Wireless management

You’d think with the alphabet soup-like definitions of all things wireless (802.11 a-g etc) that the last thing  you’d need is another. 

Well guess what? You’ll be hearing about at least one more: 802.11k. Basically 802.11k defines a way for access points to pass specific radio frequency health and management data to higher-level management applications.

Our Technolgoy Update author (dan@trapezenetworks.com) says the 802.11k standard defines a series of measurement requests and reports that detail Layer 1 and Layer 2 client statistics, including:

* Roaming decisions.

* RF channel knowledge.

* Hidden nodes.

* Client statistics.

* Transmit power control.

According to our author, the IEEE began work on 802.11k in  2002 and expects to ratify it in 2005. Because 802.11k is designed to be implemented in software, existing WLAN equipment can be upgraded to support it. For the standard to be effective, both clients – WLAN cards and adapters –  and access points and WLAN switches would need to support it, our author says.

For more on this topic see: https://www.nwfusion.com/news/tech/2004/0329techupdate.html