Wireless LAN Overview
A medium-size wireless LAN
Medium sized businesses have traditionally used a simple design where they simply put up multiple Access Points throughout their facilities where they needed Wireless coverage. This particular approach is probably the most common because it has a low cost of entry although it becomes difficult to manage once the number of Access Points gets beyond a hand full. Most of these types of Wireless LANs allow you to roam from Access Point to Access Point because they're configured on the same Ethernet subnet and SSID.
From a management standpoint, each Access Point is managed individually as well as the managed port that it's connected to. In more advanced implementations where multiple Virtual SSIDs are supported, VLAN trunking is used to connect the Access Point to multiple subnets over a single Ethernet connection to a managed switch port. The Switch in this case needs to be configured to support multiple VLANs over a single port. Although it's possible to use a template to configure multiple Access Points, it can still become difficult to manage a large number of Access Points when firmwares and configurations need updating.
From a security standpoint, each Access Point must be configured to handle its own Access Control and Authentication. RADIUS servers make this task easier because the Access Points can delegate Access Control and Authentication to the centralized RADIUS servers which in turn can be tied in to a central user database such as Windows Active Directory. But even so, a RADIUS relationship still needs to be built between each Access Point and each RADIUS server which can be complex if the number of Access Points are high.
From a management standpoint, each Access Point is managed individually as well as the managed port that it's connected to. In more advanced implementations where multiple Virtual SSIDs are supported, VLAN trunking is used to connect the Access Point to multiple subnets over a single Ethernet connection to a managed switch port. The Switch in this case needs to be configured to support multiple VLANs over a single port. Although it's possible to use a template to configure multiple Access Points, it can still become difficult to manage a large number of Access Points when firmwares and configurations need updating.
From a security standpoint, each Access Point must be configured to handle its own Access Control and Authentication. RADIUS servers make this task easier because the Access Points can delegate Access Control and Authentication to the centralized RADIUS servers which in turn can be tied in to a central user database such as Windows Active Directory. But even so, a RADIUS relationship still needs to be built between each Access Point and each RADIUS server which can be complex if the number of Access Points are high.
