At least 15% of customer service calls are Wi-Fi related, says CableLabs’ Luther Smith.
Cable’s technology body believes that amid a rush to improve speed, coverage and support for devices in the Wi-Fi ecosystem the need to have the necessary airtime to send data to all end devices in a timely manner is being ignored.
CableLabs has been working to bridge the gap with Dual Channel Wi-Fi technology.
In a blogpost, Smith explains Dual Channel Wi-Fi delivers an efficient and more reliable wireless connection. “Wi-Fi has become ubiquitous over the years and is the primary method by which we connect devices in the home, at work and in public places to reach the Internet,” he writes. “Multiple Wi-Fi devices in a typical broadband home can cause contention for available frequencies. Dual Channel Wi-Fi addresses Wi-Fi congestion issues by providing one or more channels for downstream-only data in addition to the primary bi-directional channel.”
By virtually eliminating hesitation and pixilation of video delivery, Dual Channel Wi-Fi enables smooth gameplay without delays and faster overall delivery of data to both Dual Channel Wi-Fi and non-Dual Channel Wi-Fi devices.
In tests run by CableLabs, data transfer speeds increased up to 12 times while airtime efficiency (by reducing the need for retransmissions) increased by 50 percent.