How long should a network upgrade take?

[ahuckphin]

My workplace is upgrading from WiFi 5 to WiFi 7 access points. I was chatting with the network administrator and they mentioned that both access points should be operational concurrently for years. I rebuttal by expressing concern of the WiFi 5 access point congesting the wireless channels.

 

In a small business setting, how long should a network upgrade take?

[Kilrah]

They're probably not "doing a network upgrade" i.e. replacing everything, but just installing newer stuff when needed to expand coverage or to replace failed older gear, but not changing anything that's still working.

[ahuckphin]

5 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

They're probably not "doing a network upgrade" i.e. replacing everything, but just installing newer stuff when needed to expand coverage or to replace failed older gear, but not changing anything that's still working.

The WiFi 7 equipment was indeed first installed after 1 of the old WiFi 5 access point failed. Today however, the WiFi 7 access points cover the same area that the previous WiFi 5 access points did.

[PeachyUwUSenpai]

1 hour ago, ahuckphin said:

My workplace is upgrading from WiFi 5 to WiFi 7 access points. I was chatting with the network administrator and they mentioned that both access points should be operational concurrently for years. I rebuttal by expressing concern of the WiFi 5 access point congesting the wireless channels.

 

In a small business setting, how long should a network upgrade take?

It kinda just depends on how busy they are but there's also other factors then labour its the Pebcak or user factor is the boss or other people going to freak out that there laptop or cellphone isnt connecting to wifi. with most decisions like this its mostly just weighing the pros and the cons 
Pros
Devices wont all be kicked off the network and you wont get angry messages from your ceo manager etc
redundant wifi incase the controller for the wifi7 set goes nutty 

Cons
Theoretical unproven congestion (Like if this was proveable and you could show like greater then 40% slow downs sure or the internet being unuseable but other wise its kind eh) 
Higher attack surface 

And in the end at least all teams i've been a part of in small businesses always have a mountain of ever growing tickets so in the end lower priority things like this get pushed down. 

[Eigenvektor]

1 hour ago, ahuckphin said:

In a small business setting, how long should a network upgrade take?

Depends on how much of a priority it is (is it nice to have or required) and availability of parts. And how many interruptions the upgrade might cause, and whether these are acceptable (e.g. does it have to be done on weekends?).

 

A customer of ours mentioned that they've started replacing 1 GbE with 10 GbE, because 1 GbE is a serious bottleneck for them. So from a business point of view the upgrade is required and prioritized. But they simply can't source the necessary parts to continue, so the upgrade is stuck halfway.