Johannesburg, 04 Sep 2012
The proliferation of personalised devices now attached to corporate networks is forcing critical architectural changes to the network infrastructure - from the user interface at the edge of the network to its very core.
This is the view of Martin May, regional director, Enterasys Networks, who says the bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon has challenged network designers to keep pace with the demands of smartphone, tablet, iPad and other portable device users.
"These users, whether they are staff members or visitors to the organisation, expect seamless, always-on, wireless networking reception throughout the organisation - from office to conference room, from factory to canteen."
May says that, against this backdrop, the WiFi 'hot-spot' - traditionally the company boardroom or reception area - is being made redundant, as high-speed transmissions, soon to test the one gigabit-per-second benchmark (via the new-generation 802.11ac standard) are now ubiquitously required.
"However, without appropriate upgrades, the heavy load of BYOD-related application volumes may well overwhelm conventional wireless networks," he warns. "Already constant operating system updates/upgrades, file downloads and data streaming on BYODs has created a significant strain on many organisations' network resources; and as the devices multiply, the impact on their networks could be far-reaching.
"This is calling the capabilities of traditional network infrastructures into question. To accommodate the ever-growing number of BYODs, the network architecture will have to be upgraded, or wilt under the pressure, possibly bringing the enterprise to a standstill."
May says the development of an architecture that will deliver wired-like performance over WiFi is needed. "Because today's networks have had to accommodate an explosion in the number of wireless APs [access points], the spotlight is now falling on the basic network infrastructure, the backbone, which is key to the delivery and distribution of wireless communication services."
He says the first step is to replace previous-generation, low-density wireless access points with high-density APs - a move that will most likely require re-cabling and a change in switch gear to ensure there are no bottlenecks in the network to which the access points are connected.
"Upgrading of core switches and edge switches with high-end, policy-aware devices will also be required. They should all be inter-connected by multiple gigabit trunks capable of supporting faster downloads; ideally 600 megabits-per-second in line with the 802.11n networking standard."
May believes these upgrades will provide the tools needed to facilitate the management of application flows, optimised bandwidth allocation and quality of service (QoS) benchmarks required by BYOD-generation users.
"The upgrades will have to be complemented by greater identity-aware access control and policy enforcement at the edge of the network and the streamlining of client virtualisation projects and cloud computing implementations at the network core," he adds.
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