TechWiseTV Workshop: Q&A for 802.11ac Wave 2
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The document is a Q&A about Cisco's 802.11ac Wave 2 technology, detailing aspects like spatial streams, access point series, and benefits of upgrading from Wave 1 to Wave 2. It addresses technical questions about deployment, channel assignments, client capabilities, and performance improvements with various Cisco access points. Additionally, it discusses support for radio management, controller compatibility, and the impact of new FCC regulations on channel availability.
TechWiseTV Workshop: Q&A for 802.11ac Wave 2
- 1. Q&A © 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 1 of 5 Go Beyond 802.11ac Wave 2 with Innovations for High-Density Networks May 25, 2016 Q. What is SS? Please elaborate. A. SS stands for spatial streams. It is how MIMO concurrently transmits data. Q. Can you explain what a single spatial stream is? A. A spatial stream is additional bandwidth out of phase with the original radio. Multiple spatial streams require multiple radios. A single spatial stream is just that: single versus many. Q. How can wireless N user devices benefit from AC wave 2? What are the challenges faced when upgrading user devices in the corporate environment? For example, managers might not want to upgrade wireless cards because they don't see the cost vs. value. A. I have done a lot of 802.11ac implementations, and there are already a lot of 802.11ac clients. We saw, for instance, a drop in duty cycle by 20 percent with a corresponding increase in data consumption of 30 percent going from 25 percent ac to 57 ac. Q. Which access point series are wave 2, and which are wave 1? A. The 2800/3800 are wave 2. Q. Do you see or expect companies to adapt the 80MHz or 160MHz wide channels any time in the near future? With the FCC changes adding new frequencies, do you see this becoming a norm? A. Our radio resource management selects the best channel width based on the RF environment. So a typical network will have a mix of channel widths depending on access point placement. Also, the new FCC 30-14 order increases the number of 80/160MHz channels, giving you more spectrum.
- 2. © 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 2 of 5 Q. Is there any difference from a deployment standpoint for wave 2 as compared to wave 1? A. MU MIMO is very handy for devices that will remain single spatial stream. Q. Currently we have AP3602i. Does this have wave 2? A. No, this is 802.11n unless you have the 802.11ac Module. That is wave 1, SU-MIMO only. Q. For the new access points, is dynamic channel assignment supported on 80MHz? A. It depends. You will get great relief from actual 802.11ac devices, which free airtime for all. Q. Does Cisco 2602 support AC? A. 802.11n only. Q. Is 802.11bz the next standard to come after AC wave 2? A. No, 802.3bz is the multigigabit (mGig) wired standard. Q. Will the 3702 be getting the flexible radio assignment too and at least go from monitor mode to local mode? Is there a way to do that today on the 3702? A. Not presently. Q. Are there any plans to increase the amount of 5GHz channels for companies that want to use 160MHz but have several access points? Currently cochannel interference prevents this in our network. A. We have already added five channels with the latest FCC ruling, and there are many more under consideration. Q. How will the WLC 5502 keep up with 100 or so access points in wave 2? A. WLC 5502 currently does keep up. Q. What's the bandwidth dropoff with distance from the access point? A. It depends on the client technology. The data sheet will be available soon and covers range and rate. Q. What are the plans for these access points to be supported on the 2504 controller? That controller only has a backplan throughput of a gig even if Etherchanneled. A. The WLC2504 is fully supported. Q. Is flex radio assignment on by default out of the box? A. No, it is not on by default. Q. How does this compare to the new 2800? A. Both the 2800/3800 support flexible radio assignment. Q. Is WLC software released for wave 2? A. Anything for 1800 series is wave 2. Q. Does the 2800 have the security checking also? A. Yes. Q. What is the MIMO on this? Currently, we have a very old building. The AP1142 that we have doesn't have a good signal and gets interference. A. Per the standard 802.11ac, wave 1 supports SU-MIMO, and 802.11ac wave 2 supports MU-MIMO.
- 3. © 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 3 of 5 Q. Is there a difference in the ClientLink technology from wave 1 to wave 2? A. It has to consider MU-MIMO use cases. Otherwise they are the same. Q. Are there any alerts or threshold to indicate to the admin that the 2.4GHz is underutilized? A. Underutilized in an alert? No. Q. Are 3702s wave 2? A. No. Q. How do the external connectors (primary and smart) map to the radios? A. The flexible radio is connected to the smart antenna port. Q. With two external antennas, will the channels still need to be 100MHz apart? A. Yes. Q. Is the version ClientLink 3.0 for both? A. Yes. Client 4.0 supports 802.11ac wave 2 and all legacy standards as well. Q. Are the new 2800 and 3800 only ceiling mount? A. Ceiling mount is recommended, but the same mounting options as with other Cisco® access points are possible. Q. Is the smart port connected to the second radio? Or is it somehow connected to both radios, and the access point chooses which antenna has the best client signal and uses that? A. Slot-0 XOR. Q. Do you need the other antenna via smartport for dual 5GHz radios? A. For the external model, yes. Q. What is the multiuser (MU)? A. 4x4:3 MU/SU-MIMO for both the 3800 and 2800. Q. Will this work with the Cisco Catalyst 2960-S? A. Yes. Q. What's the standard wattage that a 3802i will require? A. 802.3at. Q. Will it be supported on AireOs and IOS? A. It will be supported on both. Q. Are there cross-talk considerations with unshielded Cat5e running multigig next to gig clients? The modulations on the cable would be different, correct? A. Depending on the cabling infrastructure, we have different distance/cabling recommendations. Q. For the 2800 and 3800, how many clients can be connected per access point? If we don't have enough access points, then might we see clients drop connections? A. Presently capped at 200 per radio.
- 4. © 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 4 of 5 Q. If we have an access point that has two 5GHz, does that mean 400 users can connect? A. Yes. Q. Can I have a different channel plan? A. No. 100MHz is always enforced. Q. Do wave 2 access points support autonomous mode? A. They will support Mobility Express, WLC on the access point. Q. Could USB be used for buffering traffic using appropriate storage? A. No. We architect the product to handle high concurrent device count and the traffic we anticipate based on target performance/throughput. I would look at potential areas such as Bluetooth. GPS is an interesting potential for location of an access point; it is almost limitless, and having the port lets us add over time. Q. Do you recommend any NEMA enclosures for the new models? A. We work closely with many enclosure manufactures. Q. When will the DAS/3G/4G controllers be available? A. Today we have the Cisco UCS® 8000 solution offering from our Small Cell group at Cisco 3G/LTE. We continue to work with them to expand the solution. Q. Which current controllers will support the 3800 and 2800 series access points? A. All of our existing AireOS controllers with the upcoming 8.2MR1. Q. We just upgraded to the 3602. Are there issues with iPhones and Android VoIP phones? We have issues with that now. A. We are in the mines hammering on the metal. Q. With flexible radio and new features on wave 2s, will any of this be viewable through a Cisco heatmap? A. Yes, the antenna patterns are available in the Cisco Prime™ interface and third-party tools. Q. With theoretical max clients on 5GHz and using 5GbT backhauls, wouldn't the 5GbT be the bottleneck? A. 5.2Gbps over the air, 5Gbps mGig PHY, to an mGig switch. This will give you an optimal performing network. Q. Is there free heatmap software that I can download? A. Cisco Prime interface or a series of third-party tools will provide this. Contact your Cisco account team for more details. Q. If you use a 3800 with two 5GHz radios, are the two radios on different channel widths? A. They can be, or you can decide to have them both serve the same channel width. You have complete flexibility. Q. How does the controller show what FRM is doing with radios when FRM auto is used? A. Both graphically through the GUI and on the console CLI. This will be part of the deployment guide. Q. For a small to midsize company, in a typical office environment, would noticeable performance be noticed on the client side if moving from 2700i wave 1 to 1800 wave 2? A. 802.11ac wave 2 provides performance improvements, especially with the 3800 and 2800. Q. Should you site survey with both on? A. The site survey would typically be on 5GHz, so your macro would be the radio you use. The micro will increase the overall client capacity.
- 5. © 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 5 of 5 Q. If they both use the same width, should I expect cochannel interference? A. There is no cochannel interference. Q. What is the outage time when moving from micro cell to macro cell? Is the end device dissociated and then reassociated or just moved? A. This is just a client roam. We use 802.11r, 802.11v, and 802.11k. Q. Isn't adding additional antenna causing more harm than help depending on the orientation and its type? A. Physical separation would need to be factored in along with orientation, yes. For example, 120 degrees with 2 patches vs. 2 patches of 60-degree coverage would have different distance characteristics depending on how they are angled. Q. Will using an access point in security mode make the access point itself work and single radio? A. Only one interface will be dedicated to the monitoring function. The 5GHz interface will be serving clients.