Best Wi-Fi For Smart Home Devices

As a home network installer and a intergrator of smart home devices for 7 years we have come up against all issues when it comes to delivering a good performing smart home  and whole home Wi-FI for high end clients. For most homes in the UK Wi-Fi is not a problem as long as the home is relatively small and has not been extended and consideration has been taken in Hub/router placement, generally you will receive a good enough Wi-Fi signal for internet with a family of four.

Router/Hub Placement

Good Wi-Fi really depends on how large your home is and the materials it’s made of and weather it’s been extended or not, the majority of people living in a modern medium sized home, router/hub placement is a good place to start resolving issues normally having the router/hub in the middle of the house will get the best performance.

Wi-Fi Powerlines

If you only want to surf the web and send emails then for the average family Wi-Fi powerlines are low cost and can work fine as long as the area you want the Wi-Fi to cover is not part of an extension and on a separate circuit as the repeater powerline plug will not create a network link to the master. Future proofing the network can also be an issue when it comes to adding devices especially when building a network of connected smart devices. Read most manuals and you will find the majority of smart home device companies don’t support Wi-Fi powerlines as they don’t provide the constant connection required for smart devices to operate.

Wi-Fi Repeaters

Wi-Fi repeaters can also be an option for light internet for an average sized family but bandwidth can be greatly effected as the repeaters just replicate and re-distribute what they receive, if you have a weak signal in then you get that same weak signal distributed to the next Wi-Fi repeater. Once again Wi-Fi repeaters have issues with connectivity and adding future devices and also issues when building a network of connected smart devices.

Wi-Fi For Smart Devices

To future proof your home for smart devices you will need at least CAT6 intergrated network of cables and wall mounted Wi-Fi POE access points placed in opitmal positions around the home, providing enough Wi-Fi throughout for small or large homes extended or not, delivering enough bandwidth for small to large families also. The majoirty of Wi-Fi POE access point manufactures are good for 4k streaming and web surfing but when it comes to smart devices there are only a select few that provide a stable enough constant connection and seamless roaming.

Ruckus Unleashed

With an increasingly wireless world, Ruckus has taken on the challenge presented by the smart home market to provide reliable products, advice and support. With a background in commercial networks many of their clients in the enterprise sector were demanding installs with fewer access points, better coverage and more capacity, in creating these products for commercial installs Ruckus realised that these same products and technologies were needed in the smart home market as well, where capacity in the form of 4k streaming and smart device demands in particular can be very high.” So, Ruckus set about creating a range suitable for the home.

Ruckus Intelligent Wi-Fi

A new wireless platform is born to providing high-throughput networks on the 5 GHz band and promising to seriously increase the capacity up to 256 users using any network or smart products using the standard with a throughput of one gigabit per second. This new platform also features called Multi-User MIMO, offering the full capability in term of bandwidth and the channels they use.

Beam Flex

Traditional wireless antennas are either omnidirectional (radiating signals in all directions) or directional (radiating signals in one direction) Ruckus beam flex technology uses built in antennas with an algorithm that creates multiple virtual antennas increasing the size of the Wi-Fi beam, Beam Flex continually senses and optimises its beam to the environment, automatically calibrating the beam to bounce off better surfaces reducing interference and also network issues constantly working for you increasing performance and through put.

Seamless Roaming

Seamless roaming is especially important for Smart device operation when devices need to be constantly seen to action a command and send that command in an instant. Ruckus clones all access points into one Wi-Fi login for the whole home, this is the same feature you get with other manufacturers but with Ruckus you get some added benefits. With Beam Flex technology you get a larger antenna reach with the best optimised connectivity when moving between rooms. Also, the Ruckus Smart Mesh feature establishes a continual connection between each individual wireless access point creating a strong reliable mesh that if ever fails and heals itself automatically.

Smart Mesh

Devices are never missing on the network with Ruckus, Smart Mesh provides a constant link between individual wireless access points also provides a constant link back to the router/hub meaning device IP addresses are constantly monitored and devices accessed in an instant. This is vital for any smart home infrastucture.

Channel Fly

Most Wi-Fi solutions can switch channels when the one they’re using gets congested. Only RUCKUS APs with Channel Fly technology, however, use machine learning and specialized algorithms to identify the best alternate channel before switching over. Combined with Beam Flex+ adaptive antenna technology, Channel Fly delivers substantially higher throughput than competing Wi-FI solutions.

In Summary

RUCKUS Unleashed is a high-performance, intelligent and affordable platform that has been developed for residential environment and smart homes. With built-in controller functionality, there’s no need to invest in a separate appliance. You can manage your entire network (APs and switches) from your phone or web browser. Manage all your Wi-Fi networks from one place through the Unleashed Multi-Site Manager. RUCKUS Unleashed has its own patented innovations such as BeamFlex+™, ChannelFly™ and SmartMesh™, Unleashed APs deliver higher speeds, better coverage and more reliable connections to every device, every time. Optimizing network performance for over 2,200 applications with Application Visibility and Control. Ruckus lets you continue to access printers and other devices even if the internet—or one of the APs—goes down. RUCKUS Unleashed APs and switches deliver all of this and more at an affordable price. And if your network grows and you need to move to a controller- or cloud-based infrastructure, you can—without having to overhaul your infrastructure. Migrate to RUCKUS SmartZone™ Controllers or RUCKUS Cloud down the road—using the same Unleashed APs.

Ready for Intelligent Wi-Fi? Need more insight? contact me here to book a free design consultation. Purchase from us and get Disney plus for one year!

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