Self-tuning WLAN activity picks up

You might recall a newsletter or two I wrote several months ago that described emerging advances in self-adjusting wireless LAN technology. These advances enable access points to automatically modify signal strength, dynamically assign channels to clients and to themselves, load-balance wireless traffic and otherwise self-adjust to changing environmental conditions.

You might recall a newsletter or two I wrote several months ago that described emerging advances in self-adjusting wireless LAN technology. These advances enable access points to automatically modify signal strength, dynamically assign channels to clients and to themselves, load-balance wireless traffic and otherwise self-adjust to changing environmental conditions.

Such developments hold much promise for alleviating the amount of radio-frequency expertise you need on your networking staff. They also reduce the labor involved in site surveys. They will also likely ease ongoing management and maintenance as new obstacles (such as filing cabinets) enter the wireless environment or the power needs to be adjusted when one access point fails and others need to fill in the resulting coverage gap.

One of the companies attempting to solve these issues is Propagate Networks, a start-up I’ve covered in the past. Propagate makes a small piece of code called AutoCell, an embedded control system for 802.11 access points and clients made by WLAN system vendors.

Propagate last week said that it has teamed in separate deals with Netgear, Bluesocket, ReefEdge and Chantry Networks, which all make WLAN systems. Netgear added an 802.11g business-class access point to its product portfolio, which previously contained consumer-only products.

First, Netgear, Propagate and ReefEdge said they’d collectively deliver WLANs comprising Netgear business-class access points with embedded AutoCell technology and ReefEdge’s ReefSwitch family of management controllers (see last week’s newsletter on ReefEdge’s entry into the switch/access point market). Propagate and Netgear struck a similar deal with Bluesocket. And Chantry, which makes both access points and wireless routers, said it plans to integrate AutoCell into its product line, as well. The Chantry-AutoCell integration work is slated for completion in first-quarter 2004, says a Chantry spokeswoman.

Propagate predicts that products using its embedded control system can yield 50% savings in capital expenditures for a typical enterprise deployment – presumably meaning compared to using traditional intelligent access points and no wireless management controllers – and can save more than 70% on installation and operations costs.