Solutions for Today’s High-Speed Wireless Applications
Wi-Fi is now ubiquitous with widespread adoption across all types of facilities – from offices, schools, universities and hospitals, to entertainment, hospitality and retail venues. With the growth of Wi-Fi has come significant developments in technology, advancing from 10 to 100 Mb/s to and now above 10 Gigabit speeds to support everything from mission critical business applications to IoT, online streaming, gaming etc.
In 2019, IEEE published the 802.11ax standard, known as Wi-Fi 6. This was followed in 2024 with the publication of IEEE 802.11be also known as Wi-Fi 7 enabling speeds up to 15Gb/s with the ability to theoretically deliver 30+Gb/s.
Industry standards recommend a minimum of Category 6A copper or OM3 multimode fiber for wireless access points (WAPs) as this is the only way to achieve greater than 5 Gb/s throughput. Most wireless access points (WAPs) today are also powered using power over Ethernet (PoE) technology, which is better supported with shielded twisted-pair cabling that offers superior heat dissipation and thermal stability.
Siemon Category 6A and higher copper cabling solutions are ideal for supporting today’s Wi-Fi applications, with our shielded Category 6A and higher systems providing superior support for PoE. Siemon fiber cabling is also ideal for long reach applications and deploying backbone speeds capable of supporting all generations of Wi-Fi uplink capacity.
Siemon offers a range of connectivity solutions for connecting WAPs – including field-terminate plugs for direct connections as well as outlets, faceplates and modular equipment cords for traditional deployments.
Utilizing a grid-based zone cabling architecture to accommodate additional WAP deployments allows for rapid reconfiguration of coverage areas and provides redundant and future-proof connections. Siemon’s plenum-rated zone enclosures support intermediate fiber and copper connection points in the ceiling space, enabling shorter links from the zone enclosure to local WAPs. The use of zone enclosures also provides additional capacity to accommodate next-generation Wi-Fi technology that may require link aggregation and/or spare connection points to support the deployment of additional WAPs with minimal disruption.