What is the effect of deploying overlapping Wi‑Fi channels?

Deploying overlapping Wi-Fi channels, especially in the 2.4 GHz band where only three non-overlapping channels exist (1, 6, and 11), leads to co-channel interference. When access points (APs) operate on the same or overlapping channels within range of each other, they contend for airtime, causing retransmissions, increased latency, and reduced throughput for connected wireless clients. This directly results in degraded performance. Wireless devices can distinguish different SSIDs even on overlapping channels; the SSID is a separate identifier. Overlapping channels do not inherently make the network vulnerable to unauthorized access or open to eavesdropping; these are security concerns addressed by encryption and authentication protocols, not channel planning.