| Wi-Fi vendors duke it out over airtime fairness Last week I discussed airtime fairness in one newsletter and beamforming in the other. Airtime fairness and beamforming are separate technologies (usually, anyway). But they do have something in common: They both help control transmissions in ways intended to give Wi-Fi users better and more predictable wireless experiences. Beating WLANs into submission, Part 2: Beamforming You've probably heard mentions of a nascent RF capability called transmit beamforming. A couple things to keep in mind: 1) There are various types and implementations of beamforming, so not all beamforming is created equal (or standard); and 2) in large, all-wireless environments, some flavor of beamforming will eventually be needed to allow all types of client devices to run at an optimal, predictable rate and to alleviate unnecessary and troublesome interference. Beating WLANs into submission, Part 1: Airtime management The IEEE ratified the bare bones Wi-Fi standard in 1997. Since then, equipment vendors and various 802.11 working groups have been beating it into submission with formal extensions and proprietary capabilities to render it a business-grade network. Much of the ongoing work relates to controlling the shared airwaves in ways that prevent big transmissions from any one client from squeezing out other clients' traffic. AT&T earmarks $11 billion for wireless, wireline broadband in '09 AT&T plans to spend more than $11 billion to expand and improve its wireless and wireline broadband networks in 2009. Vendors face off in 11n 'challenge' When the wireless LAN controller architecture came into its own about half a decade ago, an exhausting, cutthroat features war ensued. Ding! It's now officially Round 2, with the industry this time in fisticuffs over Draft 2.0 802.11n system architectures and features. Ruckus unveils 2-radio 11n access point, with its beam-forming antenna array Ruckus this week announces a new high-end 802.11n access point, its first with 2 radios for dual-band operation, and an update to its controller software that will allow a single controller to oversee up to 500 access points instead of 250. The company is betting that 11n plus the signal quality and reliability improvements of its beam-forming antenna will impress enterprise customers. We-Fi: Find Wi-Fi hot spots anywhere, anytime Microsoft Subnet blogger Ron Barrett reviews this tool that installs on your laptop to access lists of hot spots sent in by the users who found them. What's in a name, and what's in a certification track? Cisco's newly announced CCNP Wireless cert is just another area where Cisco is being consistently inconsistent, says Cisco Subnet blogger Brandon Carroll. Enter for a Microsoft training giveaway from New Horizons
New Horizons Computer Training is offering a free Microsoft training course worth up to $2,500 to be given to one lucky Microsoft Subnet reader. Deadline for entry is March 31. Network World on Twitter Get our tweets and stay plugged in to networking news. | 
Out of the more than 150 products tested, a baker's dozen rise to the top of the list.
Six readers dish on their must-have network products, from desktop systems to wireless access points.
No comments:
Post a Comment