Latest 802.11 standards: Too little too late?

09/03/08

Both 802.11k for radio resource measurement/management and 802.11r for fast handoff among wireless LAN access points have recently been ratified. Their arrival reminds me a little of the discussions surrounding IPv6 a few years ago, in that many of the problems these standards were designed to address have, in the meantime, been solved in alternative ways.

Smartphone mania

09/01/08

As the mobile user community transitions to the smartphone as a computing platform of choice, developments are heating up left and right.

Wi-Fi tools gain sophistication

08/27/08

802.11n is poised to pervade the interior of enterprise buildings. In anticipation, new tools have been emerging to help enterprises plan, manage and secure these high-speed wireless networks, which have some eccentricities.

Roaming standard ratified

08/25/08

The IEEE recently ratified the long-awaited 802.11r standard for fast handoff, officially named Fast Basic Service Set Transition. 802.11r, in development for four years, is a key component to solving the performance challenges associated with VoIP over Wi-Fi in large-scale networks.

Remaining WLAN startups resist takeover

08/20/08

HP's intent to acquire wireless LAN company Colubris is one in a series of industry-consolidation moves. So who's next? No one, if the remaining startups have their say.

HP to get 11n products with Colubris deal

08/18/08

Last week's announcement that HP intends to acquire wireless LAN company Colubris Networks gives HP a chance to become a formidable player in the enterprise WLAN market. HP has long offered its own ProCurve WLAN products integrated with its popular ProCurve Ethernet switches - a conceptually a nice idea but also a somewhat limiting one.

Living in fear of usage charges

08/13/08

The global voice and data roaming charges users incur when they travel internationally have long been a thorn in the side of multinational companies. Usage for data is particularly difficult to control for several reasons, one of which is that some of the usage gets sucked up by background housekeeping duties - such as regular automatic checks to weather, e-mail and other services. Even if there's no new data downloaded, these pings eat up some portion of the allotted kilobytes.

Global iPhone usage poses economic risk

08/11/08

I was talking to a telecom manager of a large U.S.-based multinational company recently who lamented the fact that worldwide data roaming charges are too steep and unpredictable to justify his business using the multimedia-centric iPhone as an enterprise device. Executives in his organization recently took some complimentary iPhone 3Gs overseas and returned to discover data-usage bills of $4,000 to $5,000 apiece. According to the telecom manager: "They had a cow!"

Femtocells vs. FMC

08/06/08

How do single-mode femtocell-based services, such as the forthcoming Airave service from Sprint, stack up against fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) offerings?

Sprint to debut femtocell service

08/04/08

Sprint says it will make available mid-month a nationwide femtocell-based service that allows you to buy and install a small $100 CDMA amplifier to boost signals in Sprint's licensed spectrum across about 5,000 square feet of space in your home or office. OK, addressing poor in-building coverage with a simple and relatively inexpensive device is admirable. But there are some outstanding questions about usage, frequency coordination, pricing and other issues.

Drexel installs a thousand 11n APs

07/30/08

Philadelphia's Drexel University is busy installing a thousand Draft 2.0 802.11n access points, a huge network project boasting a curious history and a cutthroat vendor evaluation process.

Plugging RF leaks

07/28/08

Have you considered wrapping your building in tinfoil or slathering the walls with metal-impregnated paint to keep RF signals from leaking out? If so, you might want to hold off till September, when a simpler alternative is expected to arrive.

DFS: Are you a good witch or a bad witch?

07/23/08

Dynamic frequency selection, or DFS, is moving onto WLAN users' radars (pun intended) as 802.11n materializes and promises to greatly increase Wi-Fi usage in the 5GHz band. The DFS channel-changing capability applies, from a U.S. regulatory standpoint, to particular 5GHz bands used occasionally by military and weather radar that have also been sanctioned by the FCC to accommodate Wi-Fi traffic when radar data isn't present. What does this mean from an implementation and performance perspective?

Clearing the air about DFS

07/21/08

The latest 802.11n topic to get its knickers in a twist revolves around a capability called dynamic frequency selection, or DFS. There are general performance issues associated with DFS as well as separate U.S. FCC regulatory compliance requirements to consider.

New risks in 802.11n

07/16/08

Along with the potential performance and coverage benefits of 802.11n come a few new security risks, says industry security guru Joshua Wright. Wright presented a Webinar last week that outlined several new vulnerabilities that high-speed 802.11n networks introduce.

Centrino 2 might sport 802.11n, but WiMAX comes later

07/14/08

Intel intends to ship its long-anticipated Centrino 2 mobile laptop platform this week. The platform will include enhanced Wi-Fi capabilities, but its dual-mode Wi-Fi 11n/WiMAX module (codenamed "Echo Peak") won't ship until "later this year," says an Intel spokeswoman.

7-Eleven takes security seriously

07/09/08

A chain of independent 7-Eleven convenience stores in central Oklahoma has completed a highly distributed Wi-Fi rollout to support a new inventory management system. Starting the wireless project from scratch has allowed the company to fully embrace wireless Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) mandates.

Wi-Fi voice gets a shot in the arm

07/07/08

It's still a long way to Tipperary, but the Wi-Fi Alliance has begun early certification testing for voice interoperability and - for the first time - performance.

802.11n blue ribbon winners

07/02/08

In putting together an evaluation of 802.11n vendor strengths and weaknesses, ABI Research, which issued its 802.11n Vendor Matrix last week, has created a template you can use as a cheat sheet for your own assessments.

Meru, Aruba top researcher's 802.11n rankings

06/30/08

A recent, multidimensional evaluation of 802.11n wireless LAN vendors compiled by ABI Research reflects the complexity facing IT departments as they conduct their own assessments of enterprise-class 802.11n prospects. In what was more or less a photo finish, Meru Networks edged out its fierce rival, Aruba Networks, as the leading vendor in ABI's latest Vendor Matrix, released last week. Motorola took the No. 3 spot.

Where does Wi-Fi fit in a 4G world?

06/25/08

Several wireless technologies are contending to become the next-generation transport system for mobile video and collaborative business applications and services. The frontrunners in the WAN are WiMAX and Long-Term Evolution (LTE).

LTE-WiMAX wars ignite

06/23/08

Lately, the spotlight has swung toward Long-Term Evolution (LTE), the so-called fourth-generation mobile broadband technology descended from GSM cellular protocols. CDMA veteran Verizon Wireless, for example, has switched to LTE as its future mobile service delivery platform. GSM-based AT&T is, unsurprisingly headed that way, too. And recently, mobile base station maker Nortel dumped its WiMAX product development in deference to LTE.

Potential fallout of wireless acquisitions

06/18/08

Verizon buys Alltel; Belden buys Trapeze. The consolidation game in the wireless industry - WAN and LAN alike - is officially afoot.

'Sorry about that, Chief!': Clearing up FMC confusion

06/16/08

A confused reader has been pressing for details about the Anthony Marano fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) installation I described last week. In trying to cram the many dimensions of a complex situation into a couple of short newsletters, I fear I might have lost you, too. So let me attempt to clear up questions about the company's dual-pronged FMC approach by telling what I've told "Lane" on the Network World Wireless and Mobility community site.

Hybrid FMC under the hood

06/11/08

The hybrid approach to fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) that produce wholesaler Anthony Marano has taken involves a few interesting configuration twists.

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Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology writer/editor in Silicon Valley.