Hello Scott, does disabling 802.11b do anything to improve overall wireless performance?
Yes! Protection mechanism involve in accommodating both "b"(DSSS) and "g" (OFDM) in the same BSS degrade overall throughput severely. Can access points that don?t need to worry about ?B? traffic handle more users? I don't think it anything to do with the number of users but rather data traffic... Does overall throughput increase? Yes indeed! To give you an idea 802.11b/g AP (54Mpbs bandwidth) will see aggregate throughput dropping somewhere from 20/22Mbps to 8/9Mbps in a b/g mix mode. What i would do.. Assuming some administrative hurdles involve (especially with faculty) i would cut off lower data rates (1,2,5.5) first..... Manoj ----------------------------------- P. Manoj Abeysekera, CWNA Network Engineer American University 4200 Wisconsin Ave, NW Washington DC. 20016 "Lowe, Scott" <[email protected]> Sent by: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv <[email protected]> 08/03/2009 11:31 AM Please respond to The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv <[email protected]> To [email protected] cc Subject [WIRELESS-LAN] Disabling 802.11b - does it really help? Question for the wireless group? I understand the consequences of disabling 802.11b from the perspective that older wireless equipment will no longer work with the wireless network. However, does disabling 802.11b do anything to improve overall wireless performance? Can access points that don?t need to worry about ?B? traffic handle more users? Does overall throughput increase? We haven?t taken this step yet, but it?s been talked about. I?d love to get some definitive information on any potential benefits from doing so, or hear about some other ideas on how to improve wireless performance. Scott Scott Lowe Chief Information Officer Information Technology Services Westminster College 501 Westminster Avenue Fulton, Missouri 65251 (V) 573-592-9070 (F) 573-592-6235 ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
