Coverage, capacity & bandwidth
How does the Extricom system resolve the traditional trade-off between coverage and capacity?
What is the difference between data rate and throughput?
How do you guarantee both data rate and throughput?
How does the Extricom WLAN system eliminate co-channel interference?
In terms of capacity and bandwidth, how is the channel blanket superior to cell-planning?
What is 'TrueReuse'?
Channel limitations will become even more severe with 802.11n. How will Extricom overcome these?
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How does the Extricom system resolve the traditional trade-off between coverage and capacity?
Cell-based WLAN design is a difficult balancing act between having too many APs - and thus too much co-channel interference and degraded capacity - or too few APs - and thus not enough coverage. In contrast, the Extricom system maximizes both capacity and coverage, by permitting dense deployments of APs, without co-channel interference, thereby guaranteeing complete coverage with the highest data rate and throughput everywhere.
>>TopWhat is the difference between data rate and throughput?
The data rate is the raw speed at which the Wi-Fi communications are made between client and the infrastructure. The specification defines the maximum data rate for 802.11b and 802.11g to be 54 Mbps, while 802.11b has a maximum data rate of 11 Mbps. Throughput is the net speed of communications when all of the protocol's overhead is removed. The maximum theoretical throughput for a 54 Mbps channel is approximately 25 Mbps, and this decreases rapidly as the distance between the client and the AP increases.
>>TopYou guarantee both data rate and throughput. How?
Unlike cell-based WLANs, the Extricom channel blanket guarantees that the desired data rate and maximal system throughput is always delivered. While cell-based systems may attempt to raise the data rate by adding more APs, the corresponding increased co-channel interference, will degrade the actual over-the-air throughput to well below maximal. And this is even before additional throughput-degrading effects, such as those from edge users and mixed mode devices, are factored in.
How does the Extricom WLAN System eliminate co-channel interference?
The Extricom WLAN Switch fully controls the transmissions of every AP connected to it. The switch is therefore able to avoid co-channel interference by permitting multiple APs to simultaneously transmit on the same channel only if the switch determines that they won't interfere with each other.
In terms of capacity and bandwidth, how is the channel blanket superior to cell-planning?
A common misconception in cell-based WLANs is the belief that just adding more APs and re-using the same channels will increase capacity. In practice, however, the very mechanisms of 802.11 (e.g. the Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) algorithm, rate adaptation) prevent channel re-use from providing appreciable increase in capacity, let alone bandwidth (throughput). In contrast, the channel blanket eliminates co-channel interference, the inaccuracies of CCA, and edge users stemming from rate adaptation, to ensure that the maximum throughput is delivered throughout the system, a function only of the density of APs. Simply put, in an Extricom system the more APs you add, the higher the system throughput.
>>TopWhat is TrueReuse?
TrueReuse is the name of the algorithm that enables multiple APs to transmit on the same channel, at the same time, yet without co-channel interference. The TrueReuse intelligence is essentially enabling the purest form of channel re-use, dynamically and in real-time, thereby providing the real capacity benefits of frequency reuse that cell-based WLANs have only promised.
Channel limitations will become even more severe with 802.11n. How will Extricom overcome these?
To reach their promised data rate and throughput, 802.11n systems will need to "bond" two existing Wi-Fi channels into one. So, if cell-planning was difficult with three channels, how much harder (or impossible) will it be with two? Since Extricom does not depend on cell-planning, opting instead for the channel blanket topology that makes each available channel present at every AP, Extricom customers will readily see the benefits of increased capacity and bandwidth promised by 802.11n.
>>Top