big because we look at what's

0:57 going on in terms of trends in the

0:59 industry right now we've got more and

1:01 more mobile devices iot devices trying

1:03 to connect to the network more bandwidth

1:06 hungry applications especially in the

1:07 past couple years as we've seen

1:10 employees start to do a lot more hybrid

1:12 work getting more comfortable with video

1:14 you've seen the demand the demands on

1:16 the the bandwidth for wireless are

1:18 really soaring and ultimately that's

1:20 trickling out to the wired side as well

1:22 because if we boost the capacity on the

1:25 wi-fi side you've also got to boost the

1:27 switching infrastructure to support that

1:30 um so yeah i mean i think it's really

1:31 exciting just the the increase of

1:34 frequency or channels that's that's

1:36 coming with 6e

1:37 yeah that's awesome i don't see what's

1:38 not to like about that but is there any

1:40 downside

1:42 um i don't know if i'd say downside but

1:45 certainly some challenges i mean you

1:46 look at as i said a doubling of

1:49 frequency

1:50 this is it's about almost 60 additional

1:54 20 megahertz channels almost 30 40

1:56 megahertz channels

1:58 um

1:59 and you've got to set the channels for

2:01 those so if you look at a large network

2:03 what you're trying to do when you do a

2:04 channel plan and design the network is

2:06 try and minimize the interference so you

2:08 don't want two access points that are in

2:10 hearing distance of each other to be on

2:12 the same channel otherwise the packets

2:15 are going to collide and you're going to

2:16 get drop packets

2:18 effectively the bandwidth of the network

2:20 is going to go down so it's making the

2:22 planning a lot harder so if a customer

2:24 is doing manual

2:26 channel planning is setting the channels

2:28 of each ap

2:29 it is really tough to do

2:32 and then i think the second one as i

2:33 alluded to before is it's creating a

2:36 challenge on the wired side so a lot of

2:39 these newer aps are driving more

2:41 bandwidth that means you've got to have

2:43 faster uplinks and then the power to

2:46 support these devices as well which

2:48 comes in higher budgets for the poe on

2:51 the switches

2:52 yeah that makes a lot of sense so

2:54 is there a solution out there to help

2:55 solve for that

2:57 yeah so i think one of the uh the

2:59 exciting things

3:00 um that we're actually leveraging our

3:03 technology for which is missed ai

3:06 is leveraging the ai and things like

3:08 reinforcement learning

3:10 to actually do this tuning and

3:12 optimization of the channels because

3:13 like i said it's it's a lot more

3:15 channels to play with so the complexity

3:17 has gone up and you look at a network as

3:20 it's running throughout the day it's

3:22 it's like a living breathing organism

3:24 there's interference coming in whether

3:26 it's external to the office or maybe

3:28 different devices that are connecting

3:31 the network has to adapt in real time

3:33 and that's where i think ai is going to

3:36 be critical for organizations so that

3:38 you can really optimize

3:40 the channel the power settings across

3:42 your network

3:44 yeah leveraging the technology is key

3:46 and so are there certain use cases that

3:49 you see make more sense for an immediate

3:52 adoption of something like wi-fi 6e

3:55 yeah so i think certainly areas where

3:57 you've got a high density of devices for

3:59 example

4:00 meeting rooms conference rooms in an

4:02 enterprise

4:03 in education

4:05 so you've got a lecture hall

4:08 or a sports stadium on campus

4:11 retail is another big one where you see

4:13 certain areas of a retail environment

4:15 will have a high density like let's say

4:17 the checkout lines

4:18 um and you've got associates needing to

4:20 connect to the network so i think those

4:22 are all great examples of areas where

4:25 you're looking for more bandwidth to

4:27 support either higher bandwidth

4:29 applications or just more devices

4:31 connecting to the network and i think as

4:33 i mean i've been through i think about

4:35 five

4:37 generations of wi-fi changes now

4:39 one of the things that that i would

4:41 recommend as customers go and look at

4:43 migrating to this is start to look at

4:46 those high density areas um or high

4:48 performance areas let's say you've got a

4:50 set of employees who are doing video

4:52 editing target those areas

4:54 upgrade the the wi-fi infrastructure

4:56 there first and then rip it across the

4:59 network allows you to manage the costs

5:02 relative to the capacity requirements

5:04 and also gives you a bit of experience

5:06 as you start to deploy this technology

5:08 and get comfortable with it christian

5:10 that's great advice

5:11 thank you so much for sharing your tips

5:13 and how companies can adopt wi-fi 60

5:15 without the headaches that all that

5:17 complexity can bring to learn more we've

5:19 included a link to christian's blog so

5:21 you can check that out and while you're

5:22 on the feed take some time to soak up

5:24 some more industry news and knowledge

5:26 hidario

5:27 thank you

5:28 thanks a lot