LAN/WLAN Integration is Growing, but Problems Still Abound
As with most technology advances, the techies dream it up before the demand presents itself. In this case, experts attest that both the technology AND the demand are lagging behind the idea to unify the Wired with the Wirless networks.
Wired, wireless networks still not unified
Phil Hochmuth
April 05, 2007 (Network World) –
Ethernet switch vendors who offer combined or unified LAN and WLAN gear say the ultimate goal is to get wired and wireless network technologies to appear as a single network access layer. However, switch vendors and industry experts say this is still a ways off — both in terms of the technology, and the demand for unified gear from users.
“We’re still in the early days of unified LAN/WLAN networks,” says Craig Mathias, principal of the Farpoint Group, a Massachusetts-based WLAN consultancy. “I wouldn’t say any offering is really complete at this point. It’s an enormous technological and marketing challenge to get everything integrated together” — where switches, access points, management software are all unified with a single security architecture.
“It’s going to take a while until we get to that point.”
Many analysts and industry observers said that corporate WLAN technology — particularly, WLAN switch technology — would be absorbed by LAN switch vendors in the long run. The thinking goes that business IT administrators would prefer wireless and management of the WLAN integrated into a wired infrastructure.
