InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
April 3, 2000
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As prices come down and throughput improves, a new class of wireless networking products can offer real savings by avoiding wiring costs and complex installation. The five high-speed products tested show they're not just niche products anymore.
By Oliver Rist and Brian Chee
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ust a few years ago, high-speed wireless LANs weren't particularly high speed, nor were they price-competitive with terrestrial LAN hardware. Wireless LAN devices were regarded as niche-class products or just frivolous executive toys. But after the 802.11 High Rate specification (known as 802.11b) was finalized, vendors finally had a real selling point, namely 11 Mbps' worth of viable throughput. With prices coming down and throughput going up, the new class of 802.11b wireless networking products can save real money by avoiding wiring costs and complex installation.Using wireless LAN technology, IT departments can configure an entire remote office network at the central data center. Then, via overnight delivery, they can send notebook computers, desktops, printers, and access points to remote locations and simply have users turn on their devices. The same scenario can be extended to temporary offices, trade show and convention floors, and even executives who can't stay planted behind a desk.
To get the skinny on the new 802.11b wireless LAN market, we issued our typical product-test call and got responses from five vendors. 3Com Corp. sent a final preproduction edition of its AirConnect series. Aironet Wireless Communications Inc. (recently acquired by Cisco Systems) sent its mature and shipping 4800 series. Cabletron Systems Inc. offered its almost-as-mature RoamAbout line with an 11-Mbps upgrade. Lucent Technologies Inc. sent its 11-Mbps WaveLAN products, shipping now. The last vendor included in this comparative review, Compaq, needs to be considered separately because it shipped an earlier level of its beta product than anyone else.
After testing these devices for the last few months, we think these wireless LAN products are ready for widespread use, despite some reservations about competing standards and security issues. For the most part, these products worked--and worked well. But they did so only within their own product lines, meaning you're much better off purchasing PC Cards, hardware access points, and management software from the same vendor--at least for now.
While 802.11b is the corporate networking wireless medium of choice, it's facing competition and legislative battles from other standards, namely HomeRF and Bluetooth. Basically, high-speed wireless networking plays only in the 2.4-GHz frequency band. That's a problem because this band is limited to only 60 to 80 discrete channels at 1 Mbps, dropping to only three channels at 11 Mbps.
Stick three competing standards in there, as well as a slew of 2.4-GHz cordless telephone products, and you have trouble. Even though each standards body is using a different transmission methodology, they're still forced to compete for space and regulatory advantage with the FCC to provide longevity to their product lines.
At the moment, 802.11b is in the lead for business wireless LANs, but Bluetooth will be a big player in the personal area network market--meaning wireless connections between personal digital assistants and desktops, notebooks, or printers. This may sound like home networking, but the PDA angle implies that users will want to run Bluetooth networking while in the office, making the resolution of Bluetooth and 802.11b a serious matter for network managers intent on deploying this technology right now.
A similar quandary exists for telecommuters who standardize on HomeRF in their den, then want to take their notebooks on visits to the company headquarters.
Another sticking point in the wireless LAN specification is security. Vendors have answered this call with the Wireless Equivalent Privacy encryption standard; 128-bit WEP looks great on paper, but we found other security problems that vendors haven't yet answered.
For one, with only three channels operating in an 802.11b environment, building a device to jam all of the channels wouldn't be too difficult. Indeed, the same denial-of-service attacks that have been frying Web servers the last few months could also be used to drain battery life from wireless LAN-dependent devices.
Then there's the question of roaming. What happens to users' connections when they move from one access point to another? In the cellular telephone world, this has often meant becoming disconnected if access points aren't spaced properly. And the data world adds complexity--namely that each access point must be wired into local networking hardware. This means that access points in different departments, different floors, or different buildings will most likely be on different subnets. That represents a singular challenge to wireless LAN manufacturers in that a user's networking experience can't be interrupted with a new logon screen every time he or she strays across subnets.
Most of the vendors we tested are pioneers in wireless LAN technology, because even though the 802.11b specification has been around for a year, you'll still see a number of product ship dates occurring in the second quarter of this year. Nokia and Zoom Telephonics were invited to participate in the test, but neither responded in time for testing. While functional, Compaq's WL series shouldn't be evaluated for purchasing based on this review--at least not until you've had a chance to see the final shipping version.
3Com AirConnect
In typical 3Com fashion, its AirConnect products are not only well-made, but ambitious in scope. These devices have a competitive price and solid base performance. And 3Com has gone the extra mile in several areas pertaining to management and standards compliance. Unfortunately, the products we reviewed were late beta versions. Also, we were unable to test roaming because one of the access points died midway through testing.
When everything was functioning, however, you wouldn't have known these were beta-level products. 3Com begins its installation procedure with the advice to run a utility called Site Survey, which records the wireless connection quality at the installation site and uses this information to recommend an optimal number of access points for complete site coverage.
continued...page 2, 3, 4
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