Wireless Networks

Converging Voice, Video and Data Onto a Single, Scalable WLAN Network
Enterprises recognize that their wireless infrastructure needs to be future-proof, similar to their wired Ethernet network, enabling them to easily add multimedia applications to the data services already delivered by the network. Indeed, many enterprises are already adding wireless telephony to their networks. Next-generation enterprise WLANs deliver this investment protection, offering the flexibility to support voice, video and data applications, as needed.

Multimedia applications have widely varying requirements for bandwidth, quality of service and security. Telephony applications demand relatively low amounts of bandwidth, but with very high levels of QoS. Surveillance cameras, which can be installed in hard-to-reach places using WLAN as backhaul transport, require significant bandwidth, but QoS is less stringent than voice. Specialized real-time data collection applications, such as telemetry from a hospital patients vital sign monitor, may require very low bandwidth, but with priority over other data traffic.

Most real-time communications devices do not have the same level of wireless security capabilities as a laptop computer or PDA. The security risks that are inherent with wireless communications means the WLAN infrastructure must provide strong, yet flexible security capabilities that enable network managers to add multimedia devices to their network. A next-generation WLAN infrastructure is flexible enough to accommodate these devices, without weakening security for the other types of traffic.

The WLAN media has unique attributes that affect the quality of real-time traffic, such as voice and video. To support multiple network applications and multimedia traffic converged on a single WLAN, the network must be capable of classifying traffic, and prioritizing access to the networks limited bandwidth.

Requirements for a Converged Voice, Video and Data WLAN Infrastructure.
The WLAN network must provide several key features in order to support converged voice, video and data services. They include:

• Layered Service Support: The network must be able to deliver multiple services, each with a different QoS and security policy. Each must be independently identified with its own Service Set Identifier (SSID) and MAC address (a.k.a. BSSID).
• Consistent QoS: The network must be able to classify traffic and enforce QoS policies appropriate for voice, video and data traffic types, even under heavy load.
• Strong Security: The network must enforce a range of security protocols, as required by the client device; the addition of a device with weak security capabilities must not compromise security for other services.
• Wired Network Integration: The WLAN service must integrate with existing wired network QoS and security policies; it must deliver consistent, high quality, end-to-end multimedia services.
• Client Device Interoperability: The network must interoperate with a broad array of 3rd party client devices, including devices that implement defacto and industry-standard QoS protocols.
• Scalable Capacity: The solution must scale to large enterprise networks and it must have capacity to handle the expected amount of voice, video and data traffic.

Vietec provides the services and support to implement such a network to suit our clients individual requirements.