* 802.11v joins Wi-Fi for net mgmt.
A big focus in the 802.11 space this year will likely be on network management: getting access points, switches and clients to communicate and cooperate among themselves well enough that wireless LANs can do a pretty good job of self-tuning and adjusting to dynamic conditions. Such coordination will play a big role in reducing interference, increasing throughput and helping to improve overall Wi-Fi reliability.
A great deal of work has been done in this realm during the past 18 months or so. Most of it has been proprietary to individual vendors, though some have done the work in software or chips, which they will license to Wi-Fi system makers. Still, to date, you generally must use access points from a single vendor in order for the automatic management cooperation among Wi-Fi components to take place. However, movement is revving up on the standards front to improve the heterogeneous nature of the situation.
For example, apparently the IEEE has added yet another extension to the 802.11 laundry list, in the form of 802.11v for radio management. Early reports describe 802.11v as similar in nature to the IETF standards effort to develop a way for different vendors’ APs to work together, called Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP). However, 802.11v is said to also include the ability for clients to dynamically reduce and increase their own transmission levels as needed.
Meanwhile, the IETF CAPWAP Working Group has set a hard deadline of February 2005 for reaching the objectives phase of its work, according to the IETF CAPWAP Working Group’s Dec. 15 posting. The group’s next goal is to have a Request for Comments (RFC) ready by May 2005.
If you’d like an update on the status of the other 802.11 standard extension efforts, Network World Senior Editor John Cox has done an excellent job of summing up some of the lesser-known but emerging ones. See his story at https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/121304specialfocus.html?page=1
