Episode 73 — Bands and Channels: 2.4/5/6 GHz tradeoffs and overlap problems
Band and channel decisions are a common source of wireless success or failure, and CloudNetX scenarios use these choices to test whether you can balance range, capacity, and interference. This episode defines the 2.4 GHz band as longer-range but more congested with fewer non-overlapping channels, the 5 GHz band as offering more capacity and channel options with reduced range, and the 6 GHz band as providing cleaner spectrum with shorter range and additional planning considerations. The first paragraph focuses on channel overlap and contention as the primary enemy of throughput in crowded environments, explaining how co-channel interference and adjacent channel interference reduce effective capacity even when signal strength is high. It also introduces channel width as a tradeoff: wider channels can increase peak throughput in clean environments but can worsen contention and reduce reliability in dense deployments.
