NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: JOANIE WEXLER ON WIRELESS IN THE
ENTERPRISE
08/31/05
Today's focus: Filling in the 802.11e gaps
Dear networking.world@gmail.com,
In this issue:
* Do vendor moves reflect on Vo-Fi's maturity?
* Links related to Wireless in the Enterprise
* Featured reader resource
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by HP
FROM THE NETWORK CORE TO THE NETWORK EDGE
Traffic management becomes critical as your network
infrastructure expands to support different types of traffic and
users. Most traffic management solutions have serious
limitations: too expensive, difficult to use, and overly taxing
on bandwidth. However ProCurve Networking by HP addresses these
requirements, overcomes the limitations of other solutions, and
gives you valuable insight into LAN performance.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=111723
_______________________________________________________________
SMARTPHONE SECURITY QUESTIONS
Wireless vendors are rolling out a new generation of handheld
computers called smartphones for corporate users, but many
network executives say they won't consider them until the means
to manage and secure them are clear. What are the risks and what
can be done to overcome them? Click here:
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=111560
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Today's focus: Filling in the 802.11e gaps
By Joanie Wexler
There have been several announcements by Wi-Fi vendors and
vendor partners recently making product enhancements related to
QoS for Wi-Fi voice. These should be reassuring. But instead,
they make me wonder what's wrong with 802.11e.
802.11e is the emerging Vo-Fi QoS standard poised for
ratification in October. Of course, it's been on the brink of
ratification for about six years now, so interpret that how you
will.
My discomfort is that if partners have to ally to make their
voice and Wi-Fi products work together and if Wi-Fi vendors must
make special modules for their controllers to ensure voice
quality, just how mature is Vo-Fi technology? How tough is it
going to be for enterprises to implement and manage Vo-Fi
throughout their organizations and feel confident that it will
work well and consistently - particularly if they deploy a mix
of vendors' handsets and softphones?
Last week, for example, Intel and Avaya announced a partnership
to optimize Avaya's SIP-based softphone implementation for
Intel's next Centrino mobile laptop technology, codenamed
"Napa." The joint optimization activity entails packet
prioritization, bandwidth reservation and call admission
control.
But much of this is specified in the forthcoming 802.11e
standard. So what gives? Dave LeClair, director of technology
partnerships in Avaya's appliances division, conceded that the
partnership indeed simply entails "pushing the 802.11e standards
along at a quicker pace."
Prior to that announcement, voice-centric Wi-Fi vendor Meru
Networks announced a Voice Services Module for its Wi-Fi system.
The software conducts important activities such as call
admission control, call load balancing among access points (AP)
and dynamic error detection.
But, unlike LeClair, Meru Director of Product Marketing Joel
Vincent asserts that "802.11e is not sufficient" for large-scale
Vo-Fi QoS.
"802.11e operates by providing QoS parameters to the clients
attached to a single AP. Neighboring APs are not... coordinating
priorities between each other. When they are not coordinated
they will collide" in large enterprises, he says.
Meru's architecture places multiple physical APs on a single
channel to form one large "virtual AP" so that, in effect, there
is no inter-AP roaming or coordination to deal with. On the
other hand, there are bandwidth limitations to the
single-channel-sharing architecture. Meru announced a product
called the Radio Switch, which combines up to 12 channels in one
controller for denser deployments, in May.
For Wi-Fi architectures making use of multiple RF channels, the
802.11-standard roaming, pre-authentication, and radio resource
management capabilities discussed in the last newsletter will
likely be needed, along with 802.11e, for the coordination that
Vincent describes.
The top 5: Today's most-read stories
1. 2005 salary survey
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlwir3867>
2. Google dives deeper into networking
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlwir6194>
3. Cisco aims to simplify switch mgmt.
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlwir6195>
4. VoIP season about to heat up
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlwir6196>
5. A proposal for governing the 'Net
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlwir6197>
Today's most-forwarded story:
VoIP rollouts generate heat, power concerns
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlwir6198>
_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Joanie Wexler
Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology
writer/editor in California's Silicon Valley who has spent most
of her career analyzing trends and news in the computer
networking industry. She welcomes your comments on the articles
published in this newsletter, as well as your ideas for future
article topics. Reach her at <mailto:joanie@jwexler.com>.
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by HP
FROM THE NETWORK CORE TO THE NETWORK EDGE
Traffic management becomes critical as your network
infrastructure expands to support different types of traffic and
users. Most traffic management solutions have serious
limitations: too expensive, difficult to use, and overly taxing
on bandwidth. However ProCurve Networking by HP addresses these
requirements, overcomes the limitations of other solutions, and
gives you valuable insight into LAN performance.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=111722
_______________________________________________________________
ARCHIVE LINKS
Archive of the Wireless in the Enterprise newsletter:
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/wireless/index.html
Wireless research center
Latest wireless news, analysis and resource links
http://www.networkworld.com/topics/wireless.html
_______________________________________________________________
Why wireless?
Learn about the key issues surrounding the use of wireless in
the enterprise.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=111545
_______________________________________________________________
FEATURED READER RESOURCE
VoIP
For the latest in VoIP, check out NW's Research Center on this
very topic. Here you will find a collection of the latest news,
reviews, product testing results and more all related to keeping
VoIP networks performing at their best. Click here for more:
<http://www.networkworld.com/topics/voip.html>
_______________________________________________________________
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