Single SSID for dual band 2.4ghz and 5ghz

[bauti1428]

We just purchase the 3500i AP's and currently on testing. 4 years ago when we deployed the AP1240 dual band AP's, we tried one SSID for both bands but clients keeps on jumping back and forth between 2.4 and 5ghz. Our work around was either force the client to use one band only or separate SSID. I believe at that time is most likely driver issues with the dual band cards. With our test with the 3500i's I don't see this happening and seems to be working with the agn,bgn, without any disconnects. My question is, what is the industry best practices when deploying 2.4 and 5ghz? Should we use one SSID for both and let the client decide or 2 different SSID for each band? Right now, we use 2.4 for data and 5ghz for our VoIP.

[Stephen Rodriguez]

There really is no "industry standard" for this, it's all about what works for you.

For the most part, if you are using a phone that is 5GHz capable, then you want to push the phone there, as there is generally less interference.

But with the "N", you really need to run in the 5GHz to get the full benefits.

If you run with a 2.4GHz deployment, you can only get about 144Mbps, since you can only utilize a 20MHz channel.  If you run 5GHz, you can get up to 300Mbps with a 40MHz channel.

Now, as of 6.0 software you can utilize a feature called band select, not recommended for a voice WLAN, which will help to influence dual band clients to use the 5GHz instead of the 2.4GHz.  You still have the ability to list a WLAN as only one band as well.

Cheers,
Steve

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[bauti1428]

You are absolutely right Stephen. I guess my real question is if anybody out there brave enough to try this on production and what type of issues they encountered with it. It seems to be working well with a couple of testers in our area. Thank you.

[Stephen Rodriguez]

Most configurations that I have seen, have the SSID on both 2.4 and 5GHz, and don't have any issues.   Well not related to clients flappig between the frequencies.

Cheers,
Steve

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