* Wi-Fi year in review: enterprises, vendors, carriers
One year ago, the 802.11n standard received its formal IEEE ratification. Since that time, enterprises and carriers alike have come to take Wi-Fi far more seriously. And WLAN vendors have been feverishly working to enhance their systems.
802.11n’s bandwidth (300Mbps connect rates per radio) makes Wi-Fi a contender to replace Ethernet, particularly in new branch offices that haven’t been cabled. The proliferation of dual-mode cellular/smartphones is also driving Wi-Fi use in the enterprise, creating larger loads and the need for 802.11n for backhaul.
Best practices for 802.11n Wi-Fi design, deployment
ABI Research estimates that by the end of this year, 12.3 million 802.11n dual-mode cellular/Wi-Fi handsets will have shipped. The Apple iPhone and Motorola Droid X smartphones, as well as the Apple iPad and Cisco Cius tablet computers, ship with 802.11n connections today.
And what have WLAN vendors been up to? While the bickering over underlying architectures persists (controller-based or controller-less? single-channel or micro-cellular?), some WLAN vendors are moving past the squabbles to focus on layering enhanced services onto their infrastructures to further differentiate themselves.
These enhancements included an avalanche of spectrum analysis announcements this year from the likes of Aruba (Spectrum Analysis Module), Cisco (CleanAir), Meraki (AutoRF), Meru Networks (Spectrum Manager) and Motorola (AirDefense Spectrum Analysis Module).
Spectrum analysis inspects Layer 1 energy patterns and identifies what devices are in the spectrum — whether Wi-Fi, cordless phones, microwave ovens and so forth — and determines their impact, if any, on the Wi-Fi network. If there is an impact, network administrators can (hopefully) move or design around these devices.
The year saw enhanced forms of QoS emerge, too, from companies such as Cisco (VideoStream, ClientLink) and Meraki (Traffic Shaper).
Enterasys created an industry first by uniting wired and wireless network management, policy setting and enforcement of its wired Ethernet switches and WLAN equipment into a single pane of glass.
Virtualization has also arrived in the WLAN area: Bluesocket ported its WLAN controller functions to VMWare’s hypervisor, virtualizing management and control capabilities. Aerohive’s HiveManager network management system is also available as a VMware virtual appliance.
Some vendors announced vertical-specific applications. For example, Aerohive introduced TeacherView for K-12 schools. The monitoring application gives teachers a view into what’s happening on every student’s computer at a glance. The interface tells the teacher which students are connected, for how long they have been connected, the Wi-Fi performance they are experiencing and what Web sites they are accessing.
For healthcare, Trapeze Networks announced wireless condition monitoring capabilities for its ActiveAsset asset tracking and management application to help healthcare organizations meet regulatory requirements for monitoring temperature fluctuations of medical refrigeration and freezer units.
The higher-speed Wi-Fi is gaining credibility by mobile network operators, too. AT&T in particular, under the data burdens of the Apple iPhone, is considering the unlicensed technology for offloading data traffic from cellular networks. The carrier expanded its Wi-Fi hot zone trial in New York’s Times Square to include Charlotte, N.C., and a section of Chicago. Sessions move between networks automatically so there’s reportedly no user impact. Wi-Fi usage doesn’t count against cellular plan usage, so it’s basically free.
It’s been a busy year, and this is just a cross-section of all that’s gone on that relates to 802.11n. According to Gartner, 802.11n will account for almost 97 percent of the wireless products shipments by 2014, up from 35 percent in 2009.
