Wireless LAN Products Head Down a New Path

The aggressive use of new technology has always been a leading contributor to VARs' success. Now, more powerful wireless LAN technology is creating opportunities for VARs. But it also presents a dilemma: Use current prestandard products, or wait two or three years for standard products?

Using multiple transmitters, receivers and antennas, Multiple Input/Multiple Output Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) technology takes advantage of the "multipath" signals that normally degrade wireless LAN performance, enabling signals taking different paths to work together.

MIMO-OFDM wireless LAN products deliver greater range, increased throughput, higher capacity and better reliability than ordinary wireless LAN products. Thus, MIMO-OFDM enables applications that might be more difficult and expensive--if not impossible--to offer using older, wireless LAN technology. Furthermore, the first crop of MIMO-OFDM products fully supports--and even enhances--the industry standard IEEE 802.11a/b/g modes.

Consider a retail chain with 100 stores of various sizes up to 50,000 square feet that wants to implement real-time inventory tracking. With ordinary wireless LAN products, the chain may find that 50 percent of its stores can be covered with a single access point (AP) and 50 percent require multiple APs. Stores that require multiple APs have higher hardware, installation and support costs. Multiple APs require wired backbone networks, different equipment configurations and installation procedures in each store.

Using MIMO-OFDM products, each store can be served with a single, centrally located AP. Thus, the same solution can be deployed in all 100 stores, simplifying installation and support. The VAR spends less effort designing and building networks, and more effort ensuring the functionality of the overall solution.

Similarly, MIMO-OFDM supports speeds in excess of 100 Mbps on a single channel. More users can share a single, high-speed AP. Additional networks can operate on nonoverlapping channels. That means MIMO-OFDM products can support growth in the number of users, data throughput per user, or both.

One objection to using current MIMO-OFDM wireless LAN products is that the IEEE 802.11n Task Group is expected to develop a MIMO-OFDM standard. Some industry analysts urge businesses to wait for the standard. They point out that it's extremely unlikely today's MIMO-OFDM products will be compatible with, or software-upgradable to, a standard not expected to be finalized for another 12 to 18 months.

VARs must weigh the advantages of using today's MIMO-OFDM products vs. waiting for 802.11n products on a case-by-case basis. Often, the ROI for today's products will outweigh the cost of replacing those products with 802.11n versions later. Plus, solutions that help customers achieve their strategic business goals sooner can provide incalculable advantages.

If the 802.11n standard is completed in 2006, products complying with that standard will probably not materialize until 2007. The wait for 802.11n-compliant products could easily be three years. Thus, the money saved by using one MIMO-OFDM AP per store instead of multiple APs will likely exceed the potential expense of replacing prestandard MIMO-OFDM access points with 802.11n versions.

Further, current MIMO-OFDM products from Belkin and SOHOware use chipset-maker Airgo Networks' True MIMO technology and are compatible with existing 802.11b/g (2.4 GHz) and 802.11a (5 GHz) products. To benefit from MIMO-OFDM technology, products incorporating MIMO-OFDM must be present at both ends of the link. Airgo's approach includes a smart-antenna mode that enhances the performance of 802.11a/b/g devices even when present on one end.

More accurately, the first MIMO-OFDM products provide a prestandard enhancement in addition to the standard modes. A MIMO-OFDM AP falls back to existing standards when talking with clients that don't support it.

In fact, the first MIMO-OFDM products work quite well in mixed-standards environments, where it's common for all of the devices to switch to the lowest-common-denominator mode. MIMO-OFDM products, in contrast, can talk to each other in enhanced mode while strictly observing the standard etiquette.

What does all of this mean for VARs? MIMO-OFDM products offer a more robust wireless LAN solution built on existing standards. In some environments, this translates into solutions that are easier and less expensive to implement, while in others, it permits the use of wireless solutions where previously impossible.

Manufacturers are building new technology on top of existing standards, meaning VARs no longer have to choose between proprietary and standard solutions.

Ira Brodsky (ibrodsky@datacommresearch.com) is an industry analyst at Datacomm Research in St. Louis.