Bringing carrier-grade reliability to WLANs

Computerworld - The wireless LAN, touted as the next major convergence application in enterprise networking, faces two major obstacles that can inhibit widespread deployment: concerns about compromised security and poor performance. Unless organizations are assured that deploying a WLAN won't affect security or hamper performance, they will hesitate to trust corporate information to a wireless environment.
Security remains the overriding concern with WLANs. WLAN signals have no physical barrier to unauthorized users, potentially subjecting them to interception and thus exposing an organization to potential network intrusions, viruses, data tampering and other threats.
Secondarily, enterprises question whether WLANs will provide business-class capabilities that allow for ease of management, scalability, quality service, seamless roaming and integration across the public wireless network. Enterprises need all of the functionality and reliability inherent in a traditional wired network to get the most productivity out of their wireless networks. If WLANs don't provide business-class performance, businesses will continue to question whether WLANs are "enterprise-ready."
In light of recent outbreaks of viruses such as Blaster and Sobig, these concerns seem completely valid. Yet the combination of advances in technology and standards with the development of proven best practices enables enterprises to create WLANs that surpass the security and performance requirements of any organization. These advances, in turn, can lead to increased productivity and cost savings.
For example, in a hospital, doctors, nurses and administrators need the freedom to move about the campus. At the same time, they need to be able to access and input information at the point of care. Combining a WLAN with a handheld device gives health care workers the mobility they need while enabling them to quickly input and retrieve crucial patient information. This leads not only to better care for patients while they're in the hospital, but also to more accurate billing and insurance claim processing once they've been released.
To best take advantage of all that a WLAN can offer, companies should consider the following points when developing a wireless enterprise strategy:

• Manage security from a central location: A distributed model acts much like a chain -- one broken link compromises the entire chain. It also allows for multiple, competing devices, with competing policies. Therefore, managing administration and security from a central location not only provides administrators better insight into the infrastructure, it also streamlines network operations, yielding more efficiency and productivity. This insight also gives administrators better visibility into the limitations of each network component and, subsequently, helps them to determine how to fill gaps in the network through pre-established rules.
  Also, administering and managing from a central location allows a company to easily and efficiently add multiple layers of security. Previously, companies could add security only at the access point. Once someone breached the access point, he had access to the enterprise. Through advancements in technology, such as security switches, companies now have the option of adding layers of security at various points throughout the network and the overall enterprise, supporting the security at the access point.


• Use all the necessary tools: Companies must use all security tools available to create a strong base level of security. For a variety of reasons, some organizations have made a decision at the outset not to deploy certain features of baseline security, which is akin to leaving the front door of a house wide open when you go out each day. In doing so, the organization immediately creates holes within the system.
  Administrators have cited the complexity of the security features as barriers to deployment. Others have cited management issues, particularly when dealing with multiple access points, as barriers. In a distributed model, administrators must go to each access point to ensure that it's managed properly locally. This concern dissipates in the face of an easy-to-use, centrally located management system. Administrators can easily deploy features and efficiently manage them from one point on the network.


• Pay attention to standards: Adopting solutions that comply with industry standards results in choice and flexibility for an organization, both in terms of technology adoption and growth strategies. WLANs will continue to evolve in depth and breadth.
  Only by using solutions based on standards will an organization create and protect the longevity of its WLAN investment. And in some cases, only a standards-based approach will drive the business case. For example, hospitals rely heavily on the 802.11 standard because they can't use cellular technology, which interferes with medical equipment. Choosing a solution that isn't standards-based will therefore lock an organization into a proprietary system, which limits both the life span and usefulness of the technology.


• Introduce second-generation WLAN systems: First-generation WLAN access points focused on providing basic WLAN connectivity. Their architecture couldn't scale across anything more than a small geographic area, and enterprises frequently implemented them in an ad hoc manner. Security was generally provided by proprietary designs, and management of the complete system wasn't considered.
  Today, enterprises look to implement WLANs as a strategic and integral part of their infrastructures. This requires a new generation of WLAN access points. This second generation of access points offers standards-based solutions to provide enhanced security, multivendor interoperability and quality of service to allow future applications such as IP telephony. Second-generation access points look to the future and allow software upgrades so enterprises can protect their investments as new standards are introduced.


• Know what surrounds the WLAN: Companies can't implement a WLAN and then build out an infrastructure. Nor can companies use just a WLAN. In fact, in two years, many experts predict that WLANs will represent just another form of business connectivity. Therefore, an organization must understand the nuances of the network infrastructure in place and build a WLAN strategy that maps to that infrastructure and its established network policies.
  Every customer's network is unique -- it's a living, breathing, evolving organism that needs care and feeding by network administrators. And each has its own way of being deployed. Therefore, no one can just bolt a WLAN on top of an existing network infrastructure. The WLAN needs the flexibility to map to the various topologies and seamlessly integrate into the existing LAN. Networking vendors are considered by many to be the solution providers of choice for deploying WLANs because they understand the nuances of networks.