Hawking Wireless Solution Bridges Gap For WLAN Setup

Luckily, the wireless market has matured enough to offer advanced solutions to these deployment problems. Hawking Technology, for example, has developed directional antennas that extend the reach of wireless transmissions, and therefore, wireless networks. CRN Test Center engineers set out to demonstrate how solution providers can build wireless solutions using off-the-shelf Wi-Fi components from Hawking's product line.

Our goal was to extend a wired LAN to another location several thousand feet away, a common distance for many campus-based environments or companies with multiple warehouses.

With a wired connection, a solution provider would simply "bridge" the two buildings using an Ethernet bridge to move Ethernet traffic from one site to the other. Interestingly, a wireless solution is not all that different than the wired solution, but there are several wireless best practices that need to be applied.

First off, there is the issue of line of sight. To successfully deploy a wireless bridge, it's useful to have a direct point-to-point view between connections, with no permanent obstructions. This is the key to maximum performance and maximum range.

Solution providers also should consider automotive traffic or other "temporary" obstructions that may exist in the proposed deployment environment.

Secondly, solution providers need to consider security—after all, a company's private information will be travelling via the wireless connection. Other elements to consider include selecting the appropriate antennas, cables, bridges and so on.

Test Center engineers selected a pair of Hawking's HAO14SD outdoor antennas, a pair of HAC30N cables and a pair of HWBA54G 802.11G wireless bridges. That combination of components should suffice for connecting two locations up to a mile away from each other. The outdoor antenna boasts a narrow 30 degree transmission angle, which helps to focus the signal over a distance and provide as much as 14dBi increase in signal strength. The 802.11g bridges are pretty basic and include encryption capabilities and antenna connectors.

The rugged antennas are sealed to protect them from the elements. Hawking includes a versatile mounting kit that allows installers to "aim" the antennas.

Once the line-of-sight issues are addressed, initial setup is a simple plug-and-play process.

Test Center engineers did experience some setup problems with the bridges, but these were quickly solved by upgrading the bridges' firmware.

After initial setup, integrators should immediately turn on the bridges' security features, since the 30 degree transmission profile of the antennas will let data seep out. This data will be susceptible to eavesdropping unless it is encrypted.

Hawking's browser-based setup wizards for the bridges simplify most setup chores, while still allowing integrators to access some of the higher functions, such as transmission power, to fine-tune the devices for maximum security and performance.

While 802.11g isn't as fast as traditional Fast Ethernet data rates of 100 Mbps, throughput should be adequate for several users relying on the main site for data and Web access. Performance can be improved by deploying multiple bridges and antennas to segment the network further, giving more bandwidth to each user.

Hawking's average margins are 15 percent to 20 percent. Benefits include marketing and bid assistance. Technical support is available 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST.

Hawking's HAO14SD antenna costs $99.99, the HAC30N cable costs $29.99, and the HWBA54G bridge/access point is priced at $129.