How to plan for Gigabit Wireless LAN migration in advance

According to In-stat data, by 2015, the Gigabit wireless LAN market will usher in nearly 1 billion user groups. Now that the engineers migrate Gigabit wireless LANs using the 802.11AC and 802.11AD standards, the plan is likely to be implemented.

Is it worth the effort to study migrating gigabit wireless LANs?

Network engineers trapped in the 802.11n deployment quagmire must be wondering if they really need faster speed and superior performance from the upcoming 802.11ac. In fact, the answer is very simple, Aerohive's product management network director Matthew Gast said.

"I've been in the LAN field for over 10 years, and for market forecasts, we haven't failed yet, and we're pretty sure that in the next few years users will have a higher demand for LAN speed." "Gast said.

In fact, companies are also embarking on the path predicted by Gast, in the business environment, the application, 802.11n is indeed very extensive use, and has the ideal coverage performance, without additional assistance can quickly migrate to the wireless network. But from video conferencing to virtual desktops, the bandwidth required for mobile devices is staggering. The use of RJ-45 connectors to meet the growing bandwidth of the actual demand for the new millennium is a bit old.

"As long as we take e-mail as the default method of sharing files, we send more and more attachments." Of course we will also continue to use some battery power devices, such as the ipad, especially when it comes to desktop sharing, and more of our desktop screenshots will be delivered over the web, "Gast said. "This approach is particularly prevalent in the healthcare industry. When you get the data and save it in the data center, you can access it only through Remote Desktop. ”

Another trend may also be the increase in bandwidth requirements, namely, office use and cellular networking for home use. Whether in the work area or the home area, the growth of Wi-Fi electronic products is springing up. And the increase in the number of electronic products also led to the demand for Wi-Fi bandwidth.

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Mobile Broadband is ideal for non-stop connections, but it is still difficult to carry more and more data, video, voice, and so on, and most people will choose free Wireless LAN. In households, such traffic is not popular with residential broadband access. In the work area, Gast recommends using an employee-specific channel to connect to the company's Wireless LAN network, or at least to the portion of this setup.

Prepare for 802.11AC and 802.11AD standards

Just as before 802.11n became a market leader, most companies are waiting for 802.11AC to have more mature standards before they consider a formal introduction, at least after the Wi-Fi Alliance to set up a special certification program will do the next step. Authentication procedures are important for interoperability, not only for 11AC devices themselves, but also for deployment compatibility issues with 11AC and 11n devices in the 2.4 and 5GHz bands.

The advent of maturity also means the simplification of the device chipset, which involves the cost of the device. Only those companies that have bought 802.11n devices will want to avoid big changes within five years, but that doesn't mean they have to wait until 2015 to start planning for 802.11AC. With the advent of early-stage equipment, network engineers need to start small tests and experiments to learn how to distribute the spectrum reasonably according to the needs of different applications. In the 11AC Band, code and channel bandwidth to correctly match the application throughput and latency experience, the enterprise is undoubtedly a great wealth.

Within this timeframe, IT departments need to consider how new devices, new applications, and how information is delivered and stored can benefit from 802.11AC. For example, in a real video conferencing environment, the video traffic required for webcasts is easier to implement than the associated video traffic. Collaborative applications such as videoconferencing or virtual whiteboards can be implemented only if the network infrastructure is able to handle such workloads, as is the case for virtual desktops. However, it will take several years for the entire enterprise to match the requirements of the virtual desktop, and then perhaps 802.11ac will need a succession of dynasties.

Now do not want so much, network engineers should be down-to-earth, so that the network architecture in the wireless network environment can support very high traffic volume. For example, any enterprise, if he wants to recreate a LAN edge network, will undoubtedly try a Mbps Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet. "If you haven't adopted GBE, then you need to take up the lesson and act on it, especially if you want to prove the power of your LAN," Gast advises. "I'm sure we'll add a 11AC interface to the Fast Ethernet, but if you can't get to the backbone, it doesn't make sense to have a high network rate," he said. ”

Another constraint on initial 802.11AC deployments is the power supply problem. "This problem has also occurred in the development of 802.11n, most AP power consumption is very low, when the AP can not operate efficiently (802.11AF equipment power)." It seems that the first generation of 802.11AC devices will certainly face the same difficulties, "Gast said. In order to solve the power supply problem, the network engineer will let the 802.3 upgrade the Ethernet switch fully on the poe+ in the future. Because Fast Ethernet switches are not upgraded quickly and cannot support poe+, this may add additional power requirements to the GBE.

We've all met these situations. Like now to the 802.11AC and 802.11ad into the market, so that the enterprise's network to prepare for all aspects of compatibility, this series of things we have experienced in the previous 802.11n operation process. I hope the industry can learn from it and help us move smoothly. For a network engineer, there is nothing more important than delivery time, and don't delude yourself into thinking that the current bandwidth can meet tomorrow's needs. Now is the best time to plan to migrate to 802.11AC!