Band Steering is the latest, most advanced technology for a smooth, uninterrupted internet browsing experience. As this is a new technology, you may have many questions surrounding Band Steering, such as what is the band steering technology and how it works with router, and what is band steering in Wi-Fi. Clearing your doubts and learning about Band Steering is essential- it’s the technology that guarantees you a world-class, seamless internet connection today.
At any given time, there are several devices connected to your home Wi-Fi network. You and the people who you share the WIFI-Connection with have phones, tablets, laptops, gaming consoles, TVs, smart home devices and more. It is necessary that all of these devices are well connected to the internet, but connecting so many devices can lead to your network becoming congested, which can impact internet speed on each device and performance. Even if you have a high-speed internet connection but there are too many devices which are connected on the same frequency band with the Wi-Fi router, this may cause poorer performance, which could be why your pages and video are still taking too long to download. This is where frequency bands and band steering comes in.
Wi-fi Routers use two frequency bands: 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The 2.4GHz Band Steering threshold is used by older technologies. It provides the furthest reach but has the lowest speeds. In contrast, the 5GHz band provides a shorter reach, but higher speed and a better performance. Devices with newer technology work well on this band because of its superior performance. The wifi routers which are commonly used, are not equipped with Band Steering technology, hence your devices by default connect on the 2.4GHz band, congesting the network, while the 5GHz band lies unused and under-utilized. With most Wi-Fi routers, you will have to move devices to the 5GHz band manually.
Dual-band access points can alleviate over-crowding, by creating a separate 5 GHz network that has a higher capacity and less congestion, and a 2.4 GHz network available for legacy devices that don’t support 5 GHz.
But, have you ever wondered what happens in a network when you have a mix of 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz devices? Or what about your new phone that’s capable of connecting at either 5 GHz or 2.4 GHz? Are your newer, faster 5 GHz devices ever slowed down by the older 2.4 GHz devices?
So what does Band Steering do? With Band Steering Wi-Fi routers, such as the one Hathway offers to its Customers, your 5GHz devices are automatically connected to the 5GHz frequency band. When a new device connects to the network, Band Steering Technology determines whether it is compatible with the 5GHz band. If it is, the device will be connected to the 5GHz band, ensuring that these advanced devices can have high performance without being slowed down by other devices on the 2.4 GHz band. With Band Steering, you achieve a seamless connection as your networks aren’t congested anymore. This helps improve end user experience by reducing channel utilization, especially in high density environments.
Band steering technology automatically connects your devices to either the 2.4GHz network or the 5GHz network to ensure your device’s optimum performance and an uninterrupted, smooth, seamless internet experience for you. Hathway Broadband is now introducing this advanced Band Steering Technology to its customers.
