STATE OF WI-FI REPORT: 2019
Examining the day-to-day challenges of maintaining and optimising a Wi-Fi network
In recent years, the demands on Wi-Fi networks have increased exponentially as Wi-Fi becomes the de-facto carrier for Cloud, IoT, video, and cellular data offloading. But are wireless networks coping with these increasing pressures? And how do organisations go about wireless design, troubleshooting and optimisation?
We launched the State of Wi-Fi Survey in 2018 to examine the day-to-day challenges of maintaining and optimising a Wi-Fi network as well as the trends and technologies that will shape wireless network management moving forward.
Our 2019 report is compiled from the online survey responses of 199 wireless professionals including consultants, engineers, architects and IT managers.
2019 Report Highlights:
- Wi-Fi is critical to daily operations with over 50% of organisations are checking their Wi-Fi network status several times a day
- Coverage, Interference and Drop-Outs are the top 3 commonly encountered Wi-Fi issues by engineers
- Wi-Fi troubleshooting is complex, and most Wi-Fi Engineers use three key tools to help them with this;
- Site Survey software
- Packet Analyser
- Spectrum Analyser
- WEP was deprecated in 2004, and despite serious security flaws, 7% of organisations are still actively using it
- Only a third of organisations use a Wireless Intrusion Prevention System (WIPS)
- Over half of organisations are looking to implement Wi-Fi 6 in some capacity by the end of 2019
- Around a third of engineers hold CWNA and over half hold ECSE Design (previously called ECSE) from Ekahau