Alleviating airport WiFi congestion: An comparison of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi usage and capabilities

A study of airport WiFi band usage and wireless device capabilities reveals that the 5 GHz WiFi bands are significantly underused, compared to the 2.4 GHz band. After uncovering this data trend in studies of airport channel usage, a search of newly manufactured wireless devices showed that many new devices do not possess the capability to operate in the 5 GHz bands. Furthermore, the UNII bands allocated for dynamic frequency selection in the 5 GHz WiFi band are barely used, and a vast majority of recently granted devices do not possess the capability to operate in this band. The data suggests that transition of technology to utilize the 5 GHz bands is likely to reduce the present congestion in the 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical band, in turn improving notable metrics of wireless communication, such as download time and packet loss in transmission.