Connecting an 802.11n cisco AP into a 100mbs switch port - what is lost?

[steigja]

I know that the upper range for the speed of a pure 802.11n connection is 300mbs, and this is cut in half because it is a half duplex connection. Is there going to be a bottleneck when you plug in the 802.11n AP into a 100mb switch port? I think that going forward and possibly now there is a bottleneck because you are losing around 50mbs of throughput. Am I correct in this assumption?

[Leo Laohoo]

Yes and No. If you are using the WLAN sparingly, then NO. If you are using this in a office-like or hotspot environment, then 100 mbps will be a potential bottleneck in the future.

Investing in a 1Gig switch is a wise investment both in present and future terms.

[weterry]

It also depends on your traffic...

if this AP is used for internet only access, then unless you have a 100Mb pipe out to the internet, your wireless users on the AP would never be able to generate enough traffic to over subscribe the ethernet link...

if your wireless users could be talking to each other (or at least other wired devices in the network), then yes it could be possible to over-subscribe the link.

But yes.. going to a 1000Mb network would be best for the long-term, especially to fully take advantage of the N rates..