Unified wireless network architecture for high-performance enterprise Wi-Fi services

Wireless Internet access is playing an important role in the networks of major enterprises. With the emergence of 802.11n standards with a transmission rate of up to m and two times higher than 802.11g throughput, the value of wireless access has greatly increased, today wireless networks support not only laptops, but also VoIP phones, dual-mode smartphones, and even desktop computers. But how can you assign various functions without reducing network efficiency or spending?

It is understood that the initial enterprise wireless LAN (WLAN) provides the best deployment, suitable bandwidth, but poor security (how to make the enterprise wireless network more secure), therefore, deployment is limited to key applications. When dealing with defects, overlapping structures are often used to quickly port a wireless LAN to an existing wired network through a minimum means of destruction. In this way, all the wireless LAN traffic is connected to the Controller, and encapsulation and authentication are required to access the wired network.

Although the 802.11n standard can improve wireless performance, its coverage still leads to network bottlenecks and low efficiency. Therefore, wireless services still regard it as a special service, it is not an essential inherent network function. This also leads to the slow adoption of 802.11n products. If you are considering migrating to 802.11n (how to upgrade to 802.11n at a low cost), you must understand whether a new architecture is required to implement all the advantages of existing wireless access startup.

Decision Making

With the increase of Wireless LAN traffic, a centralized method in the network doubles a considerable number of loads to weaken the signal. The most affected areas include:

◆ Scalability: The new controller must maintain a linear relationship with Multiple Access Point devices and be supported. This centralized method cannot transmit data to 802.11n on a large scale and is part of the network, the speed will also be affected.

◆ Performance: network latency and signal congestion increase data packet loss.

◆ Security: as a new access point is added, it is difficult to ensure security at the current cost.

◆ Elasticity: centralized control may easily lead to single point of failure.

◆ Cost: the cost of increasing bandwidth is the core.

High-bandwidth enterprise Wi-Fi requires a new unified wireless/wired architecture to eliminate bottlenecks, handle exceptions through centralized control, and improve efficiency, instead of providing a seamless connection between a wireless network and a traditional wired network. In addition, security processing is migrated to the edge to ensure optimal performance to meet user needs while maintaining network elasticity.

New application technologies

This is a gradual step for a unified wireless switch topology. As a new technology, it is usually introduced and moved to the edge in the core. With the unified wireless switch topology enabled, new chips and software technologies will need to develop and are expected to be ready before large-scale 802.11n deployment. Key technologies include:

◆ Open and hardware-based encapsulation: instead of continuing to use the proprietary encapsulation technology currently used for wireless communication return, the unified network will use the new open standards, for example, the Internet Engineering working group has formulated rules for controlling and configuring wireless access points (CAPWAP), so that switches and Access Points can communicate securely. To achieve the performance and cost advantages of 802.11n, The encapsulation/unencapsulation and switching functions should be integrated with the switch chip.

◆ Segmentation and Reorganization: encapsulation headers can increase the size of data packets, regardless of Ethernet bytes. In this case, CAPWAP supports split and reorganization of packets to solve the buffer caused by fragments and avoid unnecessary waiting time.

◆ Distributed access point management: in a centralized network, a controller can manage 10 to hundreds of access points. In a unified network, each access point may be managed by different edge switches. Therefore, the switch cluster software will need to form a self-organized, unified switch access permissions and database configuration.

A unified wireless network architecture will reduce installation and maintenance support, and network administrators and users will also benefit from the following:

◆ Significantly improved scalability: with appropriate security capabilities, you can use a wireless controller to allocate bandwidth to each access point.

◆ Simplified network management: using a unified wireless controller can help administrators view detailed information about access points and switches from a single management point.

◆ Greatly improved performance: Standardized wireless channels and other functions can be implemented.

◆ Automated management: functions such as automatic configuration and dynamic radio management can centrally manage each device base.

◆ Faster verification: the client and policy enforcement are moved to the edge to shorten the turnaround time and improve the response speed.

◆ More effective bandwidth utilization: reducing the load on the backbone network will improve the performance of the entire network.

◆ Shorten the delay time: users can also significantly shorten the experience delay time and increase network elasticity.

Wi-Fi services are urgently needed by enterprises. Therefore, high-bandwidth wireless access must be an important part of the enterprise network. A unified wireless network can improve the overall performance of the network. Without such a unified architecture, the cost of network expansion and return will limit the development of high-bandwidth networks in the enterprise WLAN market.

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