Next-generation wireless on the way

While Pre-N technology offers great advancements in wireless networking, it still falls short of enterprise requirements. However, the next major wireless standard is looming.

Developments in next-generation wireless networking are looking good to bring the technology into the enterprise space in a very real way.

Until now, wireless networking has presented challenges to large enterprise deployment and has been further limited by security concerns and restrictive capabilities in wireless range. These problems might become a thing of the past as we approach the next standard in wireless.

Enterprise-level technology typically lags behind those destined for home and small office environments with regard to WiFi. Perhaps the reason for this is that technology must be hardened and fully tested before enterprise customers will consider adoption. Enterprise roll-outs are also costly and are utilised for longer periods, while home and small office users are more agile in terms of infrastructure and more willing to take risks with new technologies.

In the wireless technology space, new devices based on Airgo and other "Smart" MIMO technologies are pushing the boundaries of what has previously been considered possible with wireless networking. These devices are referred to as Pre-N devices, the `N` referring to the 802.11n standard, which will be the next big milestone in wireless technology.

One would expect the benefits of Pre-N wireless networking to outweigh the doubts.

Andy Robb, technology specialist at Duxbury Networking

These devices aim to further the capabilities experienced within the 802.11g and 802.11a standards currently in wide use. While major advances have been made with Pre-N, it seems that these devices still do not offer enterprise customers what they need. Essentially there are three major areas of benefit for users of Pre-N devices.

The first major benefit of using devices that make use of this emerging technology is speed. It is possible to reach transfer speeds in excess of 100Mbps with 802.11g/a hardware, almost doubling what was previously possible. Speed is not considered the biggest advantage, however, as Internet connections are almost always slower than what can be offered on the wireless network, so the only real advantage for speed is experienced in internal transfers.

The second major benefit is reliability. Given the multiplexing signal design of Pre-N antennas, less interference is experienced in network traffic and devices are able to adapt to the environment, better handling physical obstructions.

Lastly, these devices offer better signal ranges than their predecessors. This is surely the most important advantage, with the biggest concern for SOHO customers being the range of devices, given that the home environment usually offers more obstructions than the generally dry-walled or open-plan large office environments.

One could say that the order of priorities for enterprise customers is opposite to those of home and small office users. Enterprise customers would put concerns such as security and speed above range and ease of use, while SOHO users would first concern themselves with range and ease of use, being less concerned with security and connection speed.

While Pre-N devices offer all of these benefits over earlier devices, adoption within the enterprise space is still slow, at best. The first reason for this is probably the lack of a WiFi alliance type forum for Pre-N devices. With no real alliance being in existence, standards are not seen to be enforced and this casts a shadow on areas such as security and in particular interoperability, which enterprise customers can not afford to takes risks with.

That said, one would expect the benefits of Pre-N wireless networking to outweigh the doubts. Current enterprise deployments largely make use of thin or switched environments and while range would certainly benefit their environments, this is generally the last thing they are about, being more concerned with reliability, good throughput, interoperability and the support for things like voice over IP from end to end. These are all areas that benefit from standards.

While Pre-N falls short of offering enterprise customers what they need from wide-scale wireless environments, the ratification of the 802.11n standard is just around the corner. It is expected that this ratification will take place by the end of the year.

802.11n is looking good to offer a definitive answer to the needs of enterprise clients. It provides transfer rates of well over 100Mbps and makes use of smart antennae technology that caters for range and handles interference even more effectively than Smart MIMO.

Because 802.11n will be a ratified standard, use of the technology will not tie enterprises down to single-vendor infrastructure and will be fully certifiable in terms of security.

802.11n will also be backwardly-compatible with earlier 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11a devices. This is important for enterprise customers where legacy in user devices, such as laptops, plays a major role. PCMICA adapter technology is also around the corner for 802.11n, allowing for the quick upgrade of laptop devices for full compliance with the new standard. The range of benefits will still be experienced by users of older, compatible adapters, but at a lower speed.

By this time next year, 802.11n should be widely available and ready for enterprise-level use.