Wireless wonders

Wireless LAN switches solve many of the problems once associated with WLANs and make supporting mobile users a cinch.

If indispensability is a measure of a technology's maturity, then wireless LANs have moved into their teen years, aided by the arrival of WLAN switches from companies such as Airespace, Extreme Networks and Trapeze Networks. With many mobile users now depending on wireless connectivity for anytime, anywhere network access, and demand growing daily, IT managers increasingly are turning to these new switches to get past the shortcomings of first-generation WLANs - weak security, lack of roaming support, and high planning and support costs.

IT managers at San Antonio Community Hospital (SACH), Santa Clara University (SCU) and the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) at University of California at Berkeley, relate how second-generation WLANs are enabling easy wireless expansion. With switch-based WLANs, they get the management tools they need to grow their WLANs without increasing IT head count.

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An answer to user prayers Hot spots everywhere

If indispensability is a measure of a technology's maturity, then wireless LANs have moved into their teen years, aided by the arrival of WLAN switches from companies such as Airespace, Extreme Networks and Trapeze Networks. With many mobile users now depending on wireless connectivity for anytime, anywhere network access, and demand growing daily, IT managers increasingly are turning to these new switches to get past the shortcomings of first-generation WLANs - weak security, lack of roaming support, and high planning and support costs.

IT managers at San Antonio Community Hospital (SACH), Santa Clara University (SCU) and the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) at University of California at Berkeley, relate how second-generation WLANs are enabling easy wireless expansion. With switch-based WLANs, they get the management tools they need to grow their WLANs without increasing IT head count.

SACH, an independent hospital in Upland, Calif., expects to save between 70% and 90% over other wireless systems in design, operations and labor costs by using the management tools available with Trapeze's Mobility System, says Jan Snyder, senior telecommunications consultant. SACH uses WLANs in the emergency room and hospital lobby for streamlined patient admittance processing, and in the emergency and operating rooms for viewing radiology images on mobile PCs.

Because WLAN switches make a wireless infrastructure easy to deploy and manage, Snyder is expanding the WLAN to more areas in the hospital with an eye toward further streamlining hospital operations and improving patient care. He's also rolling out new wireless applications, including voice. For example, doctors will get wireless phones or PDAs with soft phones and nurses will have voice-activated, "necklace-style" wireless phones so they can talk to each other in real time. Eliminating telephone tag will facilitate patient care and allow for a higher nurse-to-patient ratio.

An answer to user prayers

Like doctors and nurses, students and teachers are highly mobile users. While they can find wired ports in most locations within a university, they don't want to carry cables around with their laptops and PDAs and hunt for wall jacks, says Ron Danielson, CIO at SCU. They've had a "taste" of wireless access in SCU's law school and library, and in parts of the business school and student center, and they want more.

The university has responded with plans to enable wireless support in every campus building, including residence halls, as it replaces network edge equipment. "Information is the lifeblood of a university. We're trying to create a learning environment that's more effective and more convenient than other institutions," Danielson says.

SCU uses Extreme's Summit 300 switch to support wired and wireless connectivity. Because the same security and management tools are used for both infrastructures, Danielson doesn't have to increase his staff to support the growing wireless environment.