Reinforcing WiFi Redundancy (continued)
- Load balancing Increasing use of voice-over-wireless LAN (VOWLAN) is pushing demand for an industry standard for load balancing. Until voice-over WiFi calls can be recognized and equally distributed among access points, a user could get a busy signal when trying to make a call. To avoid this unacceptable condition, IT departments may need to design their own load balancing solutions.
- Roaming Users need to be able to roam between subnets without having their connections dropped. The IEEE 802.11r standard that supports this function has not yet been ratified, but most equipment vendors are offering their own proprietary solutions in the interim and promise to upgrade to the final standard when it is approved.
- Battery-saving features To avoid dropped network connections if a handheld WiFi device, such as a scanner or a WiFi phone runs out of battery power, most equipment manufacturers offer some version of WMM battery saving.
- Intrusion detection and prevention Network managers must design their WiFi networks to have adequate sensors to identify hackers and knock them off before they bring down the WiFi network.
Make sure your enterprise is prepared for the future surge to an all-wireless network. The steps toward achieving wireless redundancy may differ from normal redundancy efforts, but the end goal remains the same. "Most network managers are looking for network resiliency; that means creating a network that is resilient enough not to fail should a component fail or should a hacker attack the network," says Schatt.
About the Author
Pam Baker is the author of six books and numerous articles for national and international media such as CIO Today, Institutional Investor, Wireless IQ and Knight-Ridder/McClatchy newspapers.
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