Wireless in transition

Communications News, July, 2005

Enterprise wireless LAN (WLAN) networks are at a crossroads, according to a recent In-Stat report, shifting away from the deployment of so-called "fat" access points (AP) toward a more centralized management approach. The newer enterprise WLAN model uses WLAN switches and "thin" APs, with the intent of making deployment and management tasks easier. In-Stat expects the total WLAN switch market to rise from about 35,800 units shipped in 2004 to roughly 242,500 units shipped in 2009.

Beyond this current transformation though is the next step, the unification of both wired and wireless switches into one device. Unified LAN/WLAN switches is an area that large Ethernet switch vendors, including Cisco, Extreme and Foundry, are now entering by integrating WLAN switch functionality directly into their wired switching products.

"While all of the WLAN switch units accounted for in 2004 are overlay WLAN switches from the likes of Symbol and Airespace," says Sam Lucero, In-Stat analyst, "the market for overlay WLAN switches will peak in 2006, and then decline through 2009 in the face of a rising percentage of embedded WLAN functionality in wired switches."

The move from distributed to centralized, and now unified WLANs promises to address not only the scalability concerns of standard overlay WLANs, but will also allow standard quality-of-service profiles and security policies to be applied evenly across both wired and wireless clients. The new model reduces the duplication of equipment vs. the older overlay method, as well as providing a single point for managing both aspects of the network.

This transition to a more unified LAN/WLAN centralized switch model was echoed in presentations at this spring's Interop event in Las Vegas. Michael Welts, vice president of marketing at Colubris Networks, anticipates his company's delivery of unified switches to start in the second half of 2005. The new devices will have ports that accept either access points or Ethernet terminal devices. He points out that as the adoption rate of voice-over-wireless LAN and other applications increases, consistent security and management of users as they roam becomes even more important.

"As WLAN management functionality is increasingly integrated into wired Ethernet switches," says Lucero, "the price difference between a wired Ethernet switch with WLAN management functionality and a switch without such functionality could become small enough that substantially all new enterprise Ethernet switches sold will be capable of managing APs."