Why Switching to Wi-Fi Won't Necessarily Save You Money

I came across a recent blog by "Frugal Geek" Matt Ryan who wrote about the benefits of Wi-Fi and how it can help to dramatically cut costs for small businesses. During I admit that I had once called for the adoption of wireless networking to reduce infrastructure costs, my thinking on this front has mellowed somewhat over the last two years. The truth is that many of the cost advantages envisioned by tech-savvy users are probably not applicable for anything beyond very small office setups that are between 10 to 20 nodes. Beyond that, the deployment cost of rolling out Wi-Fi can go up substantially. There are a number of reasons why this happens and I've listed a couple of them below.

Wireless networks with more than 20 nodes running off a single access point bear a higher risk of getting saturated by network data. What many IT professionals aren't aware of is a Wi-Fi AP operates in half-duplex over what is in substance a single collision domain, which makes any assertion on "similar performance" against a switched, full-duplex Ethernet network a poor one. As you can imagine, activities just as video or music streaming, as then as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) applications will strain a wireless network far more than a wired connection. Evidently, a publishing house or architecture design firm will see network saturation points reached much previously given the large files that get shuttled across its network. And yes, Windows workstations tend to be broadcast-happy, which can bog down an improperly designed wireless network.

We all know that the maximum advertised ranges of Wi-Fi APs are like the mythical numbers you see published in salary surveys: Someone out there has such a salary, nevertheless it's by all means not you or anyone else you know. Using a range expander to increase the reach of a wireless network is a suggestion in other words often mooted, although anyone who recommends them have anyway you look at it never used one. They don't work then in my personal opinion and the only one I've owned is sitting in a box at this stage. I suspect that their poor performance is as well the reason it's not easy to find one to buy these days, and no enterprise vendors ever carry them. Since most range expanders cost about the same as another AP, it in fact makes more sense to just get an additional AP.

The above issues are just some of the key considerations when setting up a Wi-Fi network. The logical solution would be to increase the number of APs, which does pose its own management and interference-related set of problems once you scale beyond two or three APs. Central management of APs puts you in enterprise territory, where the cost of each AP magically quadruples and usually requires a four-figure sum for the cost of a central controller appliance.

Average-sized network of 25-75 nodes

And even in an average-sized network of 25-75 nodes, it makes security sense to deploy authentication schemes just as 802.1X/PEAP or the use of an internal VPN server. Throw in the appropriate fail-over server for the above-mentioned services, advanced routing functionality to manage VLANs and routing between subnets, and get back to me again on how Wi-Fi is the cheaper option versus some Ethernet cabling work and a cheap Gigabit Ethernet switch.

Now, I am not rescinding my position that Wi-Fi can bring about cost savings, and Wi-Fi does in point of fact afford a unparalleled set of advantages and convenience. All in all, I think it would be erroneous to paint an all-too-insouciant picture of cost savings for anything now the smallest networks. As with practically any technological decision, a move to adopt Wi-Fi must depend solely on one's specific needs and not because it looks like the cheapest option on the table. For businesses running a mid-sized network, deploying an enterprise-grade Wi-Fi infrastructure that can adequately and reliably support business needs can in fact cost more than a wired-only installation.

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