Chapter 11

1. WLAN Deployment and Vertical Markets Chapter 11

2. Outline • Corporate data access and end-user mobility • Network extension to remote areas • Bridging-building-to-building connectivity • Wireless ISP (WISP) – last-mile data delivery • Small office/home office (SOHO) • Mobile office networking • Educational/classroom use • Industrial-warehousing and manufacturing

3. Outline • Healthcare-hospitals and offices • Municipal networks • Hotspots – public network access • Transportation networks • Law-enforcement networks • First-responder networks • Fixed mobile convergence • WLAN and health • WLAN vendors

4. Corporate Data Access and End-User Mobility • The wireless network to provide two capabilities to their existing network. • The first is the ability to easily add network access in areas where installation of wired connections is difficult or expensive. • The second is to provide easy mobility for the wireless user within the corporate building or campus environment.

5. Network Extension to Remote Areas • The cost of installing network cabling for each computer is expensive, and in many environments running cable or fiber is difficult due to building design or aesthetic restrictions • When wireless networking equipment is installed, far fewer cables are required, and equipment placement can often be performed without affecting the aesthetics of a building

6. Bridging – Building-to-Building Connectivity • Copper or fiber connection • The highest throughput • Can be very expensive • If the buildings are separated by a long distance or by someone else’s property, this may not even be an option • There are no monthly service fees since you own the cable

7. Bridging – Building-to-Building Connectivity • Leasing a high-speed telephone connection • Provide flexibility and convenience, but since you do not own the connection • You will pay monthly service fees. Depending upon the type of service that you are paying for, • You may or may not be able to easily increase the speed of the link.

8. Bridging – Building-to-Building Connectivity • A wireless building-to-building bridge • Requires a clear RF line of sight between building. • A point-to-point or point-to-multipoint can be installed. • The installation is typically easy to perform by trained professionals, and once it’s installed, there are no monthly service fees since you own the equipment. • In a point-to-multipoint installation, the building that is most centrally located will be the central communication point • A potential problem with the point-to-multipoint solution is that the central communication point becomes a single point of failure for all of the buildings. • To prevent a single point of failure and to provide higher data throughput, it is not uncommon to install multiple point-to-point bridges

9. Wireless ISP (WISP) – Last-Mile Data Delivery • The term last-mile is often used by the telephone and cable companies to refer to the last segment of their service that connects the home subscriber to their network • Wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) deliver Internet services via wireless networking WISP can provide services via RF communications from central transmitters. • WISPs often use wireless technology other than 802.11, allowing them to provide wireless coverage to much greater areas. • Service from WISPs is not without its own problems. As with any RF technology, the signal can be degraded or corrupted by obstacles such as roofs, mountains, trees, and other buildings. • Proper designs and professional installations can ensure a properly working system.

10. Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) • Wireless networking has helped to make it easier for a small or home office employee to connect the office computers and peripheral devices together and also to the Internet • Most small office, home office (SOHO) wireless routers provide fairly easy-to-follow installation instructions and offer performance and security near what their corporate counterparts provide. • What the small or home office person gets is a capable device at a quarter of the price their corporate counterparts pay. Dozens of devices are available to provide the SOHO worker with the ability to install and configure their own secure Internet-connected network without spending a fortune.

11. Mobile Office Networking • Mobile home offices are used for many different purposes • Construction site offices, as temporary offices during construction or after a disaster, or as temporary classrooms to accommodate unplanned changes in student population. • Mobile offices are simply an extension of the office environment. • These structures are usually buildings on wheels that can be easily deployed for short- or long-term use on an as-needed basis. • Since these structures are not permanent, it is usually easier to extend the corporate or school network to these offices by using wireless networking.

12. Education/Classroom Use • Wireless networking can be used to provide a safe and easy way of connecting students to the school network. • Wireless networking allows any classroom seating arrangement to be used, without the safety risk of networking cables being strung across the floor. • A wireless network also allows students to connect to the network and work on schoolwork anywhere in the building without having to worry whether a wired network jack is nearby or whether someone else is already using it. • The use of wireless bridging is also very prevalent in campus environments.

13. Industrial – Warehousing and Manufacturing • Warehouses and manufacturing facilities are two environments in which wireless networking has been used for years, even before the 802.11 standard was created. • Due to the vast space and the mobile nature of the employees in these environments, companies saw the need to provide mobile network access to their employees so they could more effectively perform their jobs. • Warehouse and manufacturing environments often deploy wireless handheld devices such as bar code scanners, which are often used for inventory control. • Most 802.11 networks deployed in either a warehouse or manufacturing environment are designed for coverage rather than capacity. • Handheld devices typically do not require much bandwidth, but large coverage areas are needed to provide true mobility. • Wireless networks are able to provide the coverage and mobility required in a warehouse environment and provide it cost effectively.

14. Healthcare – Hospitals and Offices • Although healthcare facilities such as hospitals, clinics, and doctors offices may seem very different than other businesses, they essentially have the same networking needs as other companies: corporate data access and end-user mobility. • Healthcare providers need quick, secure, and accurate access to their data so they can react and make decisions. • Wireless networks can provide mobility, giving healthcare providers faster access to important data by delivering the data directly to a handheld device that the doctor or nurse carries with them. • Hospitals rely upon many forms of proprietary and industry-standard wireless communications that may have the potential of causing RF interference with 802.11 wireless networks. • Medical carts used to monitor patient information often have wireless connections back to the nursing station. • VoWiFiis another common use of 802.11 technology in a medical environment. • Many hospitals have designated a person or department to keep track of the frequencies and biomedical equipment that are used within the hospital to help avoid conflicts.

15. Hotspots – Public Network Access • The term hotspot typically refers to a free or pay-for-use wireless network that is provided as a service by a business. • Most hotspot providers perform network authentication using a special type of web page known as a captive portal. • If the hotspot provider is a paid service, then the user must enter either their subscription information, if they are a subscriber to the service, or credit card information, if they are paying for hourly or daily usage.

16. Transportation Networks • Trains, planes, automobiles • Boats (cruise ships and commuter ferries), buses • The primary use of these networks is to provide hotspot services for end users so that they can gain access to the Internet • The difference between a transportation network and a typical hotspot is that the network is continually moving, making it necessary for the transportation network to use some type for mobile uplink services

17. Law-Enforcement Networks • Unlike public hotspots, these networks provide both authentication and high levels of encryption • Municipal Wi-Fi hotspots typically provide high-speed communications between networking equipment in the police cars and the police department’s internal network • Many police cars being equipped with video surveillance. The computer in the car automatically uploads the video files from the data storage in the car to the central video library

18. First-Responder Networks • When public service communications systems such as cellular telephone network may not be working, a Wi-Fi first-responder network may be able to provide communications between local personel and possibly shared access to central resources • Many rescue vehicles are being equipped with either permanently mounted Wi-Fi AP that can quickly an easily blanket a rescue scene with a Wi-Fi bridge to the emergency personel’s data network

19. Fixed Mobile Convergence • The goal of FMC systems is to provide a single device, with a single telephone number that is capable of switching between networks and always using the lowest-cost network • FMC devices typically are capable of communicating via either a cellular telephone network or a VoWiFi network

20. WLAN and Health • The World Health Organization and government agencies set standards that establish exposure limits to radio waves, to which RF products must comply • Tests performed on WLANs have shown that they operate substantially below the required safety limits set by these organizations • Also Wi-Fi signals, as compared to other RF signals, are much lower in power

21. WLAN Vendor • WLAN Infrastructure • WLAN Mesh Infrastructure • WLAN Troubleshooting and Design Solution • WLAN Management • WLAN Security Solutions • VoWiFi Solutions • WLAN Fixed Mobile Convergence • WLAN RTLS Solution • WLAN SOHO Vendors

22. The END Chapter 11