Wired or wireless network, what should you choose?
Posted on July 5, 2017 • 3 min read • 457 words
Nowadays you can connect almost all devices wirelessly. This seems very easy and in itself it is. You don’t have to pull wires where you want your device. I think the disadvantage is that you have to ‘share’ the air with all other devices that want a WiFi connection, with all the consequences that entails.
What exactly is WiFi?
WiFi stands for Wireless Fidelity, which is a nod to High Fidelity or HiFi for audio. The terms wireless network, wireless internet or WLAN are often also used. Ultimately, WiFi is a Wireless Local Area Network, which means that it is a wireless version of a local network, or in other words a wired network of computers.
Using WiFi you can connect to the internet, allowing you to access all kinds of things, such as websites, e-mail, Facebook and Netflix.
WiFi, just like the internet on your smartphone, is undergoing development. We started a long time ago (it seems like before the Christian era) with a standard that could give us about a practical 5Mbps (802.11b theoretically has 11Mbps). Downloading a 4 MB music file (MP3) would take about 8 seconds with such a connection. This would also be just enough for calling via the internet, or Netflix in HD quality. You can then do nothing at all without it affecting the quality.
We have now arrived at 802.11ac, which theoretically can offer 1000Mbps, but in practice amounts to approximately 650Mbps. This is enough for Netflix in UHD (25Mbps) and simultaneous digital TV (8-24 Mbps).
How WiFi works
The protocol that has been agreed is that only one client can be active at the same time. Consider, for example, a taxi queue, where only one taxi can receive guests and leave at the same time. When a client wants to transmit, it listens to see if the channel is free. If not, the client waits a set amount of time and then listens again to see if it is free. It does not matter via which access point (the ’transmitter’) you are connected, as the minimum signal strength is taken into account. You all share the available ‘airtime’. This also limits the maximum number of clients, or limits the speed, or a combination of these.
All kinds of workarounds and measures have been taken or are available to connect more clients to WiFi or to increase the speed. Ultimately it remains just like being in a room with people. The more people talk, the less understandable it is. You can make the rooms smaller, but in the end the sound drowns out the message. My advice is to connect with cables that you can and that are practical. You can then connect the rest to WiFi.
