Dumb Wi-Fi cleans up cabling
Source: ZDNet UK
Symbol's new wireless LAN uses dumb access points and a smart switch with power delivered through Ethernet to cut down on cabling
Symbol Technologies, a manufacturer of mobile and wireless devices for corporate applications, has has developed a product which it believes should make wireless LANs cheaper to run in offices.
Analyst opinion agrees that Mobius is a good architecture for enterprise-style WLANs, and public access points, but Symbol's price comparisons are open to question, and the company does not yet have channels into the general office market.
Mobius is a departure from existing wireless LAN technology, because the intelligence in the network is integrated into the network core, leaving the wireless access point as a dumb device that just handles up to layer 2 of the network model -- that is, the Data Link layer, which is responsible for the error-free movement of data between network nodes. (Layer 1 is the physical cabling). "We don't think intelligence belongs in ceiling-mounted devices," said Ray Martino, vice-president of network products at Symbol. "Access points have grown into a significant piece of network gear, deployed through your ceiling. We have centralised the MAC [media access control] and made the access point just a radio."
