Wiring up the enterprise in 2013

James Calderbank looks at the changes to expect on the WLAN this year

Last year we saw continued adoption of smartphones and tablets in enterprises, and this has been predicted to continue this year. Wireless access has become critical for businesses and last year also marked the development of 3x3 MIMO access points and the advent of 802.11ac.

BYOD is creating headaches for network managers. Which wireless infrastructure and policy should they deploy to support the growing number of devices and applications that could take advantage?

We will see mobile device management evolve to incorporate location and file control. This will help businesses to control access to wireless networks and sensitive information based on location and requiring authorisation.

Application control will also become pivotal this year, as end users often download apps from email links or app stores that could contain malware.

The 802.11n wireless protocol improved capacity and reliability, enabling new applications. The latest standard update, 802.11ac, will further encourage the use of wireless, instead of wired connections, in corporate networks.

Products based on 802.11ac will start appearing in early 2013. It is already being touted as Gigabit Wi-Fi, and it works only with 5GHz-capable devices.

Controllers are here to stay, especially in high-density deployments where performance and advanced features matter, but more "uncontrolled" WLAN offerings will appear this year, targeting organisations, such as retailers, with multiple sites spread across diverse locations.

They can be configured to manage any number of access points for small or distributed deployments. While cloud-based will continue to attract interest, how much they replace the traditional physical controller remains to be seen.

James Calderbank is EMEA director of enterprise sales at Ruckus Wireless