September 2009
Will my existing 802.11 a/b/g equipment work with 802.11n access points?

If you have a significant investment in legacy equipment such as laptops, moving to 802.11n could be a very expensive option if they all have to be replaced.

• 802.11b - The answer is yes, but, because this technology is slow and obsolete, it will limit the performance of your 802.11n network. It is not necessarily true that an 802.11b client will slow the whole network to 802.11b speeds, but the extra airtime taken by these clients will defintly be significant. If possible, replace them but if you can't, they should still work.
• 802.11g - 802.11g clients will certainly work with new access points, they will be slower than new 802.11n clients and they will slow your network, but are not as significant as 802.11b clients.
   
  You will find that 802.11g clients will work more reliably and faster with 802.11n access points making the investment in new infrastructure well worth while during the changeover period.

 

• 802.11a - The answer should be yes, particularly if you buy quality access points, but check two issues. Firstly, make sure you buy Access Points which support the 5GHz spectrum, there are many devices which are designed to support 802.11n at 2.4GHz only, they will NOT support your 802.11a clients.
   
  Secondly, we recommend that you run tests with the proposed access points before buying, we have seen several pieces of equipment which do not support clients we would expect them to.

The Ruckus Wireless product range includes both single and dual radio access points The ZoneFlex 7942 single radio access point supports clients at 2.4GHz. The Zoneflex 7962 dual radio access point supports clients at both 2.4 and 5GHz. For more information select the text above, or click on the relevant picture.

If you have any questions regarding Wi-Fi WLAN technology please feel free to contact us on 01270-588228. If your question is of general interest, we may include it in our faqs.