Questions: In what way is Wi-Fi like the Rocky movies? In what way is it opposite?

Answers: 802.11 and Rocky are the same in that new versions of each are released one after another in seemingly endless succession. They are opposite because each version of Wi-Fi is actually better than its predecessor.

That’s only a little snarky and, in any case, odds are against Sly Stallone reading Technically Speaking (but you never know … don’t forget the amazing case of actress Hedy Lamarr).

Corporate decision makers planning their organization’s 802.11 future have a few things to think about. One is simply sorting out all those versions of 802.11. Everything before 802.11n is more or less obsolete, though plenty of the older stuff is still out there and must be supported. The current stars of the show are different variations of 802.11ac, Wave 1 and Wave 2. Further down the road is 802.11ax, which isn’t an issue yet – but is worth keeping in the back of your mind, since it will arrive before gear bought today is antiquated.

802.11ac Wave 1 offers 1.3 Gigabits per second (Gbit/s) and Wave 2 offers 3.5Gbit/s, according to Hummingbird Networks’ John Ciarlone. Both operate in the 5 GHz spectrum. Work is now also starting to get serious on Rocky VII … I mean 802.11ax, the version of Wi-Fi that is 10Gbit/s. The standard is not just around the corner:  Enterprise Networking Planet says it won’t be commercialized until March 2019.

At the end of the day, almost all deployments will be mixed. The only 802.11 rollouts that will be homogeneous are greenfields deployments. This is where a bit of savvy comes in. The most important thing to keep in mind is: Don’t get preoccupied with feeds and speeds. The only real consideration should be whether or not a particular version of 802.11 will fulfill current and future needs. If that’s not clear, call in the experts.

It’s important to think of versions of 802.11 (or, put more simply, 802.11x) as tools that have their discreet use cases, as opposed to a replacement technology in which the version that comes out later is by definition preferable to one that came out before. Indeed many – if not most – organizations simply won’t need the faster version of the standard. 802.11ax’s 10Mbit/s is a huge number. For many, pokey old 802.11n works just fine.

Within this landscape with its wide variety of Wi-Fi types and varying business needs, it’s important to understand the unique characteristics of the space into which Wi-Fi is to be deployed. For this reason, a site survey is the second step in any wireless project. CommunicaONE offers a nice overview of the types of site survey that can be conducted.

Sequel Data takes a broader view of how to plan an upgrade. Though this commentary is specific to 802.11ac, it’s a good illustration of the set of concerns that accompany any deployment. Some of the key issues are determining that the underlying wired network – which connects access points to the rest of the corporate network and networks beyond – has sufficient capacity. The increasing speed of wireless communications makes it entirely possible that the wired network will become the gating factor (aka the weakest link). Sequel Data suggests a phased-rollout of 802.11ac in networks in which 802.11n is already deployed.

The point is that 802.11x is designed to mix and match as easily as possible. The folks at the IEEE who mastermind the process have cleverly designed things so that there are no deal-breaking or even particularly tricky technical impediments within the various versions of the standard to complicate mixing them. Instead, the limitations, if there are any, are related to the specific situation of that deployment.

Silver Peak’s blog also offers a good roundup of concerns for Wi-Fi deployment. Again, there are a number of important topics to which planners must pay attention. None of these, however, has to do with difficulties in mixing various 802.11 variants.

The bottom line is that there simply is no definitive answer to the key question IT managers must deal with: “Yo, Adrian, which version of 802.11 do you think is best?”