* 802.11n, convergence impact enterprise WLAN strategies
The wireless industry has reached a significant turning point, where emerging fourth-generation mobile WANs, third-generation WLANs and convergence technologies loom large with the power to change the face of wireless networking for a long time to come.
Next month’s kickoff of the 700MHz spectrum auctions, discussed last time, will heavily impact the future of 4G wireless WANs. Then there’s the LAN side of the equation.
The rise of 802.11n WLANs – which currently offer a 4- to 6-fold performance benefit over 802.11g, according to the latest Farpoint Group benchmarks – could put vendor loyalties up for grabs as WLAN architectures evolve in different ways to accommodate extra traffic loads. Architecture-wise, the jury is still out on several issues. Among them:
* How distributed should the control plane of the WLAN be?
* How much intelligence should be in APs vs. a centralized controller or switch?
* Will traditional multi-cellular architectures prevail, whereby clients decide which AP to associate to? Or will they give way to virtual-cell and channel-blanket architectures in which the controller manages all client-to-AP association decisions?
802.11n ultimately will support several hundred megabits per second. Some in the industry — mostly those with 802.11n products to sell — reckon that with such bountiful bandwidth, enterprises will be going “all wireless” any day now.
Craig Mathias, principal at Farpoint Group, said during a Web conference last week that he predicts WLANs will become the default access method for users. But 100% wireless?
“Huh-unh,” he said during the discussion about wireless trends for 2008, sponsored by mobile device management vendor Airwave. “If you need gigabit throughput, you’ll need [wired] gigabit Ethernet.” Same with server farms, printers, and other devices requiring very high throughput: They’ll stay wired, he said.
While visiting their WLAN and wireless WAN strategies, enterprises can’t leave mobile convergence solutions out of the equation. For example, with PBX extensibility onto wireless networks and single-mode Wi-Fi and dual-mode Wi-Fi/cellular handsets increasingly available, might it make sense to start eliminating wired phones by attrition?
It’s possible that wired phones will eventually go the way of the 56K modem: with just a few remaining for backup or simply on general principle.
