Monday, June 23, 2014

Media converters and the office - getting ready for advanced Wi-Fi

Donna Donnawitz

The IEEE 802.11ac standard for gigabit Wi-Fi networks has started to take hold in business settings and more organizations are beginning to explore their options for advanced wireless networks. The motivation to move to Wi-Fi is simple - widespread mobile device use. Sure, a wireless network does present a few potential advantages in terms of installation and configuration maintenance, but it also presents unique challenges that make installing a wireless network extremely difficult. For example, trying to ensure smooth signal distribution through walls and in areas where interference is possible presents major challenges.

With all of this in mind, convenience isn't really a reason to turn to Wi-Fi. Instead, widespread mobile device use is. As such, businesses need to strategically invest in network functions that support increased smartphone and tablet use in the workplace, making fiber to Ethernet media converters and similar tools a critical consideration.

Responding to mobile device use with Wi-Fi
Increased smartphone and tablet use for business functions, particularly video consumption, doesn't just meant that organizations need to expand Wi-Fi use in their offices, it means they need to add bandwidth and data throughput capacity to the network. In many cases, this means adding backhaul capabilities to the system, which means that, once again, IT is needing to focus on building wired networks. The backhaul used for Wi-Fi systems and a corporate LAN are not all that different. In fact, a LAN can function as backhaul.

However, with the IEEE 802.11ac standard now available, many organizations find themselves needing high-bandwidth backhaul networks to support the gigabit Wi-Fi functionality which, in turn, is needed to support smartphones and tablets in the workplace. All of this amounts to a situation in which wireless networks are not only playing a larger role in enterprise networks, they are also being used for more important tasks. Instead of being a secondary network used by visitors or somebody who wants to check something quickly while away from the workstation, wireless networks are supporting critical business functions, and the network needs to be ready.

Media converters - unlocking the full potential of Wi-Fi
The IEEE 802.11ac may sound like a groundbreaking standard, but it may only be the first step into a Wi-Fi and LTE dominated future. Organizations that want to maximize the value of these investments need their backhaul systems to be ready for the future, making fiber-optic cabling architectures a prime option. Media converter solutions can help organizations establish an effective framework to integrate fiber into wireless backhaul in a cost-efficient manner.

Perle has an extensive range of Managed and Unmanaged Fiber Media Converters to extended copper-based Ethernet equipment over a fiber optic link, multimode to multimode and multimode to single mode fiber up to 160km.

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