Wireless-aware Design Considerations

 
When designing a wireless-aware LAN, most of the design considerations are
similar to those covering WLANs in general, as described earlier in this chapter.
Attenuation, RF interference, application considerations, and structural considerations
all need to be kept in mind when designing a wireless-aware LAN. As
much thought, planning, and design work should go into a wireless-aware LAN
design as in a standard WLAN design.Any addition to an existing infrastructure
should always have its potential benefits weighed against its potential risk and
costs to determine if it should be done at all.
Earlier sections of this chapter went over the major benefits of implementing
a wireless-aware LAN over a standard WLAN, but from a design perspective
there are a few important benefits to keep in mind. First, design time and costs
are greatly reduced due to the assisted site survey feature. Secondly, ongoing
maintenance and management tasks are simplified by using the WLSE console to
centrally manage the wireless-aware LAN.Thirdly, the Cisco wireless-aware LAN
is designed to easily integrate with an existing Cisco network infrastructure.And
finally, many security issues inherent with the implementation of a WLAN are
mitigated by the tools and features included as part of the Cisco wireless-aware
LAN framework.
One other consideration to bear in mind when designing a Cisco wirelessaware
LAN is compatibility.This type of WLAN is designed specifically to work
with Cisco equipment. While equipment from other vendors may be able to be
integrated into the wireless-aware LAN, the most benefit will be reaped when all
the equipment used is from Cisco or is Cisco-compatible.This may require
changes to existing LAN infrastructure hardware and is important to keep in mind.