Nearpoints

Craig Mathias

Previous Article Next Article

Will Video Drive the Wireless LAN?

By Craig Mathias on Tue, 04/14/09 - 5:44pm.

Enterprise wireless LANs are widely used for data networking, of course, and increasingly for voice, both with notebooks and handsets. But what about streaming, real-time video? How important is that to the enterprise WLAN opportunity?

I've been streaming video for some time here at Farpoint Group, using an 802.11n client connected to a SlingBox Pro (not the latest PRO HD model; what do you think I am, made of money?) connected to a cable TV box, with the other end being an AP and thus allowing me to watch TV, even HD channels, on any PC in the office (LINUX boxes excepted, although a technique for getting the SlingPlayer software to work using WINE on LINUX has been described). This enables me to keep CNBC or Bloomberg or Fox Business up in a little window on one of my displays, just in case there's anything happening in the world. I really wouldn't want to be without this capability, but I understand that in the world of real offices there's still a skepticism or worse regarding TV.

Too bad. Video is the most powerful communications medium ever invented, engaging more than half the neurons in the brain, and, properly executed, getting more information into said neurons more efficiently than is possible with any other vehicle. Video remains expensive to produce, but, thanks to inexpensive tools that compensate for the innate lack of artistic talent that people like me suffer from, it's getting cheaper and easier to do all the time. Some firms, like Cisco, have made major investments in video production facilities, and it's not unusual at all anymore to watch at least brief videos as part of perusing the Web.

But what impact might all this video have on the WLAN? 802.11n helps, of course, but video is also the most unforgiving medium, the worst of all worlds - large data objects and time-boundedness all in one. Can the WLAN system vendors help out here? Well, yes they can. Meru Networks today announced their Video Services Module (VSM), which builds on their fundamental system architecture as well as their previously-announced virtualization capabilities. VSM includes a number of techniques to optimize video throughput, some, most interestingly, based on application awareness and upper-layer management reporting.

Apart from the obvious application of video in such venues as education and healthcare, I believe video is poised to place new - and major - loads on enterprise WLANs everywhere. Like I said, .11n helps and is a start - but, as we've seen with other recent WLAN innovations, it's the functionality resident in the rest of the WLAN system, beyond the radio alone, that's likely to make the difference here.