Dear Readers:

Before you are too hard on Mr. Colakovic at First Industrial, consider a couple of things. First, he researched his solution with a number of WLAN providers and resellers alike. At the time of his evaluation, there weren't as many flexible configuration options for branch offices as there are today. Most at the time required a local WLAN controller, although there were low-end ones available.

In terms of power for 11n, this is controversial. A number of WLAN vendors have said they can run two 11n radios (one in 2GHz, one in 5GHZ), fully optimized, which is true if they stick to the basic Atheros chipset reference design, which uses about 10 Watts of the 12.95W power budget. However, not all mfg's stick to the full reference design: for example, some don't use Atheros' optional network processor or Ethernet chip. Building one's own processor/Ethernet interface--presumably for product differentiation and benefit--could add power requirements, just as adding other fancy features, such as specialized routing or IDS security, could.

So, depending on the vendor's design, the offering may or may not fall within the power budget of today's 802.3af standards (12.95W sustainable across 100 meters). In addition, there are still pieces to be added to 802.11n - such as new QoS features - so the ultimate power requirements of a *STANDARD* 802.11n implementation are not yet fully known.

Watch for Wednesday's newsletter, which will describe some other options for branches, as well. As always, thanks for reading and commenting!

--Joanie