Am Trying to Develop a Wireless Infrastructure for My Business Site. Which Wireless Technology Would U Use?
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Question by kanute: am trying to develop a wireless infrastructure for my business site. which wireless technology would u use?
UWB, ZigBee, mesh networking, software-defined radio, or smart antennas are some of the most popular wireless technologies on the market today. If you were developing a wireless infrastructure for a business site, which one would you choose? why?
Best answer:
Answer by John S
Personally.. I think 802.11n should be fine.
UWB is still pretty new, so not many vendors have a ton of experience with it. UWB is usually 10-30 feet only.
Mesh is usually for blanketing a large area - like all of downtown, in a network and have people roam from AP to AP.
Not familiar with Zigbee
I'm impressed by Cisco's managed APs for simplicity and security.
They have 802.11n protocol APs.
I got a technology demo from them and it was impressive.
1) You purchase a controller unit for the size of the network you need, let's say 6 Access Points.
2) Each AP plugs into the controller and gets it configuration information from the controller. You only administer the controller..the APs are "dumb" -- if someone steals an AP, they don't have ANY of your security info, because the AP looses its configure when disconnected from the controller.
3) Each AP can have a Private internal network and a public network which are separate. So you can give guests access without having them connected to your internal network.
4) APs communicate with each other and increase or decrease their Output to get "optimal coverage"
5) People can roam from AP to AP without loosing connection
6) APs can actually detect and alert you if someone plugs in an "unapproved" wireless AP in your environment (like someone hooking up a Linksys router in a conference room)
7) APs can perform "denial of service" attacks against unapproved wireless routers to keep people from connecting to them. They do this WHILE they are still servicing other clients. 
the APs can use "power over ethernet" so you don't have to run power cables to each one. They can also be mounted to the ceiling.. so they are unintrusive.
9) You can also use RFID tags to track computers and laptops and PEOPLE if they have RFIDs in their ID badges.
I'm not a Cisco sales rep.. I'm just really impressed with their products.
Of course.. I don't know your budget.. to do things the "Cisco way" costs money, $ $
Add your own answer in the comments!
July 26th, 2011 - 10:12
As John says, i’d go with 802.11. It’s an off-the-shelf, tried and true, technology. It works in almost all scenarios. And good equipment is cheap compared to other technologies. (We’re covering a fairly large building with 3 802.11G wireless access points.)