Wifi6E question

ammahend · ‎03-25-2022

Has anyone deployed, in deployment process or planning to deploy WiFi6E with Cisco 9136 (or even MR57) ?

what’s your strategy for survey, what different things you are considering ?
what’s your deployment strategy since wpa3 is mandatory for wifi6E (which a lot of clients do not support) , are you creating a separate dedicated ssid for 6GHz only with wpa3 and separate one for wifi6 with wpa2 ?

I have few ideas but trying to get a general sense from community, what some of you experts are planning and thinking ?

-hope this helps-

Leo Laohoo · ‎03-25-2022

@ammahend wrote:

Has anyone deployed, in deployment process or planning to deploy WiFi6E with Cisco 9136 (or even MR57) ?

Planning is one thing. Deploying them is another bucket of fish: No one can deploy 9136 because no one can get them due to the worldwide chip shortage.

This is an industry-wide phenomena and not just affects network manufacturers.

@ammahend wrote:

what’s your strategy for survey, what different things you are considering ?

It is no different to deploying 802.11a/b/g/n AP. Attenuation, plan for 5.0 Ghz, 40 Mhz channel width, "lowest" wireless client, etc.

@ammahend wrote:

what’s your deployment strategy since wpa3 is mandatory for wifi6E (which a lot of clients do not support) , are you creating a separate dedicated ssid for 6GHz only with wpa3 and separate one for wifi6 with wpa2 ?

WPA2 is enough. There are not a lot of affordable WPA3 clients currently available.

One major concern about 802.11ax is the power draw requirement. If the switch cannot provide full power to the AP, do not bother attempting to deploy the AP.

ammahend · ‎03-26-2022

Thanks for replying in details, and I understand the chip shortage issues and power and IOSXE support only all those are ok, but customers are ordering today at least some of mine have, so other than future proofing while the end point catch Up, I don’t see a whole lot of advantages. So in a mixed environment where say 25% can support 6GHz and wpa3 and 75% don’t, what should a strategy of deploying wlan, I also haven’t found any of the survey tools and vendor catch up with 6GHz, don’t know if you guys have done any survey for 6GHz if yes how did you approach it, what adapter you used, don’t think sidekick supports that. I was hoping to get some tips around those things.

-hope this helps-

Leo Laohoo · ‎03-26-2022

@ammahend wrote:

I also haven’t found any of the survey tools

Currently, Ekahau is the premier wireless site survey/placement tool.

@ammahend wrote:

don’t know if you guys have done any survey for 6GHz if yes how did you approach it

Who needs to survey 6 Ghz? No one CAN deploy 6 Ghz because APs are not available for deliveries in large quantities.