What Is Mixed Cell Support on WiFi?

According to Intel, electronics manufacturer Cisco creates multiple network devices that support mixed cell technology. The Aironet 1200 and 350 series access points, intended for industrial environments, both include mixed cell modes.

Background

Wired Equivalent Privacy is one method that network devices, such as routers, may support to encrypt incoming and outgoing data from connected computers and other machines. Typically, most routers require all devices on the network to use the same type of encryption simultaneously, but mixed cell networks allow some devices to connect using WEP while other devices do not use any encryption at all.

Benefits

Mixed cell networking allows devices that support Wi-Fi encryption to transmit and receive data securely. This method does not restrict devices that are not compatible with the Wired Equivalent Privacy to still have access to the network.

Considerations

Because a mixed cell Wi-Fi network does allow some information to be transmitted without encryption, the users should consider transferring only sensitive information from a secured device. For example, in the case of a small home or business network, the user may only work with account numbers from a computer that is WEP-enabled.