Case Study on Wireless Network

Wireless network in computers means, computers connected to each other without wires. A wireless network allows you to connect your computer to a network using radio waves instead of wires. As long as you are within range of a wireless access point, you can move your computer from place to place while maintaining access to networked resources. This can make networking extremely portable. Unlike its predecessor Ethernet which uses wires, wireless networking uses the air as the medium to transport data.  As long as you have a wireless network card for your laptop and configure your laptop correctly you're free to roam about the network with the same functionality as conventional Ethernet without a reduced speed. There are different types of wireless network like WLAN, WAN & PAN.

Different Types of Wireless Network

Although we use the term wireless network loosely, there are in fact three different types of network.

• Wide area networks that the cellular carriers create,(WAN)
• Wireless local area networks, that you create, and(WLAN)
• Personal area networks, that creates themselves.(PAN)

Wireless Wide Area Networks 

Wide Area Networks include the networks provided by the cell phone carriers and banks such as Grameen phone, City Cell and HSBC. It is unlike WLAN it has no limitation when it comes to distance or coverage. WAN are made of cell phone carriers or combining several WLAN together like Banks.

                                       

WAN are present everywhere, where there are cellular network available.

Wireless Local Area Networks 

Wireless LANs are networks set up to provide wireless connectivity within a finite coverage area. Typical coverage areas might be a hospital (for patient care systems), a university, the airport, or a gas plant. They usually have a well-known audience in mind, for example health care providers, students, or field maintenance staff. You would use WLANS when high data-transfer rate is the most important aspect of your solution, and reach is restricted. For example, in a hospital setting, you would require a high data rate to send patient X-rays wirelessly to a doctor, provided he is on the hospital premises.

Wireless LANS work in an unregulated part of the spectrum, so anyone can create their own wireless LAN, say in their home.

                                  

You have complete control over where coverage is provided. You can even share your printer, scanner or external hard disk  even if all the PCs are switched off through your cell phone or PDAs.

In addition to creating your own private WLAN, some organizations such as Starbucks and A&W are providing high speed WLAN internet access to the public at certain locations. These locations are called hotspots, and for a price you can browse the internet at speeds about 20 times greater than you could get over your cell phone or laptops.

Wireless LANs have their own share of terminology, including:

• 802.11 - this is the network technology used in wireless LANs. In fact, it is a family of technologies such as 802.11a. 802.11b, etc., differing in speed and other attributes
• Wifi - a common name for the early 802.11b standard.

Different types of Wireless LAN technologies

currently there are three options: 802.11b, 802.11a, and 802.11g. The sections below compare these technologies.

Option	Speed	Pros	Cons
802.11b	Up to 11 megabits per second (Mbps)	Costs the least. Has the best signal range.	Has the slowest transmission speed. Allows for fewer simultaneous users. Uses the 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) frequency (the same as many microwave ovens, cordless phones, and other appliances), which can cause interference.
802.11a	Up to 54 Mbps	Has the fastest transmission speed. Allows for more simultaneous users. Uses the 5 GHz frequency, which limits interference from other devices.	Costs the most. Has a shorter signal range, which is more easily obstructed by walls and other obstacles. Is not compatible with 802.11b network adapters, routers, and access points.
802.11g	Up to 54 Mbps	Has a transmission speed comparable to 802.11a under optimal conditions. Allows for more simultaneous users. Has the best signal range and is not easily obstructed. Is compatible with 802.11b network adapters, routers, and access points.	Uses the 2.4 GHz frequency so it has the same interference problems as 802.11b. Costs more than 802.11b.

If you have more than one wireless network adapter in your computer or if your adapter uses more than one standard, you can specify which adapter or standard to use for each network connection. For example, if you have a computer that you use for streaming media, such as videos or music, to other computers on your network, you should set it up to use the 802.11a connection, if available, because you will get a faster data transfer rate when you watch videos or listen to music

Wireless Personal Area Networks 

These are networks that provide wireless connectivity over distances of up to 10m or so. At first this seems ridiculously small, but this range allows a computer to be connected wirelessly to a nearby printer, or a cell phone's hands-free headset to be connected wirelessly to the cell phone. The most talked about (and most hyped) technology is called Bluetooth. 

Personal Area Networks are a bit different than WANs and WLANs in one important respect. In the WAN and WLAN cases, networks are set up first, which devices then use. In the Personal Area Network case, there is no independent pre-existing network. The participating devices establish an ad-hoc network when they are within range, and the network is dissolved when the devices pass out of range. If you ever use Infrared (IR) to exchange data between laptops, you will be doing something similar. This idea of wireless devices discovering each other is a very important one, and appears in many guises in the evolving wireless world.

PAN technologies add value to other wireless technologies, although they wouldn't be the primary driver for a wireless business solution. For example, a wireless LAN in a hospital may allow a doctor to see a patient's chart on a handheld device. If the doctor's handheld was also Bluetooth enabled, he could walk to within range of the nearest Bluetooth enabled printer and print the chart.

Recommendations

Now we all know about the wireless technology, there benefits and there uses in different fields. As an IT & Network manager I would like to recommend, implementation for wireless network in our organization will be beneficiary for the organization. As we all know wireless LAN has the same function as LAN but with more satisfying ground. It will be very pleasing for our staff and students; they will be able to use printer and internet on their laptops, cell phones and PDAs anywhere in the campus.

Implementation

It is not as complicated as it looks compare to LAN. All we need is an access point through which every one access to the internet, printer, scanner, databank etc and a wireless network card for each PC, in case of laptops, cell phones and PDAs it’s built-in

All we need is to configure this access point and the network is created. Whenever a pc is on it will automatically detect the access point and the net work is running it is really that simple. We can also use this with wifi enabled projectors for presentation or lecturing. Not only that each PC can create their own network, if the PC is connected to internet it can even share its internet and other files on the network 

Managing and maintaining the Security of WLAN

Security is not a major issue in wireless network we can creates different network in the access point for example: we can create three different networks in the access point teacher, student and guest. For teachers and students the network it will be password protected, and some extra privilege for the teachers network where they will be able to use the network printer, scanner and databank. Where as guest network will not be password protected so that every in the campus can use the internet.

We can also use WLAN manager to control our network security

• Identify rogue wireless devices
• Know who is using our WLAN
• Know what access points are connected to your WLAN
• Monitor your WLAN devices
• Monitor Access Point bandwidth utilization
• Configure your WLAN Access Points
• Enhance and enforce wireless LAN security.
• Proactively manage the network problems before they impact the network.
• Identify network bottlenecks, reduce downtime, and to improve network health and performance.
• Troubleshoot network problems.
• Capture and decode wireless traffic for testing and troubleshooting.
• Upgrade firmware, schedule upgrades, and audit them.
• Enforce WLAN policy.
• Restrict website.
• Allocate bandwidth speed for each network or user on the network.
• View detail reports of the IP activities that have been don’t when connected to the network

Advantages   

·         24 hour access to internet even if the server PC is off

·         No messed up wires every in the floor or roof

·         It is easier to add or move workstations.

·         It is easier to provide connectivity in areas where it is difficult to lay cable.

·         Installation is fast and easy, and it can eliminate the need to pull cable through walls and ceilings.

·         Access to the network can be from anywhere within range of an access point.

·         Portable or semi permanent buildings can be connected using a WLAN.

·         Although the initial investment required for WLAN hardware can be similar to the cost of wired LAN hardware, installation expenses can be significantly lower.

·         When a facility is located on more than one site (such as on two sides of a road), a directional antenna can be used to avoid digging trenches under roads to connect the sites.

·         In historic buildings where traditional cabling would compromise the façade, a WLAN can avoid the need to drill holes in walls.

·         Long-term cost benefits can be found in dynamic environments requiring frequent moves and changes.