Wireless network engineers are tasked with delivering a complex array of mobile services. These services are increasingly being delivered on a new generation of ultra mobile devices that will provide combinations of data, voice and video applications, many in real-time. Companies must rapidly develop strategies that will allow them to balance this range of new services as well as delivering higher availability of existing services in order to remain competitive. This requires careful planning and management of both the wired infrastructure and the wireless radio frequency spectrum. Unfortunately while frequency spectrum management and planning is critically important, most companies do not have an adopted organizational strategy for this. This becomes essential as more services and layered network deployments are placed into the same amount of limited frequency space.
Develop a strategy for frequency asset protection
The fact that radio frequency spectrum is an asset that needs to be managed and protected is a new concept even to many seasoned networking professionals. This becomes really critical in unlicensed frequency spaces such as the frequencies where wireless networks exist. Devices such as microwave ovens, cordless phones and others coexisted in these frequency spaces long before 802.11 networks were deployed and these devices can cause huge amounts of interference. Additionally there are many more devices that are being deployed into these frequency spaces alongside 802.11 networks with little understanding of the ultimate impact on the overall network performance or long term organizational needs.
Therefore the planning and implementation of a strategy for the protection and management of these assets should be of paramount consideration to any organization that relies on its wireless infrastructure for delivery of mission critical services. The main issue is how to manage and plan for the current and future use of radio devices within a very limited frequency space.
New definition of mobility
The classic mindset for wireless networks and wireless devices has been to consider them as an extension of the existing wired network. Mobility has been defined as the ability to move from place to place and use wireless networks as a point of use technology within these areas of defined wireless utility.
The new paradigm is the implementation of a strategy to take all the services that are currently being delivered with wired networking; including all voice, data and application services and use them while moving around and disconnected totally from the wired infrastructure.
This definition is creating a real strategic as well as tactical dilemma. It also is changing the landscape of wireless networks as the need for bandwidth becomes as important as coverage. It is no longer enough to be “connected” to the network, applications and services are requiring a higher level of service and therefore a larger slice of available resources. Packet assurance across both the wired and wireless networks are viewed as part of an “end to end” deployment that includes both the application server and the end use device.
Conclusion
The development of a wireless strategy that leverages both current and future investments is critical. The ability to include individual implementations into an overall cohesive plan is important to any organization that uses wireless in a mission critical role. Bandwidth considerations as well as connectivity are both essential parts of this strategy. This will become especially important as new services are rolled out that compete for these already limited resources.
