Wireless is everywhere. Several years ago most people thought that data wireless networks were the very future of the computer networks. Unfortunately, more than five years have passed since the adoption of the most popular wireless standard today, 802.11b and wireless networks are still not widely deployed. Most companies that (more or less) work in the networking field market wireless solutions. Additionally, other specialized companies were founded to benefit from this growing market.
In this article I will talk about the office wireless networks present. I donā€™t like theoretical articles so I have reviewed an interesting wireless solution to sustain my statements. All the hardware devices tested in this article are manufactured by Qubs, a new comer into the networking field. Qubs deals with all kind of passive and active networking equipment, from the large 42U racks to media converters. But for more details itā€™s better to visit their website at www.qubs.net.

The hardware

The biggest, most advertised advantage of wireless is mobility. A marketing guy said: ā€œYou have a hardwired office. You have the infrastructure, you need a lot of bandwidth, and there is no need to migrate to wireless. But you need to provide your mobile users with wireless gateways. Workers must be able to go from financing to sales, from marketing to research using notebooks, without any need to plug in any wire. You must have wireless points of presenceā€¯. Itā€™s obvious that the market for wireless is much larger between notebook computer owners. Desktop computers donā€™t necessary require wireless, but solutions that connect them to the wireless world do exist. All mobile users have to connect to a central point that provides wireless connectivity; a gateway between the traditional LAN and the WLAN.

The Qubs solution we tested includes:

• a PCMCIA wireless card, that can be used in any notebook computer with a PCMCIA Type II interface
• a PCI card that provides the wireless support to desktop computers. Only a few companies manufacture PCI cards due to their limited market exposure
• a wireless access point, able to power a wireless infrastructure

All devices are shipped in white boxes, with a drivers and documentation CD. The wireless access point also includes an UTP cable to connect the device to the Ethernet network. Unfortunately I can not say that I was satisfied about the quality of the packaging. The retail version should be packed better and more appealing to the end user. There are not many interesting things to describe at a first look. Most wireless devices look pretty much the same from the physical point of view. Take a look at the below pictures.

The access point is the most interesting part. It has two antennas and a Fast Ethernet port to connect with the existing network. Control led are also available. The design is pretty common, simple and efficient.

As you can see there are no visible physical differences between the Qubs PCMCIA card and the Compex WL11A WavePort card.

All three devices can work at 22Mbs, using the so called 802.11b+ standard. I have just said the ā€œso called standardā€¯ because 802.11b+ is not an IEEE adopted standard, but a manufacturers agreed specification. The new IEEE standard that will allow higher speeds in 2.4Ghz band is called 802.11g and it will be available soon. Fortunately the new standard will be backwards compatible with 802.11b and with 802.11b+, so you will be able to use these devices in the future. Of course, you will be limited to the bandwidth offered by current 802.11b technology when interconnecting 802.11g products with old devices.