WLAN MANAGEMENT: Service Opportunities Open Up

With the introduction of WLAN, a wired LAN structure developed over the years

is about to fall apart. If, so far, network management was more focused on

preventing access to a wireless LAN or the nodes, now more and more businesses

seek the opposite.

They not only allow but also actively encourage the sharing of wireless

bandwidth. This opens up avenues for various services that solution providers

can offer to end-users.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE TAKING



The opportunities are there for the taking because corporates are focusing

on supplier and customer relationship management. They are moving away from

technology management, which they want to outsource.

Let's

look at a campus-wide WLAN with several hundred wireless users. The service

opportunities available here include site survey, RF management, integration

with existing LAN, mobility and security.

RF bandwidth management (design and implementation): According to Martin

Cooper, inventor of the portable cellular network, the ability to use the

spectrum has doubled every 30 months for the last 105 years. This is very much

true in WLAN as well. The data throughput has increased to 108Mbps over a period

of time. These kind of developments lead to continuous challenging situations

and demand strenuous management efforts.

Licensing: End-user wants to focus on "his business" and ease of

usage. He is willing to outsource, the complexity of keeping track of changing

regulations related to WLAN in the country.

Site survey, designing cells and roaming: This needs RF expertise. Certain

vendors provide tools to calculate link distances. Overall any network design is

an art, certainly more than a matter of mathematical calculations.

Integration with existing LAN: The efforts depend on the established levels

of security for the existing wired LAN. At each node changes in the personal

firewalls may be necessary.

Managing mobility and guest access (active management): There's no question

that security issues are always a top concern for enterprises of all sizes. In

the case of WLAN, providing "sufficient" security is a constantly

moving target, as it encourages mobility and guest access.

Help-desk management: The continuous mobile and guest usage makes support

mandatory. Most of the time, the user may not be allowed to change the settings

of his laptop. The helpdesk must be equipped to handle such situations. In

places, where users and guests frequently go in and out of the network, Hot Spot

gateway could be a better solution.

Network management: Till date 802.11b is the most popular standard. But in

the days of transition, 802.1b/g are expected to co-exist. Managing throughput

of this mixed environment can be a demanding task.

Imagine a setup with 802.11b/g APs and a 802.11g user is installed and is

working fine. Another guest with 802.11b laptop, if allowed in, can make the AP

fall back to 802.11b basic mode. This change would adversely affect existing

802.11g users. This further underlines the "moving target" nature of

WLAN environment.

Security management: It is desirable to change passwords, SSID and encryption

keys at regular intervals and intimate this change to the concerned users. The

amount of efforts involved in doing this, depends on the features of the

installed products.

Authentication management: VPNs for WLANs will be enabled by the gradual

implementation of 802.1x authentication. New standards for better encryption,

and management and distribution of encryption keys are expected soon.

But some early products supporting 802.1x are running into problems. This is

due to overloading of the processing power of the APs, complex troubleshooting,

and lack of 802.1x support in various client operating systems and NICs.

MANAGING THESE OPPORTUNITIES



Once widespread adoption of WLAN takes place, solutions providers will enter

the field of advanced WLAN management and security to branch offices. Since WLAN

covers a larger areas, it requires deployment of more secure and better managed

infrastructure by providing centralized management and security policy

enforcement for WLAN access points. These points,w which are deployed in branch

offices, have to be managed remotely from a central site.

There are products available, which let administrators at headquarters

remotely make configuration and security-access changes over the WAN. The WLAN

devices deployed are linked back to a central chassis through a proprietary

tunneling protocol over the LAN.

This

keeps WLAN traffic separate on the network for security purposes without forcing

administrators to set up a separate virtual LAN segment for individual WLAN

access points.

It is important to understand that "management" is always relative

and not a absolute term by itself. Put emphasis on the services you are

offering, rather than the underlying technology. Service level agreements are

meaningless unless you can devise a method of measuring and enforcing this

service.

Time and efforts spent in crafting the contract are likely to result in a

longer relationship. Moreover, clauses crafted to handle changes due to

technology or functionality changes, hold the key to a long-term relationship.

WLAN can be seen as an evolution from wired LAN. The historical evidence

shows that wireless communication gave birth to wired LAN (Ethernet). This only

reinforces the fact that experience in one field can be effectively applied in

another in providing a successful solution.

MILIND KAMAT is a networking

expert