Edgewater Wireless April 2018

Building a Better High Density WiFi Solution Starts Here

The popularity of WiFi for use in “all things internet” has led to a wave of 802.11 variations, which all promote higher throughput and a better user experience. Current solutions push the 30 year-old 802.11 standard to its breaking point, and introduce hybrid methods of bonding channels, using multiple antennas and special beaming techniques.

However, the promised nirvana of faster than light WiFi (and $1000 Access Points) has continued to fail to meet the expectations of Enterprise, Hospitality and Venue network operators and end-users. WiFi providers and network operators have sought to increase the performance of their wireless network by layering in more APs and adopting high-density coverage solutions tailored to fit the varying design requirements of Enterprise, Hospitality, and Venue networks.

In the following series, we’ll revisit the current and future challenges of 802.11 and offer a new take on how the standard (as it was originally implemented), holds the key to boosting WiFi performance in real world networks.

Given the costs associated with supporting complex, high-density environments network owners and operators should consider what they are trying to achieve with their WiFi network. Only then can they be ready to ask hard questions of the solutions they are considering investing in, as well as what constitutes success for their networked business and the usage requirements of today’s devices.

Why do you spend tens of thousands of dollars on a supposedly “bullet proof” 802.11ac network and it still does not meet your organization or network requirements?

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Assessing the Capabilities of the 802.11 Standard As the portable device generation and the Internet of Things (IoT) worlds have collided, the 30 year-old standards for WiFi are stretched to their breaking point. Meanwhile, as vendors continue to roll out a virtual alphabet soup of 802.11 “abgnacax” and use proprietary software to bind channels to make them louder (attempting to overcome signal to noise ratios (SNR)) the broader fundamentals of WiFi transmission (Tx) and reception (Rx) still must obey the physical science of RF.

WiFi has become the technology-of-choice to deliver data-based communications, and as wireless-enabled devices continue to access the crowded 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum, the marketing promises made by vendors selling 802.11ac and 802.11n are increasingly challenged to deliver in the real world. This isn’t because today’s technology lacks the gross improvements of speed, rather it reflects the fundamental math of power and distance – AND access points (APs) are designed to treat all clients equally. Subsequently, they must cater to the weakest link or in this case the lowest transmission/reception capability, first. This often has a correspondingly negative impact on all other devices and restrains throughput of robust, high bandwidth services.

We all understand if you are close to the AP you get better service. Regardless of the type of 802.11 (a/b/g/n/ac) employed by the AP for Rx/Tx. However, this is easily compromised by multiple device connections, users connecting over a distance, or other APs interfering with channel quality. All of these factors, and more, destroy quality of service and user experience, which further degrades performance in high-density locations. Let’s explore this in more detail, especially given virtually every Access Point vendor says they have solved this issue.

Aliquam scelerisque sagittis erat.

As the last 10 years have seen, laptops get lighter, tablets take off, and well, that thing called the iPhone has rewritten the mobile user experience – these devices have led to an exponential increase in the demand for more WiFi access. It isn’t just the devices, as background applications taint everyone’s experiences by attaching and constantly forcing even the best WiFi configurations to stutter and flip packets needlessly to services that users aren’t even aware they are accessing.

This proliferation of applications that have been written to constantly communicate and access wireless networks can affect the experience for everyone.

Add into this demand, the glut of devices emitting a ruckus of packet noise that further overwhelms your access points. It is literally amazing how few devices will hit the maximum physical layer bit rate – a rate typically magnitudes less than what was promised on the front of the box marketing and based on vendor’s interference-free Faraday Chamber tests.

Device Density Increases Exponentially – and so has the interference

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Single Channel With MESH Offers Little Relief The strategy of today’s leading WiFi vendors has been to publish architecture standards that show a properly operating mesh network requiring a crap load of APs. At their insistence, IT managers overlap AP coverage areas in terms of service, channels, and even add more APs to overcome any possible physical architectural inhibitors.

Think about that for a second. Your organization has just invested >$1000USD for each top of the line, market-leading single-channel vendor router. Based on their technical guidance to get the most of your mesh deployment you’ll need 20 APs ($20,000!) and you’ll be required to string new cable and power for the install, service & support. Now the promised speed of (ah hem maximum physical bit rate) of gigabit speeds has just crashed down to 5-10 Mbps, something you could have achieved that rate for far less with just 5 commercial off the shelf single channel routers installed.

Hats off to the vendors’ sales and marketing teams tasked with making their companies more money. By not highlighting the physical scientific limitations of their technologies they are getting customers to buy more APs and layering them on top of each other of their technologies – essentially fixing bad WiFi with more…bad WiFi.

To further increase performance, many routers use additional proprietary tools to boost their controlled PHY speed and these speeds can rarely (if ever) be achieved, primarily because many consumer grade mobile devices aren’t equipped to leverage the required multi-antenna and special streaming features that these devices require.

SU-MIMO and MU-MIMO are also stretched to meet the needs of real world WiFi networks. Buying into the promise of MU-MIMO to supercharge your mesh WiFi network assumes every client will be designed to support this evolving standard. And it is evolving as we are currently migrating from 802.11ac Wave 1 to Wave 2 with a Wave 3 planned and 802.11ax promising even more changes. Meanwhile, approximately 90% of all devices are built to be only single stream 2x2 compliant. MIMO (ac or ax versions) require at least a 4x4 multi-stream configuration to boost throughput of data. Today, MU-MIMO has only reached the crème-de-la-creme of devices and it certainly isn’t part of the density of tier 2 phones, tablets, and the deluge of IoT devices that will be attaching to your APs.

In fact, testing has shown that after the first 10 feet, with no walls or other interference a single client will receive only 2/3rds of the PHY rate of the AP1 it is connected to. This means no matter what you try after 10 feet of uninterrupted signal performance drops off the proverbial cliff. Even if your device is configured properly with the latest WiFi chipsets, your ability to reach a consistent high throughput in a non-high-density environment is a long shot.

This whole WiFi promised land of more APs with the latest 802.11ac or 802.11n MU-MIMO and Spatial Streaming suddenly has crossed the chasm of science to science fiction. And we haven’t even delved into sticky clients, physical interference, and competing noise on the 2.4 & 5 GHz bands!

Why Wont AC, AX and/or MIMO Solutions Meet my Needs?

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There is a way forward – innovation.

Innovation starts at the chipset level – implementing a proven approach to WiFi in a highly innovative fashion – a purpose-built, elegant wireless solution to the increasingly complex problem of density and interference.

Wireless network densification is required to address the issues facing WiFi today. How do you address the increased device and AP density of today and tomorrow? From a cost and support standpoint (and user experience) it’s time to consider a way forward that uses the scarce resource of spectrum effectively? If you need speed to multiple devices, look to a solution that again leverages a multi-channel radio solution that isolates by channel. Don’t rely on multiple clean adjacent channels (that are very rarely available) for a costly boost in transmission speeds.

Based on Edgewater Wireless WiFi3 custom silicon (radio cards and chipsets), Multi-channel Single Radio (MCSR) takes full advantage of the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz spectrum. MCSR mitigates adjacent and co-channel interference, and avoiding the channel bonding or spatial streaming of so called high density APs.

WiFi3’s MCSR approach delivers multiple concurrent Tx and Rx in both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz from the same radio. It focuses on maximizing capacity and transmission quality for better utilization and management to meet variable capacity challenges associated with public or private mesh WiFi networks. Edgewater Wireless has developed a chipset that is easy to implement, and doesn’t add overhead or complex design, or expensive client-side investment. It’s smarter about the channels it uses to deliver a consistent user experience – because that’s the end goal.

The advantages of Edgewater Wireless WiFi3TM are based on 20+ patents used in the development of the company’s custom WiFi3 chipset and radio cards.

MCSR has been proven to deliver multiple, concurrent channels of transmit and receive from the same radio. With 3 concurrent channels in 2.4 GHz and 3 concurrent channels in 5 GHz. WiFi3 is completely standards compliant. It optimizes the available RF without needing to layer more APs within a coverage zone and eliminating the impacts of the resulting adjacent and co-channel interference issues which dominate wireless network performance in high density.

The unlicensed spectrum is a scarce resource that can be optimized by adopting a multi-channel future. Edgewater Wireless has invested in a solution for the future and it’s called WiFi3. We’re ready. Are you?

The Path to Better WiFi Starts with RF Optimization

1 https://80211notes.blogspot.ca/2014/03/phy-rate-and-udp-throughput.html

Copyright 2018: Edgewater Wireless Systems Inc.

Edgewater Wireless Systems Inc. 408 Churchill Ave, N

Ottawa, Ontario K1Z 5C6, Canada

+1 613 271 3710

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About Edgewater Wireless Systems Inc.:

Edgewater Wireless develops and commercializes leading edge technologies and intellectual property for the communications market. Edgewater Wireless delivers advanced product solutions designed to meet the high-density, high quality of service (QoS) and high-reliability needs of service providers and their customers. Leveraging over twenty (20) patents, Edgewater’s WiFi3™ is redefining Wi-Fi technology with its wide-band, multi-channel radio and high-capacity Access Point solutions, and delivering next generation Wi-Fi, today.

The best solution for High-Density Wi-Fi networks, WiFi3™ powered chipsets and radio cards enable innovative manufacturers and service providers to plan, build and deploy reliable, high-capacity network and services (like VoWiFI) for high-density wireless data demand in any environment.

Do more with less! Fewer access points delivering high quality service at a lower overall deployment cost make our patented WiFi3™ technology the right choice for your next high density Wi-Fi network.

Explore the evolution of Wi-Fi at www.EdgewaterWireless.com