Don't Throw Away the Wires
Determining whether a network should be wired, wireless or a mixture of both should be part of every new network design process. It's best advised that in network design, wireless connectivity should augment but not replace wired connections. Often a decision on how to proceed is based on what worked well the year before for a similar project. However, since the available offerings change rapidly, the question of wired vs wireless should be explored in-depth as part of every network design process, regardless of what worked for a previous project of similar scope.

By integrating their wired and wireless networks, businesses simplify the network, resulting in a decrease in TCO and, more importantly, they become able to find new and better ways of doing business. As businesses are becoming mobile, Unified WLAN Architecture is being accepted by enterprises looking for business transformation.

A non-unified wireless network is typically a controller-based WLAN solution that has little or no unification with the wired network. Non-unified wireless solutions might or might not come from the incumbent data networking provider. Deploying a WLAN from a supplier other than the incumbent data networking provider usually results in different code, management, and user interfaces across the wired and wireless networks, resulting in a lack of benefits when compared to a unified solution (See Non-unified WLAN Architecture).

A unified wired and wireless architecture typically requires the wired and wireless infrastructures to be delivered from the same technology provider. With this architecture, many of the services offered as standard features on the wired network can be extended to the wireless network because of the unification of user and management interfaces (See Unified WLAN Architecture).

Complete wired and wireless integration allows the control and management of access points and controllers to be centralized into the core of the network. This centralized control significantly decreases the overhead and time required to manage the wireless system. Instead of touching individual controllers or access points, IT administrators can have a single management point that spans the breadth of individual wireless components.

Deployment Trends
According to IDC, the global market intelligence and advisory firm, the worldwide WLAN will continue to grow and surge to about 487 mn units by 2009, due to new end-market opportunities in consumer and mobile devices as well as technology advancements such as MIMO, which extend bandwidth and range.

Chip suppliers will play an important role in accelerating the adoption of WLAN features, particularly in high volume consumer device segments such as gaming consoles, set-top boxes, digital TVs and future mobile phones designs. Support of QoS features on the chip will also serve as a critical aspect of future designs, especially for audio and video streaming applications requiring advanced traffic management and prioritization.

WLAN at home is fast becoming the medium of choice, but it does not overshadow Ethernet in all countries. Successful implementations of wireless technologies in numerous healthcare applications may result in further uptake of wireless technologies. End users are embracing the freedom and flexibility of wireless connectivity, and business executives are recognizing the competitive advantage of business-critical mobile applications. Organizations are deploying WLANs to increase employee productivity, enhance collaboration, and improve responsiveness to customers.

The 802.11n Effect
The 802.11n standard is expected to offer transfer speeds that are up to eight times faster than existing WLAN networks, without performance degradation. Due to the high level of throughput it will deliver, 802.11n is likely to be used beyond traditional enterprise and home environments. This will encompass areas such as cellular telephony, mobile radio and VoIP. But with this dramatic increase in performance also comes an increase in complexity.

Integration of wired and wireless networks in unified WLAN architecture reduce capital and operational expenditures

Vendors are cautious about 802.11n as it is still early days for the standard. Existing standard 802.11b has proven to be the workhorse of WLAN connectivity, with 802.11a and 802.11g providing higher speeds for that freedom.

It's critical that system vendors have the ability to perform the functional and performance testing of 802.11n devices in a precise, repeatable, and automated fashion. Despite the important impact IEEE 802.11n will have on wireless networks, it is yet to be finalized as a standard, making flexible testing and evaluation products a critical part of the development process.

Efforts in Force
Two years ago, security was the number one wireless network concern for the enterprises. Currently, many enterprises affirm that they are equally or more concerned about manageability. A moderately-sized WLAN of today has grown beyond a handful of wireless access points to over 1000s of APs. Increasing number of business networks extend upwards to 10,000 access points distributed across hundreds or thousands of facilities.

As the number and diversity of devices connecting to WLANs increase, there's a growing demand on IT managers to develop a plan to support multiple security policies simultaneously, and to understand new mobility patterns within the enterprise.

More IT organizations are likely to face the challenge of how to support multiple wireless architectures and topologies in addition to multi-vendor networks. Moreover, without sufficient budget available to replace their old hardware, as they integrate different technologies into their networks, most enterprises both expect and need their wireless infrastructure to last three years or more.

Malovika Rao
malovikar@cybermedia.co.in