There are two very significant figures in the WLAN Pro’s community with well known contradicting catch phrases.
One is known for making absolute statements, such as “2.4GHz is Dead”. While the other has become infamous for the phrase “It Depends”.
This leads to people in the middle questioning which of these very smart guys are correct, often resulting in more confusion than before.
Personally I don’t question it at all, I value both opinions in making me better at my job.
The first is a leader, and he has been since the start. He is not just teaching customers about WLAN, he is teaching the best in the industry about it too. When you have a pillar such as him holding us all up you need it to be sure and steadfast. We need them to be making these bold statements that the rest of us can feel confident about and rely on to guide our hand. And that is what he does, he leads us by making the statements that the rest of us don’t have the knowledge, experience or courage to make, that keeps the industry moving forward rather than endlessly debating the irreconcilable.
But there is always a grey area. And that is where the other person is equally correct.
There will always be an exception, there are no absolutes. It Depends!
Every customer situation is unique in some way and making broad assumptions will often lead to a bad job. The other person reminds us of that. He is extremely generous with his knowledge, experience and time, but he will often finish with It Depends, so that you know there will be exceptions when his advice is not quite right or does not apply. This frustrates those people looking for a quick fix but we are each responsible for assessing our own situation and doing the best thing for it based on the knowledge, experience and advice we have.
If we take the 2.4GHz example, I hope all of us can see how it is largely a garbage band full of interference that we should avoid relying on with our deployments (a la the first guy). But if you have a remote warehouse with a high roof, lots of racking, and 10yr old barcode scanners then 2.4GHz may well be the best or only option, so we shouldn’t write it off (a la the second guy).
Both approaches make us better at our jobs by giving us a path to follow, while keeping our eyes open for pot holes in the road. Thank you to them both.
Absolutely. Different verticals are very different in requirements. Different companies have different needs as well.
Good article Andrew. I agree with you that 2.4 GHz is a crappy band but with support for it in 802.11ax …it may never go away. Nor will the cheap crappy clients using 2.4GHz.