Wireless LAN: Make Your Enterprise Wireless

As a senior sales team leader in a financial services firm, Rammaiyah, had to
often move within his office to make presentations with his laptop. Even though
his office — two floors landscaped with tens of cubicles — was
well-networked, he did not have much freedom with mobility. He could get
connectivity for his laptop only in certain locations. This effected his access
to real time information that he often needed to share with his team. That was
two months back. But not any more. Thanks to a wireless local area network (LAN)
solution deployed in his office, Rammaiyah has been able to do what he could not
earlier — roam around freely in the office without worrying for a place to
plug in his laptop. His office now offers connectivity everywhere, even in the
office lobby, courtesy the minus wireless solution that did away with the need
to put cables everywhere.

Why Wireless LAN?

The unimportance of wires, one of the most visible attributes of the
traditional wired LAN, is perhaps just one of the many benefits of wireless LAN.
While its cost advantages could be a matter of debate, wireless LAN definitely
offers a number of unquestionable benefits that the ubiquitous wired LAN cannot.
In the highly networked markets of US and Europe, wireless LANs are popular
because of four main reasons — user mobility, speedy and less cumbersome
installation, installation flexibility, and scalability. Many claim it also
entails reduced cost of ownership. But this is true for organizations that
require frequent moves and changes in their LAN set-up. For organizations with
stable set-ups, there would not be a cost advantage involved as wireless LAN
hardware is costlier than those used to deploy a wired LAN.

Not for High Bandwidth Applications

But deploying wireless LAN is not just about replacing cables
or mobility. An enterprise will need to address a number of issues and do a
proper homework before substituting a wired LAN or complimenting it with a
wireless LAN. It is fine that it would increase employee mobility and that the
organization has a very dynamic network that needs frequent moves and adds or
that the office building does not allow frequent changes in the wiring. But
before you take a decision based on these facts, something more basic would need
an enterprise’s attention – will wireless LAN suit its requirements? The
answer to this question would depend on the type of applications that an
organization runs or would like to run on the LAN. This is important because of
limitations on bandwidth in wireless LAN networks. "An enterprise needs to
understand first and foremost, the applications that it plans to deploy on the
wireless LAN network, irrespective of the decision to replace or complement the
existing network. It makes little sense to deploy WLAN if applications like
CAD/CAM are to be deployed (as these are considerably bandwidth hungry),’’
points out Sayan Ghosh, networking consultant, 3Com India Pvt Ltd.

Ghosh is right because even though theoretically the IEEE
802.11B (the prevalent wireless LAN standard) is meant to support a 11 Mbps
output, in reality not more than 5.5 Mbps bandwidth is available in wireless
LAN. Moreover, in a multi-user environment, a single user cannot expect to get
even this 5.5 Mbps as the bandwidth is shared with other users. Besides, as the
user keeps moving away from a wireless LAN access hub, the bandwidth output
keeps on decreasing. Naturally, all this rules out high-bandwidth applications.
Wireless LAN throughput is sufficient for applications like electronic mail
exchange, access to shared peripherals like printers, Internet access, and
access to multi-user databases and applications.

The limitations on bandwidth also means that wireless LAN,
despite its other visible advantages, cannot be expected to replace the
traditional wired LAN. "Wireless LANs will not replace but add value to
wired networks," points out Naresh Wadhwa, vice president, sales, Cisco
India. In case, an organization does want to replace or go for wireless LAN
completely, it needs to also understand the users who will be accessing this. If
all users were to access it, then the issue clearly becomes one of what the
total bandwidth requirement of the enterprise is and whether the solution helps
achieve that.

Who is It Good for?

Wireless LAN is best suited for organizations where the
number of users is less and where mobility is more important than throughput. In
other words, wireless LAN with its current performance levels, is primarily
meant for laptop carrying senior management functionaries who do not run any
bandwidth hungry application or indulge in development work but need to be
mobile. Besides, wireless LAN can be and is being used to provide connectivity
in hard to wire places, for example, corridors, lobbies, conference rooms.
Wireless LAN can also be used to provide connectivity in temporary premises,
makeshift offices, site offices etc. Offices which have lots of laptop carrying
visitors too can look for wireless LAN deployment. ‘The decision to deploy
wireless LAN should not be taken just because everyone is talking about wireless
but only when users genuinely  need to compute on the run, from various
locations in your building, or in areas that can’t easily be wired,"
emphasizes Suresh Prabhu, service line manager, Cambridge Technology Partners,
India.

Pre-deployment Ground Work

Once a decision has been taken on the deployment of wireless
LAN, the next step should be to approach the Wireless Planning and Coordination
wing (WPC) of the Department of Telecom for spectrum use clearance. This is
because while the frequency band allocated for Wireless LAN operations (2.4 GHz
to 2.4835 GHz) is free for use in most countries outside India, here it is paid.
For first time users, it usually takes three-four months to get a clearance from
WPC as the request has to be first cleared by the Union Home Ministry. However,
an existing user of Wireless LAN can expect to get a clearance in two-three
weeks’ time. "The funny part here is that an organization will need to
approach the WPC for allocation of frequency for every new user it adds on its
Wireless LAN network," remarks Lt. Col H S Bedi, managing director of Tulip
Software. Tulip has deployed Wireless LAN solutions for a number of clients.

The second important consideration should be the interior
design structure of the site where wireless LAN is going to be set up. Most
wireless LAN systems use RF. And the distance over which RF waves can travel is
not the function of the product alone. It also depends on the propagation path
of RF. Even though RF waves are capable of penetrating most indoor walls and
other physical obstacles, their range of coverage surely depends on the indoor
architecture of the building. In open spaces each wireless LAN access hub can
cover up to 300 feet, while in places with physical barriers-like walls, a hub
could be effective in the range of 130 feet only. This would naturally mean that
access points are placed strategically as such to overcome all physical barriers
inside the building. Otherwise users would not be able to enjoy the advantage of
mobility or roam around freely in a building with their connected laptops.
"The enterprise should get the site survey conducted for verifying the
coverage and estimating the number of wireless LAN access points required at the
premise. This would depend on the topology of the location and the amount of
throughput required," recommends Naresh Wadhwa of Cisco.

Cost Considerations

The initial investment required for wireless LAN hardware is
on the higher side. One wireless LAN access point costs around Rs 100,000 and a
PCMCIA ethernet card would cost around Rs 17,000. Typically one access point can
support up to a maximum of 20 users in a range up to 130 to 300 feet depending
on the internal structure of the building. Besides these costs, there is the
spectrum fee payable to WPC. While the first user will have to pay Rs 17,500 per
year for frequency use, every other user will have to pay one-fourth of this
amount ( Rs 4375) every year. Given this, currently, the per user cost of
setting up a wireless LAN would be Rs 28000 per user (one time cost for access
point, PCMCIA card and spectrum charges) and thereafter, a recurring cost of
around Rs 5000 every year per user on account of frequency use charges. These
average costs have been worked out considering 20 users per access point. The
total infrastructure cost would depend on the number of access points. And the
number of access points would depend on the required coverage and the number of
users to be serviced.

Whether all this appears costly or not to an organization
would depend on the type of advantage it is trying to derive from wireless LAN.
Long-term cost benefits could accrue in dynamic environments requiring frequent
moves and changes, as also in businesses where in-building mobility is highly
sought-after.

What are the Security Considerations?

While it is usually claimed that wireless LANs are more
secure than their traditional wired counterparts, there exist some concerns with
regard to security. "There are inherent weaknesses in Wireless Encryption
Protocol (WEP) as defined by IEEE 802.11b, the standard for wireless LANs, and
these weaknesses exist regardless of the length of the encryption key used. The
weakness of most wireless LANs is their use of static WEP keys shared among
user," agrees Wadhva. However, users can now look forward to enhanced
wireless security solutions that offer more sophisticated key management
techniques, he adds. Ghosh points out that WEP, a 40 bit protocol, has been
proven to be flawed in recent times. "This protocol is only designed to
keep casual snoopers at bay and not the determined ones," he adds. There
are a number of other technologies that are deployed to provide security. These
include the use of tunneling technology and strong-128 bit encryption and above,
layer 2 security through the use of access control lists to prevent unauthorized
people from accessing the network and authentication mechanisms (for example
RADIUS), to verify the identity of the person before providing access.

Where to get Wireless LAN solutions

For wireless LAN hardware enterprises can approach such
wireless heavyweights as Cisco, 3com, Intel, Nokia, Enterasys and Ericsson as
also Compaq and Apple. D-Link and Lynksys are the other vendors in this segment.
For implementation, you can consult big names like Cambridge Technology Partners
or upstarts like Tulip Software. Besides, there could be several other network
integrators who can be approached for design and implementation of wireless LAN
solutions.

Notwithstanding its limitations, there is no doubt that
wireless LAN has redefined in-building connectivity. And even though it is still
far away from being an effective alternative to wired LANs, attempts are being
made to make wireless LAN more effective in terms of their coverage and
throughput (efforts are on way to get data speeds of 100 Mbps). And if all that
happens, organizations will certainly be relieved of the headache to get their
building wired.

Ravi Shekhar Pandey

Wireless LAN Small, But Growing

Indian enterprises are adopting wireless LAN, but hardware cost,
limited applications and local regulations check growth.

The wireless LAN market in India can best be described as insignificant
with very few deployments. It is another matter that, like most other new
technologies, there is a lot of interest about wireless LAN among probable
buyers, too. As far as the availability of the solutions are concerned,
almost all the known vendors offer their wireless LAN product in the
Indian market either directly or through resellers.

While on the one hand it can be said that the 802.11b-based wireless
LAN is too new a technology for India to have gained considerable
presence, on the other there is no doubt that the demand has been
constrained mainly by factors like high initial cost of installation,
limited application and local regulations."Wireless LAN segment will
grow. However, the early adopters in the market will be those who either
already have wireless approvals for other products or government
organizations, which find it easier to get the regulatory requirements in
place," observes Sayan Ghosh of 3Com India. Besides, he adds that
while many inhibitions across the world result from the issue of security,
in India the main issue arises out of the feasibility and functionality of
the concept and the interoperability with existing infrastructure and
applications.

Patrick Mathias, national manager, communication sales organization,
Intel, lists requirement of approvals for all sites, per site design and
implementation (one design does not fit all) low bandwidth and multipath
interference and near end cross talk as the most important factors
inhibiting the adoption of wireless LAN.

Emphasizing that the Indian market is traditionally a slow adopter of
new emerging technologies, Naresh Wadhwa of Cisco India says that most
potential buyers of wireless LANs in India are multinational corporations
and leading IT namely software companies. He, however adds, that the cost
of the wireless LAN products is not a deterrent as it has been on the free
fall and has been more than halved since 1999. On the reasons for lack of
interest in this segment in India, he observes that the very high cost of
licenses for operating these wireless LAN solutions and the lengthy
procedure involved in getting the different licenses have been the major
roadblocks.

The Asia Pacific wireless LAN (WLAN) market was worth $81.8 million in
2000, while the market did not virtually exist in India around that time.
In 2001, the market is expected to achieve revenues of $0.1 million, and
grow at a very healthy compound annual rate of 80% to be a $10 Million by
2006. The 5GHz wireless LAN is expected to gain momentum in the market by
2007 to complement the high-speed wireless LAN.

While installations costs are expected to come down, vendors are
confident that once regulatory issues get sorted out, enterprises will
show eagerness in deploying wireless LAN solutions to leverage all its
advantages.

Ravi Shekhar Pandey