Deploying Your Wireless Infrastructure

When deploying your infrastructure, some of the very first items you will have to consider are the following:

• The version of 802.11 to choose, (a) or (b)
• The choice of a wireless vendor
• Dealing with the security and privacy concerns of 802.11

All these issues are important when creating a WLAN, but you need to understand and analyze your overall network to determine how your final deployment will satisfy the current and future needs of your users.

Determining Requirements

In order to satisfy needs, your first concern involves determining specific requirements. When you start planning your wireless infrastructure, define specific requirements by first performing a key analysis of your needs. Your goal is to define what your WLAN is going to do prior to taking the next step.

Avoid purchasing or installing your WLAN without adequate planning, which begins with determining your wireless infrastructure. Without sufficient planning, your final wireless infrastructure will not satisfy your users' needs. It is important not to install the network and then have disgruntled users point out all the requirements your wireless deployment lacks.

The main requirements for planning your wireless infrastructure include:

• Immediate user needs
• Planning for future user needs
• Company needs and growth

The requirements for your wireless LAN include:

• Wireless range
• Throughput
• Security and privacy
• Battery life
• Application software
• Operating systems
• User hardware

Note that some of these requirements are different from and more complicated than what you might have planned for your traditional wired networks. This means you must really understand the issues involved in creating your wireless infrastructure.