Databus Issue: 2006 2 05/17/2006
Next Generation Wireless Networking Solutions Makes Waves for Students and
John Patek Cisco Wireless Product Sales Specialist
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It would not be uncommon on a high school or college campus to see students and faculty members outside the classroom in common areas no longer plugged into a traditional wired port, yet still accessing their e-mail or the Internet. Wireless is becoming the norm today in education, not only for students, but for all levels of faculty and administration. In fact, according to Current Analysis, over 90 percent of laptops ship today with integrated wireless capabilities.
In simplest terms, when planning for a wireless Network, IT administrators should be able to design and deploy their wireless network as a logical extension of the wired network. All levels of application delivery, quality of service, security and support that are a part of an existing wired network infrastructure should be the same for the wireless network.
Wireless networks provide LAN connectivity, un-tethering users from a physical wired port and allowing them extended roaming capabilities throughout and beyond the physical boundaries of their buildings.
Users can access applications, communications (email, voice), stored data and the Internet through the wired network just as if they were on the wired network—but with continuous connectivity as they roam freely within the broadcast cloud of the wireless network.
What are the key features of a commercial grade wireless solution for an education institution?
A commercial grade wireless solution should include Centralized Management for reporting, monitoring and updates. An easy-to-use GUI that provides the IT staff with insight into the performance of the wireless network through customized and ad-hoc real time and historical reports as well as the ability to update wireless network components should be a requirement of any wireless network solution.
It should be Easy to Deploy and Manage to help potentially understaffed IT departments.
A Wireless solution should also be Scalable across multiple sites or remote locations; with capacity management, dynamic control and linear investment protection as well as Endpoint Independent or “platform agnostic.”
As the virtual ports on the wireless network that provide connectivity back to the LAN, the Access Points should be Auto-Optimizing and Self-Healing. Access Points that have a “sense of adjacency” or are “auto-sensing” continuously collect data from the connected clients and adjacent Access Points and use that data to optimize their signal strength and performance. This self-managing capability negates or minimizes the management required to optimize the performance, availability and reliability of a wireless network.
Preventing unwanted access to the WLAN cloud is a critical requirement of any secure wireless network deployment and authentication, encryption and intrusion detection and prevention provide the necessary levels of security to ensure the wireless network is as secure, if not more secure, than a traditional wired network. Wireless Security Layers must keep clients safe, keep clients honest and protect the network. This is a security feature, where as the wireless technology will identify who is logging on, and put them into the appropriate V-LAN, so that students can only see the student network, guests only get Internet access, and administrators will be on their network, and each of these virtual networks (V-LANs) have access to the individuals allowed services. For example, a teacher logging on can access the student information data base, but the student only has Internet access.
State-of-the-art or third generation wireless networks include “controllers” which allow certain applications such as voice, that may be delay sensitive, to receive higher priority dedicated bandwidth through Quality of Service and thus minimize or negate latency or jitter on voice over wireless calls or any application that may require guaranteed bandwidth.
Multiple controllers in a wireless network can Load Balance traffic to optimize consistent application performance over a wireless network.
RFID tags transmit a RF signal that can be recognized and tracked within an RF broadcast cloud. By attaching RFID tags to physical inventory, employee or student badges or any other asset, wireless networks have the ability to track the presence, location and movement of these tagged components within the RF broadcast cloud. Location Services facilitates enhanced inventory tracking, improved physical security and minimized asset loss.
John Patek is a Cisco Wireless product sales specialist. Cisco Systems is a leading vendor of secure, reliable and high-performance wireless network solutions. To learn more about Cisco wireless solutions, visit www.cisco.com/go/wireless.
