Page 34 - Take Control of Wi-Fi Networking and Security_Neat

networking to interconnect, which has a cost, however.) That said,

the price of mesh networking nodes and bundles has dropped and I

expect it to become cheaper still.

• No mixing and matching: Mesh devices use proprietary proto-

cols, which means you can’t mix and match systems. That’s poised

to change, as a new standard just appeared from the Wi-Fi Alliance,

Wi-Fi EasyMesh. This will eventually find its way into future or

updated mesh nodes, but not in the immediate future.)

• One-product, new companies: Some mesh systems are made

by startup companies that have to turn a profit and prove them-

selves in order to keep making and supporting your gear. The

downside of that is that you may be stuck without cloud-based

backend device administration tools or lacking security updates if

the companies fail. Since mesh devices from one company can’t be

used with those from other, you’ll also be stuck if you want to add

nodes and the company’s gone out of business. (A company might

also sell itself to a bigger firm that creates new, incompatible ver-

sions of the hardware or stops updating the bulk of older devices.)

• The fear of adopting too early: Even though these mesh sys-

tems have 802.11ac networking, the most affordable systems and

nodes within the system communicate with other nodes over the

same Wi-Fi channels used to handle wireless clients. That reduces

throughput. You can purchase more expensive tri-radio nodes,

which have an extra radio system that dedicates a separate 5 GHz

Wi-Fi channel just to this inter-node backhaul. However, as the

price of radio chips and hardware continues to drop, you might be

able to get a tri-radio system or one with even more radios for the

same price of a two-radio node today. Future mesh nodes could also

handle other protocols, like 802.11ad/Wi-Gig for superfast, very

close-range networking that allows for ultra-high-definition (UHD)

8K video streaming. Such nodes could also support ZigBee and
other smarthome standards for short-range, low-power control,

which currently require a separate coordinating hub.

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