Advantages of WLAN

There are many obvious benefits to using a WLAN design, most of which hinge
around the problems with typical wired LANs. Convenience is certainly a benefit
to using wireless communications.With wireless, as long as you are in range of
an AP, you have a connection to the network.This is a tremendous advantage to
mobile sales forces, personnel performing physical inventories of a warehouse, or
IT professionals who may need to get access to data from anywhere in a
building. Using wireless technology makes it easy and effective to let people
physically go wherever they need to go and still be able to access any data that
they need from the network.
Another benefit to using a WLAN is that cable distance limitations become
less of an issue.There are many situations where the distance between the network
link and the end user is such that the signal strength is degraded by the
time the cable has been routed up walls, through floors, and around permanent
objects.Wireless communications negate this by doing direct “line-of-sight” connections
to a system.The signal strength from a wireless AP or network card is
typically between 150 to 300 feet indoors (depending on the design and structure
of the building) and up to 1000 feet outdoors. Obviously, the 1000-foot
outdoor range outdistances the maximum unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable
length of 328 feet. In addition, a wireless signal can be boosted by using more
than one AP or by using a wireless relay to extend the range even farther. Figure
1.3 shows an example of a wireless network design with an additional AP. When the total cost of the elements of a traditional wired LAN such as
switches, cables, cable racks, routers, and implementation time are added up, the
price can be very high. A small office network for ten workstations and a couple
of servers can cost thousands of dollars just in wiring and networking equipment.
When setting up a WLAN, most of the costs associated with a traditional network
are negated by the simple fact that not as many cables are used and not as
much equipment is needed to support the LAN. For a good example, take a look
at the designs shown in Figure 1.4. In Figure 1.4, there are two LAN designs—one for a wired LAN and one for
a WLAN. In the wired LAN design, a 12-port switch is required due to the
number of connections to workstations and servers. In addition, Cat-5 cabling
must be laid in the building to support these systems. All systems must also have
network interface cards (NICs).This design is pretty typical for an average small
office.
A more cost-effective solution is shown in the second design.This design is
considered a hybrid WLAN as it contains elements of both wireless and wired
networking.The workstations use wireless communications to connect to the
network; however, the servers are using traditional wiring into a switch. A 4-port
switch could be used rather than a 12-port to save on cost.The only wiring necessary
is used to connect the servers to the switch.The servers would require
standard NICs and the workstations would require wireless NICs.The only additional
requirement is the wireless AP.The savings are in the cost of networking
hardware, wiring, and maintenance. For example, if the office was to be rearranged
and the systems moved, there would be no additional wiring changes necessary.The systems would simply connect to the wireless network regardless
of their physical location.
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