The new 802.11n standard

Is your infrastructure losing steam?

The new IEEE 802.11n standard represents a fundamental shift in the wireless infrastructure we know today, delivering a dramatic boost in capacity and performance. To embrace this shift, your organization will want to understand the benefits – and challenges – you will encounter when considering the new standard. Among the benefits:

• Significant increase in speed and capacity
• Improved coverage predictability
• Greater range

Decoding the 802.11n standard - What does it mean for my business?

802.11n brings an entirely new era of enterprise mobility, moving toward a multi-service network that enables organizations to operate at 300 megabits per second – up to six times faster than current wireless networks. With this increased performance, 802.11n will extend the reach of wireless networks, delivering enterprise applications to end users anywhere, anytime. These advances allow wireless LANs to provide pervasive mobility.

The new standard:

• Pushes raw performance to 300 Mbps, with throughput exceeding 265 Mbps.
• Provides more capability than wired 10/100 Ethernet connections, allowing enterprise applications to be mobilized.
• Enables multi-service networks – a Wireless LAN infrastructure that supports multiple, simultaneous enterprise applications with levels of throughput, security and class-of-service appropriate to each.
• Is based on multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) radio technology that allows the use of multiple, simultaneous transmitters and receivers in the service of a single data stream.
• Leverages the performance of Gigabit Ethernet (gig-E) networks.

To deliver all the promises of the 802.11n, a new optimized WLAN architecture has evolved, featuring intelligent access points at the edge of the network to give organizations the ability to easily scale performance. It is a non-blocking architecture capable of delivering full throughput with .11n access points. Each access point forwards network traffic independently, supporting 802.11n speeds and providing full performance benefits.

Four factors to evaluate when migrating to 802.11n – How can I determine my options?

When looking to take the next steps in improving your network infrastructure, there are four important factors to consider regarding your current architecture and how to best transition to 802.11n:

1. Controller capacity: The controllers in centralized wireless LAN architectures govern the overall throughput of the network and can become a bottleneck as users move from 802.11a/b/g technologies to 802.11n. That could prevent customers from experiencing true 802.11n performance.
2. LAN port capacity: Controllers need to be connected into the wired network to communicate with APs and network applications. These backbone network connections, or LAN ports, can be costly – especially when organizations expand a wireless LAN controller to take advantage of the capacity offered by 802.11n.
3. Power over Ethernet (PoE): Many of the 802.11n access points on the market today do not conform to existing PoE standards and require organizations to change their power over Ethernet infrastructure to support those access points.
4. Price and performance: As customers scale from 802.11a/b/g to 802.11n, incremental investments in their infrastructure are often required. Whether tied to additional controllers, LAN ports or PoE upgrades, there can be hidden costs for organizations to fully take advantage of 802.11n. This needs to be closely examined and calculated.

HP ProCurve Mobility is the most comprehensive solution set specifically targeted for organizations looking to deploy optimized WLAN solutions, delivering a truly integrated multi-service solution that is secure, reliable, and accessible.

HP ProCurve’s Mobility Solution

With the acquisition of Colubris Networks, HP ProCurve has gained 802.11n capabilities and solutions already being deployed worldwide. The new breadth in ProCurve’s wireless product portfolio gives customers a choice of solutions that support current a/b/g standards or the speed and security of 802.11n.

Many organizations are looking for optimized wireless LAN solutions that provide a simple and cost-effective migration to 802.11n. HP ProCurve products and solutions are ready for 802.11n today and require one simple step – plug in our 802.11n access points and organizations are up and running. With HP ProCurve’s optimized wireless LAN solution, there are no changes to the PoE infrastructure, with access points that support PoE standards right out of the box. In addition, our mobility solutions require no changes to the backbone network, since traffic is integrated into the wired network at the access point level. This eliminates the concern about network bottlenecks, making it a strong point of differentiation.

For more information
To learn more about HP ProCurve Networking, please visit HP ProCurve Mobility

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