Vendor Landscape: Enterprise 802.11n Infrastructure

The most recent iteration of the Wi-Fi standard, 802.11n, has held out great hope, with greater speeds and greatly improved signal range, but as a newly ratified technology it has yet to be widely adopted due to perceived interoperability issues, higher infrastructure prices, and concerns about the technology's maturity. This has changed dramatically with the now-ratified standard, although many vendors are already offering certified interoperable network infrastructure based on draft 2.0 of the 802.11n standard. This gear's increasing price competitiveness with legacy 802.11g Wi-Fi access points represents an imminent refresh for many companies seeking to get more out of their WLANs. Now is the time to plan a refresh or build-out strategy for the WLAN in your organization and, as part of that, take a stand on how 802.11n will be used in your organization. Competitive firms will more efficiently use wireless networking and understand what the increased use of an 802.11n installation means for adding services to their wireless repertoire. This report outlines use cases for 802.11n and what solutions are available today from major networking vendors.