wlan switching

[bigbo]

New companies called Aruba, Trapeze and Blackstorm have started talking about a new class of products called wireless LAN switches. Anyone hear of Cisco's plans in this area?

[murabi]

The closest thing to a wireless LAN switch that is available from Cisco at this time is the AP 1100.

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/pcat/airo1100.htm

[rokibbe]

Just because the AP1100 has VLAN support doesn't make it a switch. Dedicated bandwidth to the end client makes a product a switch, and no Cisco wireless LAN product yet does that. Just imagine how many dedicated frequencies it would take to give each client on the network their own 11-meg/half-duplex link.

Consider that in the 2.4 gHz arena, there really shouldn't be more than 3 different channels in the same vicinity due to frequency overlap. In order to give dedicated bandwidth in the 2.4 gHz space, there could be no more than 3 wireless clients in the network.

**It's not magic, there just aren't any wires. Where did science go?**

[bruce.johnson]

Cisco has adopted the "smart AP" approach as opposed to the parallel infrastructure "wireless switch" paradigm. The argument is that with smart APs you have immediate deployment possibilities with services (VLANs, QoS, Authentication and Encryption) provided at the edge, without added switches (and perhaps cabling) to connect "dumb APs." Some of these solutions require unacceptable protocols (Symbol's required directed broadcasts). The switch solution offers advantage in areas like cenralized performance management and security (blocking the air from rogues, VPN services). These solutions are proprietary in nature, however, and I think Cisco realizes this and will eventually incorporate these product's feaures in the AP and/or wait for further standardization.