Wireless LAN technology is expanding rapidly in the commercial sector with the introduction of products that will allow enterprise customers to build a secure, reliable wireless infrastructure. This program provides a comprehensive overview of the products, technologies, and design techniques that are used in enterprise wireless LANs. The full range of wireless LAN applications will be covered along with practical descriptions of capacities, access protocols, radio issues, design and management tools. This program will provide a solid foundation in radio and a detailed understanding of the products and technologies that will are used to build and maintain WLAN voice and data networks.
Communications analysts, network managers, and MIS professionals who will be involved with wireless LAN deployments and need a detailed overview of the technology, concepts, terminology, and practices.
Understand the basic principles of radio transmission, the various sources of signal interference, and rank various building materials by the degree of the impairment they introduce.
Review the advantage of digital radio techniques like Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, and Multiple Input-Multiple Output (MIMO) antennas used in 802.11 wireless LANs.
Identify at the challenges involved in using unlicensed radio bands, the emerging 80211n and Pre-n radio links, and the impact they have on the network planning.
Describe the Media Access Control protocol developed for 802.11 wireless LANs, the various message types and control exchanges, and how that effects network capacity and performance.
Understand the basic process for laying out a wireless LAN, the types of design tools that are available, and the overall design philosophies.
Describe the development of wireless LAN switches, the general capabilities they provide, and the major categories of products.
Review the major security concerns introduced by wireless LANs, the shortcomings of the original WEP technique, and the improvements brought about with WPA, the 802.11i and 802.1x protocols.
Introduce the idea of voice over WLANs, handset issues, the QoS capabilities of 802.11e/Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM), and the overall impact on network capacity.
Describe the range of strategies for Fixed-Mobile Convergence, and the techniques that can be used to integrate WLAN and cellular networks.
Step-by-step process of designing a WLAN, tuning the installation, and a review of the monitoring and network management systems that will be required.
Look at the WiMAX or IEEE 802.16 technology for broadband wireless access networks, the types of applications it will serve, and how it compares to wireless LANs and Wi-Fi Mesh Networks.
Introduce some of the other developing technologies in the wireless arena including Ultra-Wideband, software defined radio, RFID, and the smart antenna systems.
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