HW087: Designing for 6GHz Standard Power Indoors

Keith Parsons (0:02)

Most IT teams are managing networks stitched together from years of acquisitions, vendor contracts, and no one is accountable for when one of those things breaks. Meter delivers the complete network, hardware, software and services delivered as a predictable subscription. Upgrade credits, a fully managed install and deployment, and 24-7 support make the transition easy. Companies like Lyft, MrBeast, and Bridgewater have already made the switch. Go to meter.com/heavywireless.

That's meter.com/heavywireless to book a demo.

Welcome back to another episode of Heavy Wireless, part of the Packet Pushers Podcast Network. Say that three times fast. My name is Keith Parsons, and today I have with me a friend. Well, I've known him for probably 25 years now. David Coleman, CW&E number four. Just got to poke that in there a little bit. How are you doing today, Dave?

David Coleman (0:58)

I'm good. And I also want to point out that you're CW&E number three. So you got one number above me.

Keith Parsons (1:04)

Yeah, and it is totally arbitrary. So it doesn't actually mean anything. Well, we've been bantering a bit online on LinkedIn, back and forth over standard power and low power in and standard power indoor, and I thought it would be a great topic.

David Coleman (1:22)

Yeah, and I'm glad you called me up and asked me to do this because I think this is a really hot topic right now about standard power indoors using AFC, and it's going to be over the next couple of years. It's starting to grow in terms of a momentum and the importance of standard power.

Keith Parsons (1:41)

Well, if we go back in the way back machine, actually not that far back, a couple of years ago when standard power was first out, we got the whole 6 gig spectrum, and we looked at that little hole that happens in the middle because outdoor couldn't use those for other reasons. And we just kind of brushed it aside because it was an outdoor thing. And it took a couple of years until we had even outdoor APs that we could use in 6 gig.

What's the magic? Why are we now talking about indoor version of standard power?

David Coleman (2:11)

Well, I can tell you for us, the first reason we need indoor standard power is because us, Extreme Networks, as a company, we have a lot of stadiums, sports teams that have fully closed domes, and they want to start using 6 gigahertz indoors, and all our APs are weatherized, both our directional and our omnidirectional, and so our 50, 60 Ds and Us. And as you know, you can't use weatherized APs indoors. So that's why they choose to use standard power. There is a caveat to that, and we can circle back to that. We actually have a waiver to use LPI power with our weatherized APs in stadiums of above 3,500 seats, but that's for one very specific use case. At the end of the day, it's the stadiums that are driving this. However, we have some very large customers that I can't mention by name that want to use standard power indoors because they have big, large open spaces in distribution centers, for example, and they have very high ceilings. And LPI power is just not going to cut it in terms of range either from the AP experience or the client experience. Okay. So it's actually customer driven for us right now.

But I would say it's going to go even further than that. And we can delve a little bit deeper into this if you want. But the number one thing that every customer asks me when they're thinking about upgrading to Wi-Fi 7 is can I do a one-to-one replacement? And you know what the answer is, right?

Keith Parsons (3:52)

Well, of course you can.

I personally don't recommend it, but yes, you can. And I have customers in the same boat. They ask the same question. And no matter how much I tell them, they do need to do a redesign because it's new technology. They end up doing a one-for-one.

David Coleman (4:06)

Yeah. So there's, and I'll just take it a step further. I say the same thing to every customer. Historically, one-to-one replacements have never been a good idea. You should always do a new design, a new validation survey, and that's just good standard Wi-Fi deployment best practices. Now, that being said, customers, a lot of times, they just don't want to spend the money on, in some cases, if they have to move APs and run new cabling. And what we're finding in a lot of environments, and I can promise you, our competitors will tell you the same thing, is that LPI power isn't going to cut it in terms of range in a lot of environments with a one-to-one replacement. So, and I know you hate one-to-one in K-12 as well, one AP per classroom, but it's a very common thing, okay?