Wireless advances

The growth of hot-desking, teleworking and other kinds of mobile PC use means IT managers must work harder than ever to provide quick and convenient network links for their roaming employees.

Wireless LANs are one way to make sure that employees need nothing more than a portable notebook or handheld PC, user name and password to log on to the company LAN while in the office.

WLANS also let users who need a little privacy from time to time, or the space to show a presentation in peace, to duck into the nearest room and still remain connected to email, the Internet and essential databases without having to worry about the availability of a patch panel.

Outside the office, conference rooms, exhibitions halls, lobbies, shop floors, retail premises and other spaces where a cabled infrastructure is either too expensive or impractical can also benefit from the installation of a WLAN. Deploying single or multiple access points can allow employees to roam at will in a small area while still remaining connected to the information they need to do their job.

That is not to say that wireless access points and PC Cards are always a cost-effective alternative to wired links. Faster 10/100Mbit/s Ethernet hubs and NICs are up to five times cheaper than wireless equivalents, although there is the additional cost of the cabling. But the price of 802.11b equipment in particular is likely to fall as a lot of faster 54Mbit/s 802.11a, 802.11h, 802.11g and HiperLan/2 kit comes onto the market - and cabled links simply do not provide the same flexibility for mobile staff.

Before choosing their WLAN technology, IT managers need to consider how many mobile users their WLAN will need to support, and what applications and services they want to run. 802.11b equipment is fine for providing basic network connectivity to mobile clients - similar to that provided for desktop PCs. But bear in mind that Bluetooth wireless networks can provide short-range, low-bandwidth access to certain applications for a small number of users simultaneously, probably at a lower cost than WLAN systems.

Even so, organisations that need to connect a lot of mobile users simultaneously will require the 54Mbit/s bandwidth that 802.11a/h/g or HiperLan/2 WLAN equipment provides. And the quality of service (QoS) improvements that these newer specifications bring may make WLANs suitable for delivering voice and video content wirelessly for the first time.

Crucially, the cost of faster WLAN equipment may be at least partially recouped if voice over IP (VoIP) calls can be delivered internally over a 802.11a/h or HiperLan/2 network. The capability of WLANs to deliver videos and other audio-visual material to conference rooms or boardrooms via wireless links may also prove useful for many businesses.

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