Aerohive Networks - FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How many radios do I need? [+]
   It depends if you want to cover one or both spectrums. We highly recommend two radios and using band steering to move clients to 5 GHz that are capable and leaving those in 2.4 GHz that are not 5 GHz capable.
2. What is MIMO? [+]
   Multiple-input multiple-output. MIMO can provide better throughput and range. When looking at a specification such as 3x2 MIMO, the first number represents that number of antennas and the second number is the number of spatial streams. Aerohive supports 3x3 MIMO on their performance APs. With 3x3 MIMO and therefore the three spatial streams, up to 450 Mbps of bandwidth is theoretically possible.
3. What happens when the controller isn't available? [+]
   That's the beauty of the Aerohive controller-less wireless solution. The APs will continue to function and work in a cooperative hive providing services and moving data even without a controller. The controller is used for configuring and provisioning the APs, it is not required for either the data plane or control plane, just the management plane.
   
   Unlike competitors, traffic does not have to tunnel back to an expensive and often slow controller. This is especially important when dealing with the high bandwidth that 802.11n can deliver.
4. Does the management controller have to be in the cloud? [+]
   Absolutely not, you can opt to have a physical or virtual server on-site as a controller and not use the cloud management services. Either way, should the management controller go down, the APs will continue to work and pass data. The controller is not required for moving data across the APs.

1. Will 802.11n speed up my wireless network? [+]
   Yes. Thanks to MIMO and multiple spatial streams. Of course the rest of your network (LAN and WAN) must be designed accordingly to deal with higher bandwidth.
2. Why am I getting really slow wireless wireless performance? [+]
   You're not using Aerohive. Wireless is a shared medium, you need the management tools to deal with setting the channels with as little interference and channel conflict as possible. Aerohive includes the management tools to manage anywhere from one to thousands of APs. Advanced features include spectrum analysis, bandwidth steering and settings unique to high density deployments.
3. What about beam steering and shaping the RF energy, isn't that better? [+]
   Some other solutions use variations of the theme to direct or shape RF energy to where clients are. However, the FCC limits the amount of radio energy that can be used. Directional antennas can be used in certain environments to direct the energy to a desired location. Solutions that attempt to do beam steering only work for a very limited number of client connections. After reaching 4 or 5 client connections, beam steering needs to be disabled in other solutions. This then creates inconsistent connectivity.
4. Why go with a stronger radio then? [+]
   Aerohive uses more power radios in their performance solutions. While the FCC does limit the RF energy, by using a better radio and not cranking the RF near the functional limits, Aerohive provides a much better quality signal. This is especially important for mobile clients that by design have very week radios in them. Having a stronger radio in the AP provides for significantly less dB loss that translates to better connectivity and performance.