Wireless Connectivity 
Enterprise IT managers have good reasons to be
wary of—and worried by—wireless LANs (WLANs).
Despite corporate policies banning unauthorized
IEEE 802.11 WLANs, end users are rolling them out
in the office. The question isn’t if or when
wireless will reach the enterprise. It’s here.
The issue is who will control it. Users want to
access apps from anywhere. IT managers want to
implement secure, scalable enterprise-class WLANs.
They’re understandably skittish about the lack
of planning, deployment and management tools, as
well as the way vendors treat WLANS as an
add-on—freeing users while saddling IT with
separate infrastructures.
Enterprise WLANs Done
Right
Trapeze Networks’ Mobility System is the first
scalable WLAN to deliver seamless integration,
secure mobility and enterprise class planning,
deployment and management tools. It consists of
four elements: Mobility Exchange™ (MX™), a new
class of networking device that lets users’
identities roam with them; Mobility Point™ (MP™);
Mobility System Software™, which seamlessly
integrates the wireless and wired infrastructures;
and RingMaster™, a suite of Java-based tools.
For authentication, authorization and
accounting (AAA), Trapeze is tightly coupled to
various authentication servers.
The Trapeze Mobility System fulfills the three
fundamental requirements of an enterprise WLAN. It
eliminates the distinction between wired and
wireless networks. It enables secure mobility,
allowing users to work safely from anywhere. And
it delivers a full suite of powerful, intuitive
pre- and post-deployment planning and management
tools.
Seamless Integration
The Trapeze Mobility System effortlessly
integrates with conventional infrastructures,
without adding backbone protocols and client
software. Air becomes just another medium, like
unshielded twisted-pair wire.
Identity-Based Networking is the key, allowing
users to maintain the same set of access rights,
virtual LAN (VLAN) and subnet memberships and
other profiles whether they’re working wired or
wireless. Roaming remains transparent; users only
log on once. Trapeze can even track multiple
devices per user, such as a laptop, PDA and
digital phone.
| |
Mobile
IP |
Service
Set Identifier (SSID) per VLAN |
AAA-Based |
| End
User Configuration |
Special
client software or client proxy |
Must
configure the right SSID; SSIDs are hidden |
Only
one SSID to pick |
| Enforced
VLAN Membership |
Yes,
based on IP address |
No,
only to one VLAN |
Yes,
based on user authorization |
Backbone
Impact
|
Very
large - New protocol on edge routers
|
Large
- Push all 802.1Q VLANs down to APs |
None
- Connect mobility
switch to backbone,
mobility switches tunnel |
| Scaling |
No
deployments since inception (1995) |
Unproven |
Proven,
millions; Example: AOL |
| Overhead |
Tunnel
per user; route
table entry per user; IP address
consumption |
Every
VLAN everywhere; Hidden SSIDs |
Optimized
AAA (EAP processing; roamed AAA) |
|
