Five Steps to Future Proofing Your Wireless Network
Wireless networking gear is constantly getting outdated with new routers, access points, and extenders hitting the market every week. While this may be good news for the industry, it can be a royal pain in the ass for businesses as they look to keep their organization ahead of the competition in terms of speed, security, and reliability. Below we’ll take a look at some of the steps you can take to future proof your wireless network.
802.11ac
With the number of wireless devices expected to reach up to five per individual, it’s no surprise that you’ll need to invest in a wireless network that will be able to handle the added stress. Introducing the 802.11ac standard as early as you can is a good way to prepare for your network’s growth. While the standard has already been around for some time, a better late than never approach will still benefit your organization.
Multiple Frequency Flexibility
A good future proofed wireless network will not only be able to respond to the frequencies in use today, but also the emerging frequency bands in the future. Currently, all commercially-licensed communication is contained in a small amount of spectrum. Over the next five years, we can expect to see new bandwidth-intensive applications in use that will soon see the introduction of 568 MHz of new frequencies.
SDN
One sure way to future proof your network is choosing only the latest generation of adaptive access points that come with software defined radios. This allows both radios in an AP to operate on 5 GHZ concurrently, so you can quickly reconfigure your network depending on client capabilities with the click of your mouse.
Allow for Upgrades
If you’re looking to get the most out of your wireless technology, you should be keeping an eye on the latest trends in wireless technology. Make sure that your wireless gear can be upgraded to be compatible with the newest standards to get the longest lifespan out of your device. That being said, to keep up, you’ll have to ensure any Wi-Fi solution you select offers the ability to add wireless capacity without also needing a more expensive wired infrastructure upgrade.
Scalability
As mentioned earlier, we can only expect the number of devices on your network to increase exponentially. If you’re serious about future proofing your wireless network, you should look for wireless gear that will allow for years of wireless network growth.