Use Best Practices to Implem 229563

This research note is restricted to the personal use of [email protected]

G00229563

Use Best Practices to Implement a WLAN Published: 19 April 2012

Analyst(s): Tim Zimmerman

To design a wireless LAN, implementers implementers need need to use the proper proper design criteria. Enterprises that don't understand the details risk poor performance, or, worse, having to "rip and replace" the entire WLAN. Apply best practices to get it right the first time.

Key Findings ■

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Many input parameters are used when a WLAN is being designed. Enterprises that are not part of the planning process do not know the design criteria needed to resolve issues when they arise. There is a wide variety of WLAN architectures, including including internal or external antennas of access points, as well as controller or controllerless choices. Selection criteria will depend on the usage scenario, location and environment environment.. Resellers and implementers are often trained to install the vendor's components and are not trained to understand wireless. This causes problems for clients when the environment requires variations from the "standard" installation. installation.

Recommendations ■

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Define the end-user experience to be 5 Mbps on a 10-mW, single-stream, single-antenna wireless client with a 30-dB to 35-dB signal-to-noise ratio throughout the entire facility. Define the required network application services needed for a successful implementation implementation — physical connectivity is only one step of the process. Optimize the WLAN design for the usage scenario. A controller at every location may check the box technically, but not help the ROI. Hold implementers responsible technically technically and financially for deploying the solution with the design parameters provided.

Table of Contents



Strategic Planning Assumption...............................................................................................................3 Analysis..................................................................................................................................................3 Defining the Expected End-User Experience.....................................................................................4 Defining Per-User Performance...................................................................................................5 Defining the Transaction Density.................................................................................................7 Defining the Types of Clients.......................................................................................................8 Defining Where Connectivity Is Expected....................................................................................9 Defining the Wireless Environment....................................................................................................9 Is Redundancy Needed?..........................................................................................................10 Will the Equipment Be Used Outdoors?....................................................................................10 Defining Other Enterprise Locations..........................................................................................11 Defining the Wired Connectivity......................................................................................................11 Powering the Equipment...........................................................................................................12 Defining the Required Network Application Services.......................................................................12 Security....................................................................................................................................12 Guest Access...........................................................................................................................13 Wireless Intrusion Detection Solution........................................................................................14 Voice and Video.......................................................................................................................14 Location-Based Services..........................................................................................................15 Network Management..............................................................................................................15 Wireless Forensics....................................................................................................................16 Defining the Installation Intangibles.................................................................................................16 Warranty...................................................................................................................................16 Service Plans............................................................................................................................16 Site Survey and Monitoring.......................................................................................................16 Recommended Reading.......................................................................................................................17

List of Tables Table 1. Sample of WLAN Use by Types of Users and Locations in Office Environments........................4 Table 2. Sample of Estimated Bandwidth Requirements by Type of User Through 2015........................6 Table 3. Sample of Number of Users per Coverage Area........................................................................7

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Gartner, Inc. | G00229563 This research note is restricted to the personal use of [email protected]


Strategic Planning Assumption By 2015, 80% of newly installed wireless networks will be obsolete, because of a lack of proper planning.

Analysis Implementing a solid wireless LAN (WLAN) is different from deploying a wired infrastructure. If left to the implementer to choose, many of the parameters could cause problems. With an increasing number of IT organizations using a single resource to manage the wired and wireless infrastructure, this research provides the best practices for organizations to ensure that the adding of wireless to a conference room or across the entire access layer will meet their business needs. In a recent survey conducted at Gartner's 2011 Data Center Conference, more than 85% of attendees surveyed noted that, although they were adding wireless (or already had wireless) to their enterprise infrastructure, they were adding staff to manage the wireless components, and they were using the same personnel to manage both the wired and wireless infrastructure connectivity. In addition, fewer than 2% were aware of the design parameters used to design their wireless infrastructure. Although the information needed to design a solid wireless infrastructure isn't magical, it is different from what is needed for wired connectivity. This research provides a best-practices framework that identifies important design criteria and ensures that tactical decisions do not eliminate the flexibility that will be needed as WLAN use continues to grow. The data, questions and metrics in this research should be part of a requirements document. We will discuss the physical and services requirements of the WLAN infrastructure that should be implemented to achieve the desired end-user experience. Enterprises should use the processes in this research to drive policy and implement a wireless LAN that conforms to the decisions borne out as part of the thought process. This research will provide the best practices to ensure that the service level or the defined user experience will be met. This document is divided into five major sections: ■

Defining the expected end-user experience

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Defining the wireless environment

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Defining the wired connectivity

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Defining the required network application services

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Defining the installation intangibles

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Defining the Expected End-User Experience Enterprises will have different types of end users, each with differing applications and bandwidth requirements. These requirements may also differ, depending on the location of the end user in the campus or enterprise. Each use case and application requirement scenario needs to be documented by user type and location to understand the whole picture. Enterprises need to be able to answer questions about the expected end-user experience; otherwise, the variables used to design the WLAN will be left up the implementer. ■

What groups of users will be connecting to the WLAN? This includes everyone, not just the major ones that will be using it today. These users may not be just people, but could also include equipment that may be communicating as part of an asset management application.

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Will the requirements of future users need to be considered in the planning process?

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Where in the enterprise will the WLAN be used?

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To which applications will users require access?

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What WLAN requirements (see Table 1) are associated with each application?

Table 1. Sample of WLAN Use by Types of Users and Locations in Office Environments Reception

Conference Rooms

Office Area

Defined Workspace

I

X, I, V, D

X, I, V, D

X, I, V, D

X, I, V, D

X, I, V, D

X, I, V, D

V, D, I, X

V, D, I, X

Office Staff

Remote Staff From Other Locations

Manufacturing/ Warehouse/ Retail In-Store

Outdoor Courtyard/ Between Buildings

V, D

Warehouse Staff Guests

I

I, V

Contractors

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

Vendors

V = voice access; D = application data; I = Internet access; X = video Source: Gartner (April 2012)

With the letters (V, D, I and X) corresponding to applications, we have a general understanding of what will contribute to the bandwidth requirements for those users in each location. In a higher

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education environment, for example, the exercise is the same, but the table will be different. One important change that we have seen in the past couple years is the increased requirement for Internet access by more groups of users and in more places.

Defining Per-User Performance The next step is to determine the minimum performance required by each type of user across the enterprise: ■

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What peak, average, and concurrent capacity or throughput is needed by each type of user, in each application scenario? What are the current and potential applications and usage scenarios?

WLANs can limit the bandwidth of different types of users and, without proper planning, may lead to the installation of more access points than are needed. Gartner recommends that users have no more than 5 Mbps of wired or wireless dedicated access to the infrastructure for the next three to five years. This top-end definition of performance enables each user to have a dedicated unicast HD video stream to his or her laptop, as well as other applications running on other personal devices. For comparison, depending on quality, a video stream from the Internet may range from 100,000 to 200,000 or 2 Mbps to 3 Mbps, and the efficiency of video streaming means that this killer application will require less bandwidth as technology improves the way it's transferred. Additional devices will be associated with the network, as well as potentially downloading email or updating files however, 5 Mbps per dedicated access should be a good estimate until 2015 for individuals accessing the network. Occasionally, some users will fall outside the planning parameters, such as computer-aided design or graphics designers in certain types of businesses, and they require a wired connection. Many wireless vendors will look at performance planning as a downstream-only planning activity. This means that they are only looking at the performance from the access point to the client. During the past couple years, the introduction of tablets and the increased use of video conferencing have provided applications that show that the upstream communication path is just as important as downstream. Equally important is knowing that, if a packet can reach the mobile client, then it is guaranteed to be acknowledged. Ensuring that clients have the ability to communicate upstream and downstream over the wireless media means that vendors must increase the receive sensitivity of the receive antenna within the access point when they increase the transmit power. If they don't, then the access point vendor is requiring the mobile client to be able to increase the transmit power on the mobile client to match the access point to be able to communicate upstream and downstream with the same performance. Because many mobile clients lack the ability to increase their transmit power to corresponding access point levels, WLAN vendors are inherently introducing upstream performance degradation and, in some instances, the ability to even reach the access point with any communication, depending on the access transmit power and the environment in which the equipment is being deployed. At times, enterprises may want to limit the amount of bandwidth for certain types of users through traffic shaping. For example, guests should not need more than 1 Mbps to 2 Mbps for Internet

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access and, potentially, some voice. If this is a requirement as part of the usage scenario, then it should be documented, because it is typically implemented through policy enforcement or radio resource management tuning. In addition, vendors are now providing the ability to monitor clients to ensure that they are achieving a defined service level or a minimum amount of connectivity. This new level of instrumentation enables vendors to differentiate their solutions, as well as more granularly ensure that groups of users are getting the proper end-user experience. The instrumentation for managing the upper and lower limits of bandwidth is new to all implementers. Historically, WLANs have been designed for "connection," rather than "capability." Designed for connection means clients are able to connect to the wireless infrastructure, and, although the access point can transmit up to 54 Mbps in an 802.11g environment, the user may experience only 1 Mbps of raw throughput. This thought process alone will change the number of access points that will be deployed in the same physical space. It also means that some enterprises may not need to rip and replace their WLAN infrastructures to achieve better performance. A better design with existing technology may be able to boost WLAN performance from the 1 Mbps to 2 Mbps range to the 22 Mbps to 28 Mbps range, enabling an enterprise to continue to use its 802.11g components. This could save money by extending the life of the current solution until the users and applications exceed the capabilities of the technology (see Table 2). Table 2. Sample of Estimated Bandwidth Requirements by Type of User Through 2015 Applications

WLAN Bandwidth (Mbps)

Office Staff

Voice, access to client/server and Web-based applications, Internet and videoconferencing

5

Remote Staff From Other Locations

Voice, access to client/server and Web-based applications, Internet and videoconferencing

5

Voice and client/server/Web-based applications

<1

Internet

1 to 2

Voice, access to Web-based applications, Internet

1 to 2

Internet

1 to 2

Specialized

1 to 2

Warehouse Staff Guests Contractors Vendors Surveillance Cameras Source: Gartner (April 2012)

The estimates in Table 2 take into account the bandwidth requirements and Gartner planning assumptions that most enterprises will increase at least 35% per year, while those with heavy increases in video usage may see annual growth of more than 100%. In addition, it addresses the Gartner planning assumption for wireless enterprise usage, which will not exceed 5 Mbps per user

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through 2015. Table 3 should be used for estimating the bandwidth needed for the defined application throughput requirements for the next five years. Table 3. Sample of Number of Users per Coverage Area

Number of Users

Reception

Conference Rooms

Office Area

Defined Workspace

Manufacturing

Warehouse

5

20

12

15

5

3

Source: Gartner (April 2012)

Defining the Transaction Density The next progression in understanding the requirements for the wireless environment is determining the number of users expected in each location. The number of users times that planned bandwidth will determine the maximum transaction density for each coverage area. One question that must be answered is, "How many users are expected in each coverage cell?" The number of users (see Table 3) will not be uniform across the enterprise. Planners should look at traffic flow patterns for users to determine where there could be congestion. In education, additional coverage may be needed in a lecture hall or study center where a large number of students congregate. In a manufacturing or warehouse environment, you need to plan for the higher number of transactions that typically occur where workers clock in and out, or where they pick up their equipment and log in for the day. Defining the transaction density will be important for areas using 2.4GHz, because the available capacity will be limited in most cases to 75 Mbps, and using 5 Mbps per user means that a coverage area could max out with approximately 15 active users. The purpose of the definition is to ensure that you understand how the WLAN will be used. Gartner recommends that 2.4GHz be set to accommodate legacy devices and that a client connectivity policy be established (see "Use a Device Connectivity Policy to Achieve Proper WLAN Performance Levels"). Overlaying the number of users by the capacity needed for the areas where they will be working reveals the transaction density expected in the coverage area. This is the capacity that will need to be addressed in this coverage area and, potentially, the adjacent cells, because of overlapping coverage. Spikes in the capacity requirements should be handled by addressing each area as a microenvironment or a coverage area within a larger environment that has different requirements and not as a higher-capacity part of a uniform strategy. The microenvironment can be addressed by layering access points in a 802.11a/b/g WLAN, adding 802.11n on top of an existing a/b/g WLAN (which could also provide better performance for higher-throughput-capable clients), or by adding additional radios at different channels within the same coverage area. In the future, this could be accomplished by instituting additional streams in a 802.11n environment in the same radio.

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Defining the Types of Clients The WLAN design process should include the definitions of the clients, as well as the access points, controllers and services that will be provided: ■

Planners need to know, "What types of client devices will be using the WLAN?"

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The next step is to ask, "What types of clients will be allowed to connect to the WLAN?"

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Optional is, "To which applications will those clients require access?" ■

Laptops

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Desktops

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Ruggedized, handheld, data collection computers

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Dual-mode smartphones

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PDA devices

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Voice over WLAN (VoWLAN) single-mode phones

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Wireless network printers and scanners

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Security cameras

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Wi-Fi active radio frequency identification (RFID) tags

Make a list of the different types of devices, because the ability to connect to the wireless infrastructure differs among devices. There are neither design standards for integrating a radio into devices, nor standards for what kind of antenna should be used or where it should be located. To ensure the user experience of each client, planners need to record the device, as well as information about the Wi-Fi radio within the device. It will be the technical least-common denominator in regard to receiver sensitivity and transmit power that needs to be accommodated. Gartner recommends using a 10-mW, single-stream, single-antenna wireless client as the minimum for planning purposes. This is also the definition of an iPad operating at 5GHz. Certifications: Several basic certification requirements need to be documented: ■

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All wireless solutions should be Wi-Fi-certified for data. If voice applications will be used, then the solution should be Wi-Fi-certified for voice. All wireless solutions should be 802.11 standards-based until otherwise noted. Vendor-specific certifications (such as Cisco CCX) need to be specifically noted, where the functionality is used to provide differentiation of the solution. This is important, because these specifications can be used to provide additional battery life for devices or faster roaming in some environments that may be necessary for defined applications.

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Defining Where Connectivity Is Expected The definition of the wireless environment means: ■

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Any wireless solution must provide 100% coverage of the documented area. Any wireless solution must be able to address the connectivity documented in the coverage areas where it is defined. Minimum application performance may also be included here — for example, voice calls throughout the network must be supported at this quality of service (QoS) level, or other applications may require a minimum level of throughput or a higher level of priority.

Most organizations expect wireless connectivity in a conference room or cubicle area, but, if you are expanding the use of wireless, then you should consider whether coverage is needed in stairwells or elevators, which are not typically covered in site surveys. In an all-wireless office, employees may want to continue a voice call while they are moving from one location to another. This same axiom holds true for campus environments where there are multiple buildings — is there an expectation that a user can maintain a voice call move throughout the campus? Our cellular experience reinforces that, if we get a dropped call while moving from one location to another, then we will just re-call. Therefore, any additional costs associated with an architecture that provides this functionality need to be weighed against the costs of implementing this functionality.

Defining the Wireless Environment The first step in defining the environment is to understand what the environment is and how it can be shaped to meet the defined user experience. To ensure that the wireless signal can propagate through the environment to meet the metrics that have been defined for the user experience, the following questions need to be answered: ■

What is the environmental noise floor for the areas in which the WLAN will be installed for 2.4GHz and 5GHz? ■

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This can be done with a laptop spectrum analyzer, if you want to provide the information as part of the description of the environment. All locations will vary, so this should be measured. The requirement to have the information for both spectra is needed, because many of the client and access points can be deployed via soft radios in either spectrum, which will be helpful for a migration strategy.

What is the signal-to-noise ratio policy for the enterprise? ■

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This should be determined by the type of information that will be passed for the infrastructure. Most vendors will recommend 15 dB to 20 dB for data networks, 20 dB to 25 dB for wireless networks that will be using VoWLAN and 30 dB to 25 dB for networks that will be streaming video.

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These questions are building a solid foundation for the wireless communication. After defining the characteristics of the current wireless environment, clients should define what is needed to be successful. They should "own" the wireless spectrum to make sure that what is installed today will operate for the next five to seven years.

Is Redundancy Needed? Fault resilience is important for mission-critical applications. This requirement may pertain only to certain parts of the enterprise or to the entire environment. This information needs to be documented. We recommend that, as part of planning process for redundancy, failure scenarios are also defined. If a certain component of the solution fails, then how does the communication infrastructure react? ■

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What level of reliability should the infrastructure be designed to accommodate? Typically, 30% overlapping coverage of adjacent access points can be used for planning purposes. If fully redundant coverage is needed, then it will affect the number of access points needed for coverage. What type of redundant coverage is needed? Do you need redundancy in the controller, if that is part of the solution? The answer to this is no. Many vendors offer mesh solution that meet market needs without a controller architecture. Therefore, there should not be a need for a redundant controller, because an appliance with control functionality on it is an architectural design of the vendor, not an enterprise design. Remember that the control plane of a wired switch could be placed on a separate appliance, but the industry does not deploy wired solutions in that manner, so why is a controller needed for wireless? If there is a problem with the Ethernet cabling, do you need wireless mesh, which allows the access points to communicate to each other? ■

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This is not needed if you are using Power Over Ethernet (PoE) to power the access points, because the access points would not typically be operating if the cabling was damaged. Can the access points be multihomed (i.e., be able to have primary and second wired connections to different upstream switches)?

Will the Equipment Be Used Outdoors? ■

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What are the temperature parameters for the wireless equipment? ■

Do you need to accommodate outdoor conditions?

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Do you need to accommodate the variability of weather or freezers?

Do any areas require special antennas beyond those supplied by the vendor and shipped with the product? Describe where and how they will be used. With 802.11n, the use of patch, elliptical and yagi antennas, which shaped the energy from the access point to prevent it from going outside the building or further down hallways, are not being used. This is because of the characteristics of multipath and the increased expense required to shape the new, highperformance coverage area.

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Defining Other Enterprise Locations Remote or Branch Office Considerations ■

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Describe your recommendation, including necessary local and remote equipment for a branch office solution that has a remote application server for the primary application over a WAN. Describe your recommendation, including local and remote equipment for a branch office solution that has a local server, but must access a remote application server over a WAN.

Connecting Buildings on a Large Campus

Occasionally, a campus environment, remote building or classroom location requires network connectivity in which 10 to 12 clients or more need to connect to the network infrastructure. It is important that the remote environment be described to provide the best upstream solution. Implementers need to ask themselves: ■

How many clients will this environment accommodate?

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What is the total coverage area of the remote facility?

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Will/can the local components be wired together? This question will enable vendors to determine if a point-to-point or a point-to-multipoint solution should be recommended. What is the capacity? The same questions about the application and the use case need to answered for each remote location.

Additionally, they need to ask vendors to: ■

Describe the recommendation for a point-to-point wireless solution?

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Describe the recommendation for a point-to-multipoint solution?

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Describe the capabilities and limitations — e.g., the number of hops associated with wireless "hopping" or "bridging."

Defining the Wired Connectivity WLANs can provide more than 300 Mbps throughput from a single access point and can have multiple access points in a single coverage area, if needed by the application. Some facilities still have cat 3 cabling, which was designed to reliably carry only 10 Mbps. This would limit the ability to send high-speed wireless information upstream. Depending on the capacity defined through the application requirements above, the upstream wiring for any 802.11n wireless installation should minimally be cat 5 or cat 5e. If the solution is a "greenfield" installation, or new wiring is being deployed for new or future and potentially higher throughput applications (such as video), then cat 6 cabling should be used. Enterprises need to review any proposal for wireless-to-wired inconsistencies:

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This research note is restricted to the personal use of [email protected] ■

What wiring is recommended for access points?

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What is the recommended wiring from the controller, if needed?

Powering the Equipment ■

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How will the access points be powered? ■

PoE, AC or DC?

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Will it vary by location?

Do the access points support PoE (IEEE 802.3af)? ■

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Describe the reduced functionality of the access points operating in this mode, if any.

Do the access points support PoE Plus (802.3at)? Is it required for the documented functionality? How will the controller be powered? ■

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AC or DC? Does it meet the redundancy requirements? Are there any cooling requirements for the controller?

Defining the Required Network Application Services It is important to understand how the services will be used over the WLAN. The questions provided below regarding specific services cover many of the general requirements, but the recommended reading section of this document, as well as an online search of gartner.com, will also be helpful. Historically, in reviewing RFP/RFQ, questions about wireless services have been interspersed throughout the technical requirements. The intent of this framework is to highlight the growing number of services and to cover the requirements in a single location, so that they can be viewed from an enterprise standpoint.

Security Authentication ■

Does the recommended solution support WPA2?

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Describe the Extensible Authentication Protocol types supported.

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Does the recommended solution have an integrated RADIUS option, or is an external server required? Are there limitations associated with the supplicants that can be used? Describe your approach for a single wired and wireless authentication capability.

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What is the recommended approach for devices — typically, older equipment, such as network equipment, that is not capable of supporting a WPA2 supplicant? ■

These devices may need to be separated from the secured network via a virtual LAN.

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Ultimately, a firewall may be needed to ensure that security is maintained.

Enterprise-Owned Clients

Wireless connectivity is becoming standard in many devices. As part of the initial planning exercise, it was documented whether some or all devices would be allowed to connect to the wireless network. Enterprise-owned clients that connect should make every effort to do so using enterprise authentication and authorization policies. As a policy, this can provide justification for future purchasing decisions of equipment that will access the wireless infrastructure. Non-Enterprise-Owned Clients

Enterprises also need a policy to govern non-enterprise-owned clients. This may be as simple as having all non-enterprise-owned clients use the guest access policy.

Guest Access Guest access is a functionality used to limit the access of different types of users. It also provides a method for connectivity for guests that only need connection to the WLAN on an occasional basis: ■

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Does the solution provide a captive portal guest access solution? ■

Does it require a separate appliance?

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Does it run on an existing controller, if applicable?

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Is there an extra fee for this functionality, or is it integrated?

Describe the methods to enroll a guest for access to the network. Does the guest access application support role provisioning, and how many roles does it support? Can it support limiting guest access for one or many roles to: ■

A date range?

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A time of day?

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A set of access points or any combination?

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The amount of bandwidth allowed by that role?

Does it integrate with any wired Network Access Control (NAC) applications? If so, identify and provide details.

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Describe the standard reports that are available.

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Does the recommended solution provide custom reporting?

Wireless Intrusion Detection Solution A wireless intrusion detection/protection solution separately monitors the wireless spectrum looking for rogue devices or any other issues that may affect the operation of the wireless infrastructure. Two architectures are common to this solution. The first is an integrated or embedded solution in which the radio within the access point time slices the availability between communication with clients and monitoring to look for anomalies. The second is an overlay solution that is separate from the access points. Enterprise should review the "MarketScope for Wireless LAN Intrusion Prevention Systems" for updates and changes for how this functionality is being used in the enterprise. Independent of the architecture, a set of general questions should be addressed: ■

Describe the recommended solution and the monitoring capabilities.

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Describe the standard reports provided by the wireless intrusion detection system.

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Does it provide Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance reporting?

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Does it require a separate appliance for report generation?

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Does it identify the standard signatures?

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Does the platform support custom signatures?

Identify the system management platforms, if any, into which the recommended solution can be integrated for reporting and alerts?

Voice and Video ■

What is the Radio Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) threshold for roaming between access points? ■

Although we may specify a requirement of -67 dBm to -70 dBm within the coverage area, many manufacturers implement their receiver sensitivity threshold for roaming by clients between access points as -80 dBm. This means that voice conversations that occur while a client is roaming between access points may experience unnecessary jitter or dropped calls, as the access point holds onto the client.

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Does the recommended solution support Wi-Fi multimedia for QoS?

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What additional mechanisms are used to ensure QoS for voice applications?

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How does the recommended solution support unicast and multicast frames?

Addition information can be found in "Is Your Wi-Fi Network Ready for Video?"

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VoWLAN

In the description of the usage scenario, the network parameters for receiver sensitivity, transmit power and QoS have already been identified as part of building a solid WLAN foundation (see "Best Practices: 10 Steps to Overcome VoWLAN Challenges"). ■

Provide a list of supported and tested single-mode VoWLAN solutions.

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Provide a list of supported and tested dual-mode smartphones.

Location-Based Services To provide a response to this section, it is important to understand the usage scenario associated with location or real-time location services. Because there are three different 2.4GHz solutions, including two Wi-Fi-based solutions, review the recommended research to determine the right technology. It is important to understand the assets being tracked and whether their location is needed in real time or documented based on event. The difference in usage scenario can affect the architecture, as well as the technology that is used to solve the business. General questions for any location system include: ■

What is the documented proximity to the asset that is provided?

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Does this meet the application requirements in the enterprise?

Depending on the answers above, different solutions resolve this issue, using exciters, additional access points or mesh points that will change the density of the access points.

Network Management Network management is a service that is important for configuring, deploying and managing the wireless infrastructure. This solution has two masters. First, it needs to manage the wireless infrastructure. This includes not only new, vendor-specific access points, but there needs to be a management plan for access points that will coexist with the current installation. The second focus is integration with the wired infrastructure. Although some wireless configurations may require two separate network management applications, depending on the application, the whole picture will include integration between wired and wireless, which adds another network management application into the equation. It is important to understand the integration, migration and road map of any wireless vendor to eliminate the need for multiple applications to manage edge devices. ■

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Does the application provide multivendor support? Please identify all supported WLAN vendors. How does the wireless network management application integrate with the wired enterprise management strategy? Which system management platforms can be used to manage the controller and the access points? Does the network management application perform autodiscovery of the controller, access points and connected devices?

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How does the application manage the controller?

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How does the application identify failed components and implemented redundancies?

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Does it verify that managed devices are configured in compliance with defined policies?

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Does the application manage autonomous and controller-based WLAN components?

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Describe the reports that are available, including historical trend and network use.

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Describe the alerts and diagnostics that are available.

Wireless Forensics Wireless forensics involve the ability to capture and, in many cases, proactively address problems that have occurred in the wireless network. Enterprises need to minimally ask vendors: ■

How much historical information about wireless transaction can be captured? What are the default parameters?

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What details are captured? Can they be configured?

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Describe a problem for which wireless forensics were used to solve the problem.

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Provide a list of the reports that are available. Can reports be customized?

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Describe how wireless forensics work for remote WAN-connected locations?

Defining the Installation Intangibles Warranty ■

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Describe the warranty on all components. Our research shows that all vendors offer a limited lifetime warranty on their hardware components. For vendors that require software maintenance, we advise clients to understand the number of releases and the planned functionality that is currently on the road map for these releases.

Service Plans ■

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Describe one- and three-year service plans. Describe any effects of the warranty on either plan. (This is important, because we have seen enterprises have their warranties replaced by the service plan where the service took effect on the first day after the installation, effectively eliminating the warranty.)

Site Survey and Monitoring We recommend that every enterprise conduct a site survey (see "Best Practices for WLAN Site Surveys that Save Money").

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Recommended Reading Some documents may not be available as part of your current Gartner subscription.

"Use a Device Connectivity Policy to Achieve Proper WLAN Performance Levels" "Best Practices for WLAN Site Surveys that Save Money" "MarketScope for Wireless LAN Intrusion Prevention Systems" "Best Practices: 10 Steps to Overcome VoWLAN Challenges" "Is Your Wi-Fi Network Ready for Video?"

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