Consumers’ appetite for streaming data with personal- and enterprise-owned mobile devices is at an all-time high without any end in sight. Our devices are on the verge of crippling Wi-Fi networks, causing bottlenecks for the wireless carriers, and requiring an upgrade to wireless infrastructure.
If you need the bandwidth, infrastructure for Wi-Fi and in-building distributed antenna systems (DAS) are available today. The big question is which one do you upgrade first? Here’s my answer: You do both at the same time with the same connectivity.
As enterprises upgrade their overtaxed Wi-Fi networks to the latest 802.11ac technology, they are discovering wireless speeds capable of meeting their demand for several years. Unlike the Wave 1 specification which does not require widespread network infrastructure changes, Wave 2 may require enterprises to rethink their entire network architecture.
Bring your own device (BYOD) policies have enterprises evolving their cloud-based applications to support the growing millennial workforce. Some buildings today are wired with legacy 3G or proprietary systems that are expensive and cumbersome to upgrade to 4G LTE, but many still rely on capacity limited macro cell sites. On top of all this complexity, sometimes not all carriers are supported on the same system, which adds to the issues corporate IT faces with BYOD when their businesses grow into new spaces.
Building strategies supporting the advancements in wireless bandwidth, optimization and spectrum use both Wi-Fi and in-building DAS. This technology starts in the ceiling with a physically-defined grid approach. A universal connectivity grid based on industry standard Category 6A cabling provides instant capacity when the next generation of licensed DAS and unlicensed Wi-Fi are available to support the boom of Internet of Things (IoT) devices today and for several years ahead.
Fortunately, for your business and BYOD policy, your network infrastructure connectivity upgrade supporting 802.11ac Wave 2 Wi-Fi will also support a 4G LTE carrier neutral DAS. This equates to a single physical cabling network for any wireless application today with the flexibility to provide next-generation unlicensed 802.11ad Wi-Fi and carrier owned 5G DAS spectrum. This is truly the beginning of wireless convergence in the physical layer of the building in what used to be two discreetly independent wireless networks running on one networked cable.
These topics and more from CommScope, WiredScore, and EMC | Dell will be discussed in detail during the CoreNet New York Chapter's Technology Community - The Future Of The Wireless Building and Why You Should Care panel discussion Thursday, March 31, 2016 in New York City.
I hope you join us.
