A dense permitting office currently uses 40 MHz channels on 5 GHz and suffers heavy co-channel contention during peak filing hours. Capacity modeling shows many modest flows rather than a few very wide clients. Which channel-width change best improves reuse?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Wider lanes are great on an empty highway; in a packed downtown they just make bigger collisions. Dropping 40→20 MHz gives the permitting office more separate channels to reuse. More cells talking at once beats one fat channel everyone shares.
Full Explanation
Under dense contention, narrower channels increase the number of usable non-overlapping assignments and improve spatial reuse even though peak PHY rate per client may fall. For many modest office flows, aggregate capacity often rises after 40→20 MHz. Jumping to 160 MHz or widening 2.4 GHz worsens interference; disabling RTS/CTS does not restore channel reuse.