Going wireless
Published January 18, 2008 at 11:07 pm · Filed under Comms / IT
Dan Cole, head of product management at THUS, outlines the different wireless technologies and their benefits
It is now eight years since the official release of 802.11b, the first wireless networking standard to get out of the labs and into the hands of consumers and organisations at low enough prices to make getting rid of cables a reality. Although the convenience of wireless has meant it has grown in popularity largely in the home, many organisations have also adopted it, thanks to the flexibility it offers for networking in offices.
You may already have a wireless network based on one of the older standards. However, one of the key advantages that wireless offers is ease of updating, as all that is required is replacing base stations and wireless cards rather than re-cabling a building. So, if you are already using wireless, what new technologies are around, and if you’ve not yet gone wire-free, what do you need to know?
WiFi and WiMAX
You’re probably familiar with WiFi, the ubiquitous set of wireless networking standards that now crop up in devices as diverse as computers, mobile phones and even portable music players, like the latest iPods. WiFi standards range from 802.11b (which gives you up to 11Mbps data rate) to 802.11n, which delivers speeds of up to 248Mbps. WiFi standards are backwards compatible, so a machine which supports 802.11n will drop down to slower data rates if required.
WiFi is largely used to replace or complement networks inside buildings, as the range it provides is in the tens of metres or lower, depending on local conditions. This means that WiFi installations typically include multiple base stations scattered at strategic points throughout a building that connect to the main wired network.
WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) places its emphasis on long physical range in an effort to create a wireless standard capable of replacing the ‘last mile’ of cable into a building. This means it is largely being looked at as an alternative to cable or DSL access, rather than as a direct replacement for WiFi. The WiMAX standard, known as 802.16e, is capable of up to 70Mbps, less than the maximum for the fastest WiFi, but its range can be as much as 10km with high data rates from a single base station.
The benefits of wireless
The benefits of wireless technologies in general are many and varied, but mostly revolve around two things: flexibility and cost. Within your company, having a secure wireless network allows you to provision networking services in places where there are either no fixed floor boxes, or where access to the fixed network would otherwise be expensive.
This means you have less need to densely run cables throughout your building, and can instead rely on having wireless access points covering areas where there’s either lower usage or fewer employees.
For employees, wireless networking delivers greater flexibility too. Rather than having their machines tied to their desks, if they are equipped with laptops they can carry them around the building while retaining good connectivity, which means more flexibility around meetings.
What’s more, wireless makes it easier to construct a flexible working system based around ‘hotdesks’ - workspaces that are allocated not to a specific employee, but through a pool system. While it’s possible to create a hotdesking system using fixed networks, wireless offers more flexibility about the type and structure of the physical spaces you can use.
Complementing fixed networks
Whatever its benefits, wireless should not be seen as a replacement for fixed, cabled networks but as a complement to them. Ethernet still offers a level of speed that no wireless system can match. Gigabit Ethernet (1000Base-T) delivers performance that is close to four times that of even the fastest WiFi networks, and over distances that wireless systems can’t match.
There is the question of reliability. Although wireless networks are, by and large, reasonably reliable, like any radio-based system they can be affected by interference, either from atmospheric conditions or from poorly shielded electrical equipment.
Another consideration is security. Any signal that can be received inside your office is also likely to be receivable outside too, so if your WiFi network isn’t secure anyone within range could have access to your valuable data. Thankfully, there are many ways of making a wireless network secure. First, ensure your network uses the stronger, more recent WPA encryption rather than the older WEP standard. WEP has been broken many times, allowing any determined hacker to easily compromise your data.
Second, enable MAC filtering. This allows you to specify which MAC addresses - unique codes embedded in every networking interface - are allowed to connect to the network, effectively locking out unauthorised machines. However, be aware that a determined attacker can get round this: there are ways to fake MAC addresses, which means an attacker could get through by guessing a correct address.
And although it sounds obvious, one aspect of security, which is often forgotten, is passwords. Change the password for your wireless network frequently; don’t make the mistake of having the same password for years.
These caveats aside, both WiFi and WiMAX offer great benefits in terms of flexibility, new ways of working and network deployment. While they can only replace fixed networks entirely in exceptional circumstances, they are something that every company should already be investigating.
caption: A wide range of devices now come with wireless connectivity, including the new iPod Touch (photo courtesy of Apple)
