Is 802.11n ready for the enterprise?

It’s faster and has far greater range than current wireless LAN technology. And it’s stable. So is the most recent draft of the 802.11n wireless LAN standard ready for enterprise adoption?

Such products are widely available for consumers even though final ratification isn’t expected for more than a year. However, unlike the transition several years ago from 802.11b to 802.11g, some vendors will be making a serious effort to sell pre-standard equipment to enterprises.

[See further coverage: Using 802.11n bridging for fast wireless speeds ]

“Is 802.11n ready for the enterprise? I’d say yes,” said David Cohen, marketing director for Trapeze Networks. In particular, Draft 2 of the standard is unlikely to change significantly before final ratification, Cohen and other proponents say.

However, skeptics, mostly in the form of market analysts, question whether pre-standard products will succeed.

“It goes against what my 15 years in IT tell me is right,” said Michael Brandenburg, a former IT manager who is now an analyst for enterprise networking systems for Current Analysis. “Do I see ‘n’ getting much [enterprise] market share before ratification? No.”

That attitude isn’t stopping Trapeze, Meru Networks, and Aruba Networks, all of which say they expect to release enterprise-class equipment based on Draft 2 of the 802.11n standard before the end of the year. Nor has it stopped the Wi-Fi Alliance, which recently launched a testing program to certify Draft 2-based equipment for interoperability.

The question is whether enterprises will care.

Bucking the trend

Large companies rarely commit to a new standard until it is fully ratified because pre-standard equipment may not be stable and is subject to change. And Cisco Systems, by far the largest vendor of enterprise-class wireless LAN equipment, almost always waits until final ratification to release products.

Most observers believe Cisco will wait again. However, the company has placed a Draft 2 802.11n access point in the Wi-Fi Alliance’s test bed and is being ambiguous in its public statements.

“We don’t comment on products we haven’t released yet,” said Cisco spokesman Neil Wu Becker. “However, we are the first and only vendor to begin working with the Wi-Fi Alliance test bed, so it is obviously on our radar.”

Other vendors, though, are far less ambiguous. They say enterprises will adopt products based on Draft 2 because it is uncontroversial. Draft 3 is expected later this year, but no significant changes to the standard are being publicly discussed.

Even if there are changes, vendors say those changes will be easily upgradeable via software. That, combined with the far superior performance of 802.11n — it achieves Ethernet-level speeds and has greater range than 802.11g — make even pre-standard equipment compelling to enterprises, those vendors claim.

“Classically, Wi-Fi is an overlay in the enterprise — it’s been nice in conference rooms and places like that,” Cohen said. “But a lot more uses for Wi-Fi are coming out where Wi-Fi is the primary network.” That’s particularly true in certain types of enterprises, such as hospitals, that have come to depend on Wi-Fi as their primary network and need the faster speeds and coverage, he added.

There are other niches as well, according to Cliff Raskind, an analyst with Strategy Analytics.

“It will appeal to corporate users fixated on video-intensive applications,” Raskind said. “It may also be a unique selling point with companies keen on using VoIP soft clients on notebooks.”

Another niche is higher education, Brandenburg said. “Some universities will want to say they have the fastest network when they’re competing for students.”

A case in point

So far, the only enterprise that has publicly said it will transition to the draft 802.11n standard is little Morrisville State College in Morrisville, N.Y. While the school’s Web site brags it soon will have the fastest wireless network in higher education, attracting students wasn’t the motivation for the college’s imminent installation of a Draft 2 network, said Jean Boland, the college’s vice president of information services.

“We were looking to replace our old [wireless] network, which we implemented in 1999,” Boland said. “It’s old — 2 Mbit/sec with frequency hopping. We had to do an upgrade; we had no choice. There aren’t any drivers available [for their old system] for Windows Vista.”

Boland said the choice between deploying 802.11n or 802.11g was easy. “I just couldn’t justify an expenditure on an a/b/g network, which I felt was at the end of its life,” she said. “It would have been financially irresponsible for us.”

An added incentive to switch to 802.11n was that about two-thirds of the courses at the college require laptops, and the college provides Lenovo ThinkPads to its students. The newer ThinkPads have built-in support for 802.11n.

As a result, Boland said the college is about to install 802.11n access points from Meru, which she hopes will be ready when the fall semester begins. She said she’s not concerned about the equipment being made obsolete by future revisions of the specification.

“Every company has to evaluate their own circumstances,” Boland said. “But I feel very comfortable going with the Draft 2 standard.”

Vendors have guarded optimism

Vendors who are lending early support to Draft 2 have differing levels of optimism about early enterprise uptake.

“We thought higher education would be the primary vertical [interested in Draft 2 equipment],” Troyer said. “But the surprising thing is that there are a number of commercial enterprises ranging from SMBs up to Fortune 100 companies that have RFPs (requests for proposals) out for this.” He declined to say which large enterprises had RFPs out for 802.11n equipment.

Trapeze Networks’ Cohen was even more optimistic.

“We think the enterprise is ready for 802.11n,” Cohen said. “In 2008, maybe 15, 20 or maybe even 25 percent of the [enterprise] market will be ‘n.’ That’s a realistic goal.” The variations in his estimate are caused by uncertainty about Cisco Systems’ intentions.

“Sure, some companies will only buy from Cisco, but a lot of companies are open to buying from companies like Trapeze and the others,” Cohen said.

Michael Tennefoss, Aruba Networks’ head of strategic marketing, took a more cautious approach.

“We’ll have a product for people who want to kick the tires and for the education market,” he said. “But it’ll be a long transition period from a/b/g to n.”

Obstacles to overcome

Even given the stability of Draft 2, Current Analysis’ Brandenburg said there are other obstacles to early adoption of 802.11n. One obstacle is that access points aren’t the only infrastructure that must be changed.

“Vendors say you won’t need forklift upgrades to go to 802.11n,'” Brandenburg said. “But a/b/g work fine on 10/100 switches. You don’t absolutely have to upgrade your switches for ‘n,’ but (10/100) switches would turn your wired network into a bottleneck.” In other words, many enterprises will need to accelerate acquisition of gigabit-level equipment to get the most out 802.11n, he said.

Another equipment concern has to do with support for applications. In particular, wireless VoIP is one logical use of 802.11n’s its greater bandwidth. However, it’ll be a while before wireless VoIP phones support the new standard, Brandenburg said.

Then, there’s the inevitable issue of uncertainty. While the Wi-Fi Alliance and vendors may be correct that the standard is stable and any changes will be software-upgradeable, there are no guarantees, Brandenburg said.

“What if the standards get changed and, for example, another set of antennas is added?” Brandenburg asked. “It would put the draft access points at a functionality loss. At the very least, there would be features available on newer products that aren’t available on draft products. But the worst case scenario is that there would be compatibility problems.”

Such a turn of events is not likely to happen, Brandenburg acknowledged, but even the small likelihood that it could would be enough to sour enterprises from switching before final ratification.

“My gut is that most enterprises will hold off,” he said.

David Haskin is a contributing editor specializing in mobile and wireless issues.