Tips for enterprises to speed up Wi-Fi wireless networks (1)
The days when a fast Wi-Fi wireless network was connected to an enterprise's office environment were gone forever. In the current enterprise office environment, it is essential for enterprises to provide fast and reliable wireless networks for customers and employees.
For wireless networks, proper field measurement and maintenance are crucial, especially for wireless networks with large network communication traffic, such as Wi-Fi hotspots in public places. When you need to transmit streaming media videos or voice through Wi-Fi, the wi-fi speed in the wireless network is even more important.
Network signal interference, congestion, improper Security Settings, and lack of maintenance are only a few factors that may negatively affect your enterprise's wireless network performance. Fortunately, enterprise network managers can solve these problems through the following skills.
However, before I discuss the details in depth, I think it is necessary to introduce the background. Wi-Fi is related to airtime, that is, the amount of time transmitted by wireless devices and access points (AP. Airtime is very important because only one device can transmit signals at a time on an established channel. Wireless devices and AP access points must share the radio waves and take turns to talk. The slower the transmission speed, the longer the call duration occupied by a device. Therefore, the shorter the call duration allocated to other devices.
Indeed, multi-user MIMO now allows an AP access point to be sent to multiple wireless devices simultaneously over the same channel. However, this technology is just emerging and it will take some time for many devices to support it, especially commercial and enterprise AP access points.
Note that adding or moving an existing Wireless AP may be the best start if your enterprise's workplace does not have full Wi-Fi coverage. However, if the main problem is not covered, your company is concerned about the slow speed of the wireless network, before you add or move an existing Wireless AP access point, I suggest you use the skills described in the following story.
If your enterprise network has a wireless controller or your AP has a built-in controller function, you can adjust the settings from a central interface. Otherwise, you may need to log on to every AP to perform the recommended changes.
1. minimize interference
One of the first steps to optimize Wi-Fi is to reduce or eliminate interference. Unlike wired network cables, you cannot easily control Wi-Fi transmission media: radio waves. There may be some types of interference you must contend with, whether it is from other nearby Wi-Fi networks, or your own network of the same channel interference, or non-Wi-Fi signals in the same radio spectrum.
The Android app stumbler clearly displays the same channel interference.
Start with the most controllable: same channel interference, which is caused by two or more Wi-Fi access points with the same or overlapping channels. Although most access points should have an automatic function to select the best channel, I still recommend that you carefully check the channel you select.
Compared with the 5 GHz band, the same channel interference is a major problem in the 2-4 GHz band. There are 11 channels in the GHz band, but only 3 channels do not overlap: and 11. In the 5 GHz band, there are up to 24 channels. If the traditional 20 MHz channel width is used, they do not overlap. Although some AP access points do not support all channels, the larger channel width leads to a certain overlap, but the 5 GHz band is still very large.
When you check channels in a small network, if there are only six or fewer access points, you can use a free wireless network to connect to stumbler on your laptop or Android device. These simple applications Scan radio waves and list nearby wireless routers and access points, including the basic details of channel usage.
For larger networks, you can consider using map-based Wi-Fi measurement tools (such as AirMagnet, Ekahau, or Tamograph products) during deployment and regular inspection ). By capturing wi-fi signals, these tools allow you to run a complete RF spectrum to scan for non-Wi-Fi interference.
Ekahau on-site investigation, similar tools can display the heat map of the same channel interference.
For continuous interference monitoring, any function built into the AP will remind you whether there is malicious AP and/or other interference.
Map-based wireless wi-fi network connection measurement solutions generally provide some automatic channel analysis and planning functions. However, if your enterprise is conducting a survey on using a simple wireless network Wi-Fi stumbler connection on a small network, you must manually create a channel plan. For the first time, you may want to assign a channel from the access point on the outer edge of your coverage area because you must process adjacent wireless networks. Then your work is on the right track, so that you are more likely to only process your own access point.
2. switching between 5 GHz frequencies and frequencies
As mentioned above, the 5 GHz band provides more channels than the 2-4 GHz band. Therefore, I strongly encourage enterprises to select dual-band access points and support 5 GHz. This allows older Wi-Fi devices to connect in lower bands, while enabling newer dual-band devices to connect in higher bandwidths. Less congestion in lower frequencies usually means faster connections, while devices in higher frequencies usually support higher data rates, both of which help reduce the call time of devices. Although not all new Wi-Fi devices are dual-band devices, more and more devices are now available, especially high-end smartphones and tablets.
In addition to the 5 GHz Band, enterprise wireless network administrators can also consider using any Band Steering function provided by AP access points. This can encourage or force dual-band devices to connect to a higher frequency band, rather than by devices or users themselves.
Many AP access points only allow enterprises to enable or disable band switching, while some allow you to configure the signal threshold, which will make the dual-band devices have a stronger signal in the GHz band, instead of using the 5 GHz band. This is beneficial because 5 GHz provides a relatively low band short distance. If your AP Access Point supports this function, we recommend that you use the signal Threshold setting, which provides a good balance for reducing congestion in the GHz band while providing the best signal.
Even if your AP access point does not allow you to configure the signal threshold, as shown in, it may have a default threshold.
3. Use WPA2 security only
Although almost all AP access points are still supported, WEP Security is actually not secure and is not a secret. Therefore, using WPA or WPA2 is very important. However, when the first version of WPA is used, the maximum rate of data transmission in the wireless network is limited: 54 Mbps, the maximum rate of the old 802.11a and 802.11g standards.
To ensure that your enterprise can fully enjoy the higher data rate offered by the 802.11n standard (up to 450 Mbps) and 802.11ac standard (up to 1.3 Gbps currently, only WPA2 security and AES encryption are used. Unless you only select WPA2, many AP Access Points support two versions by default. Because almost all wireless devices currently support these two versions, you should force the second version.
4. Reduce the number of SSID
If your enterprise has multiple SSID configured on the AP access point, remember that each virtual wireless network broadcast beacon package must be managed separately. This will consume more call time, so be cautious when using multiple SSID. A private SSID and a public SSID are acceptable, but I will stay away from using a virtual SSID to perform such things as separating wireless access by department.
If network isolation is necessary, consider using 802.1x authentication to dynamically assign users to VLANs to connect to the SSID. In this way, you can have a private SSID and separate wireless traffic.