Anyway, two tools you really need to have on your radar are the following:

• AirMagnet’s WiFi Analyzer
• Tamosoft’s CommView for WiFi

I’ve used both tools extensively; they’re solid, proven, and just work. All things considered, they’re not that expensive either.

The reality with wireless networks is that if you don’t have good tools, you’re not going to get good results. Period. So try these tools or scope out some others; just do something to get your hands on one. While you’re at it, take the time to read through the documentation, watch any vendor webcasts and so on to familiarize yourself with the tools. Ideally, you should take a class to learn both the tools and 802.11-based technologies. Doing so will make your job – and your life – much, much easier moving forward.

Kevin Beaver is an independent information security consultant, expert witness, author, and professional speaker with Atlanta-based Principle Logic, LLC and a contributor to the IT Watch Blog. He can be reached through his website at www.principlelogic.com.

The 802.11n draft has been out, for what, three years now and we’re approaching the one-year anniversary of the “final” amendment. But where is 802.11n? I’ve yet to see any of my clients deploy it. I’ve yet to see it at any Wi-Fi hotspots – including large hotspot deployments such as airports. I’ve yet to see it when driving around town. It’s just not out there. Maybe it’s just me not looking hard enough.

Better yet, maybe 802.11n is the Windows 7 of networking: Not a lot of market penetration just yet, but if we wait and see – it’s coming? Given how the market works, perhaps once existing a/b/g equipment is replaced in the future, 802.11n will be the only viable alternative. Who knows?

I suspect some larger enterprises, universities and businesses with a heavy reliance on Wi-Fi are rolling out 802.11n and loving it. I’m just not seeing it. What about you?

Kevin Beaver is an independent information security consultant, keynote speaker, and expert witness with Principle Logic, LLC and a contributor to the IT Watch Blog.

Why WiFi (WhyFi?)

In general, creating a wireless network allows for greater flexibility, from in-office mobility to network configuration. Wires can limit signal strength and hinder the reorganization and growth of your network configuration, making costs saved from increased productivity and the ease of reconfiguring your network an important consideration. Lisa Phifer of Search Networking reports that “even ‘average’ companies [that invested in 802.11n] reported 114% growth in WLAN traffic, a 60% increase in wireless coverage throughout their offices, and a 44% reduction in downtime.” Can you afford anything less?

A walk through the WiFi technologies

Today’s industry standard, 802.11n has improved upon the bandwidth of previous standards by using multiple wireless signals and antennas or MIMO (multiple input multiple output) technology. It can handle data rates up to 100 Mbps with a better range and backward compatibility with 802.11g. There was definitely a build-up to the 802.11n, which features the fastest maximum speed, best range and most resistance to interference.

The follow-up to the pioneering 802.11, 802.11b offered a respectable 11 Mbps, similar to a traditional Ethernet. Because the radio signal frequency was unregulated, there was room for interference from microwaves and cordless phones utilizing the 2.4 GHz frequency. The follow-up 802.11a had an increased bandwidth of 54 Mbps. The regulated frequency, around 5 GHz, solved the interference problem but introduced a shorter range easily obstructed by walls.

Enter the 802.11g, birthed from the attempt to combine the pros of 802.11a/b, with a bandwidth of up to 54 Mbps. Backwards compatible with 802.11b, it operates on the 2.5 GHz frequency, making interference a consideration. The higher cost was worth it for the combination of a fast maximum speed and a wide range.

Avoiding Piss Poor Performance

Now it’s time to remember the 5 Ps and begin planning. It’s important to understand that an overhaul such as the wired-to-wireless transition can be too much for an all-at-once solution. Knowing what level of upgrade your company is capable of is the first step. Search Networking’s Lisa Phifer suggests that “upgrades must be budgeted and scheduled over time, resulting in an incremental network infrastructure migration.”

Consider the hardware you’ll have to replace such as Fast Ethernet switches (with Gigabit Ethernet switches). Because 802.11n uses more electricity than previous access points, you’ll need to consider an upgrade in switch ports to provide more power. Get in on the 2.4 GHz versus 5 GHz debate; do you need the wider range provided by 2.4 GHz or will you deploy dual band wireless LAN APs? If you decide to deploy both frequencies in your network, consider building the capability to guide clients to connect in 5 GHz when possible. Search Networking’s Shamus McGillicuddy suggests Cisco’s BandSelect or Aruba’s “band steering feature in its Adaptive Radio Management software.”

Sit down and do this:

• Try to predict the traffic load that wireless will deliver to your wired network and how it will grow over time.
• Plan for refresh cycles as clients and your workforce migrates to 11n devices.
• Plan and design your WLAN design and configuration to solve bottlenecks before they occur.
• Upgrading from Power over Ethernet to MIMO will require more power; consider this when planning upgrades.
• Be sure that legacy tools such as WLAN analyzers are upgraded and prepared to work with 802.11n.
• A larger network with increased capabilities such as the 802.11n also requires better security with increased monitoring. In order for your wireless network to meet its full potential, it must be fully secured and monitored from the get-go with 24/7 alerts of unwanted connections to the network.

In IT there is definitely a time and a place for the trial and error method, but when you begin migrating your wired network to wireless, avoid trial and error for maximum effectiveness and minimum headaches.

Melanie Yarbrough is the assistant community editor at ITKnowledgeExchange.com. Follow her on Twitter or send her an email at Melanie@ITKnowledgeExchange.com.

With the IEEE 802.11n standard taking so long to develop (about seven years!), it’s no wonder that many are still having hard time with the fact that, yes, the standard is done, and all major WLAN system vendors are now shipping .11n products. In fact, many are reporting that 802.11n is now the bulk of their sales. Farpoint Group has, since the release of the interim 802.11n spec from the Wi-Fi Alliance, in fact been recommending nothing but 802.11n – it’s got so much higher performance in any dimension than any previous standard, from throughput to capacity to range, that there’s no point in riding the older horses anymore. OK, .11n is a little more expensive, but it has vastly improved price/performance – perhaps the vendors don’t want you to hear this, but it’s really downright cheap to install a .11n infrastructure, given falling prices due to competition and much lower components costs.

So it might surprise you to learn that the key issues (and, yes, there are some) surrounding 802.11n have nothing to do with the maturity of the technology or the price to get into the game, or even the radios required. The arguments have moved – here’s what are at the top of the list for many IT managers today:

• Operating Expense (OpEx)- Whereas the capital expense (CapEx) required to buy that new .11n system is nothing to sneeze at, most of the life-cycle cost in any large-scale WLAN deployment is in OpEx – management, maintenance, help desk, etc. And, of course, the reason for this is that so much of the work here is labor-intensive, and that labor is highly-skilled. This is why we always recommend that end-user organizations carefully examine the management capabilities of systems under consideration. There are often major differences in functionality here between different products, and it’s important to verify functionality against one’s list of requirements, including interface points with other operational systems, in order to minimize OpEx and thus total cost of ownership (TCO) down the road. As it is with end-users, productivity is the name of the game in operations as well.

• Scalability- Similarly, we recommend that IT managers buy not only what they need today, but alsowhat they’ll need a few years out. It’s usually not as difficult as it might seem to make a determination here; network requirements in terms of users, traffic loads, and type and number of number of applications only grow over time. It’s important to ask all vendors, of course, how their solutions scale over the lifespan of a given installation, and also across geographies from campus to branch office to global. it’s also important to learn how a given system can non-disruptively scale as core requirements grow – as they inevitably will.

• Assurance- Finally (or not; we’ll get to another cautionary note shortly), it’s important to consider a wireless LAN assurance solution in planning your new .11n deployment. These systems perform a broad range of functions – regulatory compliance monitoring, intrusion detection and prevention, security audits, and even provide, in some cases, such vital services and spectral analysis to detect interference. There is a slow trend afoot to integrate assurance services into core WLAN management systems, and that makes sense. But you may want a system entirely distinct from your WLAN infrastructure, in a belt-and-suspenders fashion.

Of course, there’s more. I’m particularly interested in convergence functionality, for example, to allow handoffs between cellular systems and wireless LANs. And while I noted above that differences in radio performance alone aren’t the gating issue that they once were, it’s still vital to do a little testing to make sure that you’re getting the performance you need. And attention must be paid the rest of the network value chain as well, particularly in terms of deploying gigabit Ethernet – .11n will swamp fast Ethernet without even trying very hard.

A full checklist could take several pages, but I hope my core message is clear: 802.11n is all you should be considering at present. The benefits are there, and the issues, as I noted above, have shifted. No matter – it’s full speed ahead, pun intended, to 802.11n.