Free your business process with wireless

A WIRELESS network essentially sets your employees free. They go wherever they are needed
with the same secure access to your business network to retrieve files, read e-mail or update
inventories.

It is common now to see even small businesses deploying wireless LANs (WLANs). These
networks are usually managed by just one tech-savvy employee. In fact, about 50 percent
of SMBs in the US have installed or are installing WLANs, according to market research
firm Forrester Research's Telecom & Networks team.

Some small businesses go one step more, by deploying pervasive WLANs, in which wireless
coverage is available throughout their offices.

Pervasive WLANs combined with the use of mobile devices such as laptops, cell phones and
PDAs, offer a number of benefits to SMBs:

•   Higher productivity because employees can work anywhere
•   Improved collaboration
•   More efficient business processes, when utilised with Web-based applications.

Improved collaboration, such as that among key members of a project or marketing team, is
perhaps one of the most visible benefits that business owners would experience. With a
pervasive WLAN, several people working on a long-term project, for instance, can move into
a cluster of adjoining cubicles without the need for extensive rewiring.

Re-locating the employees requires little more than having each person pick up their
wireless devices and moving to a new location. When the project is complete, the employees
return to their original locations or move to a new site for a new project.

A pervasive WLAN together with Web-based applications (such as those offered by Google and
Yahoo) also provides unlimited opportunities to boost efficiency and save money.

Planning is absolutely necessary to maximise the investment in pervasive WLAN and the
accompanying wireless devices. A small business owner should map specific goals directly to
the proposed network technology expenditure. The ultimate aim is to ensure that the pervasive,
secure WLAN is able to expand as the business grows.

Disadvantages of WLAN

WLAN however also has its downside, due mainly with the inherent limitations of the
technology. There are several disadvantages, when compared with a wired network:

Security: WLAN is designed for uninterrupted service using radio frequencies. Because of
space and cost, the antennas typically present on wireless networking cards in the end
computers are generally relatively poor. As a result, the WLAN transceiver utilises a
considerable amount of power so that not only can the wireless data packets be intercepted
and picked up by nearby strangers who may not have friendly intentions.

There are even computer users, known as “wardrivers”, dedicated to locating and sometimes
even cracking into wireless networks.

To combat this intrusion, wireless networks users would use encryption technologies such as
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA).

Range: The typical range of a common 802.11g network with standard equipment is on the order
of tens of metres. While sufficient for a typical home, it will be insufficient in larger
premises.

To obtain additional range, repeaters or additional access points will have to be purchased.
Costs for these items can add up.

Speed: The speed on most wireless networks (typically 1-108 Mbit/s) is slow compared to the
slowest common wired networks (100 Mbit/s up to several Gbit/s).

For most users, however, the speed bottleneck is not in the wireless routing but rather in
the outside network connectivity. Newer standards such as 802.11n are addressing this limitation
and will support peak throughputs in the range of 100-200 Mbit/s.