Page 23 - The Edge - Summer 2016

WIFI IN THE CLASSROOM McCaigue recommends a careful pre- and post-site survey,
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21 which can be costly and time-consuming, before choosing AP
site locations and nullifying the one-AP-per-classroom myth.
A second myth is that you need to upgrade your switches
device. Some districts have moved beyond one-to-one, to include two ports for each Access Point if your district is
allowing students to connect their personal devices. WiFi is the going to upgrade for WiFi. Some vendors say you need two
technology of choice for getting young people up to speed on cables for every AP so you can have 2 gigabits in performance,
educational fundamentals and world events.” giving you additional power, McCaigue said. “In reality, switch
The No. 1 myth that concerns McCaigue is that an Access speed almost never slows down WiFi applications, the limit of
Point (AP) is needed in every classroom to provide optimal the 80MHz wide channel and the number of data streams your
performance. “It’s a common mistake in many areas of life – not device can use,” he said. “So, a fast WiFi link is going to speed
just with WiFi – to think that more is better,” he said. “When up the performance of applications whether switch speeds are
WiFi is over-deployed, APs start contending for the limited upgraded or not. While having fast-wired speeds to go with
channels, having to take turns using the spectrum. Adding APs increased WiFi speeds is a fine idea, it’s far from necessary.”
to a WiFi deployment can add capacity only to a point, but there McCaigue noted that there is a lot of capital expense in
becomes a time when new APs become counter-productive. buying cables. “There is low power and there is high power,”
Performance degradation occurs when more than one AP is
covering the same channel to the same device.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

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