RAM | Reseller Advocate Magazine: Issue 52

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by William Van Winkle

This is no time for business AS usual. Look to the dictionary for assurance, and you’ll find that a computer network is “multiple computers and other devices connected together to share information.” As any modern chimp knows, that just takes a switch, maybe a router, a handful of client network adapters, and some cabling to sling it all together—unless you’re going wireless, in which case you may throw in an access point or two. When a customer surfaces wanting a “networking solution,” this is quite often what gets sold. The simple backbone is safe, stable, and (barring installation charges) probably a fairly low margin affair since every competitor within driving range can offer the same basic gear.

Particularly in that fuzzy realm between the SOHO and SMB spaces, networking opportunities are exploding. Pick your application set: VoIP, network storage, multimedia convergence, Web servers, on and on. A network is next to nothing without persuasive, productive usage models running over it, and facilitating those requires a degree of expertise that often only a well-trained VAR or integrator can provide.

“Up until recently, I don’t think there’s been a really strong case with small businesses to upgrade their networks,” says Allen Powell, director, channel sales for Cisco-Linksys. “But now, there’s Voice-over-IP, video, and data running over these networks. A lot of our new models move bandwidth from Fast Ethernet up to the Gigabit mark and also provide quality of service, power over Ethernet, and other features so businesses can run these new applications. We’re launching product after product that will enable resellers to go to an end-user and offer a very strong value proposition to upgrade their network infrastructure. Switching is not very exciting, if you will, but I think it is a real opportunity to go in and sell end-users on future-proofing their networks for all of this technology coming down the pipe at a very affordable price point.”

We’re not going to dive into emerging network applications today; the ones you want to specialize in will depend on your client base and your in-house proficiencies. Rather, we’re going to focus on the technologies that sit above the basic backbone and facilitate these applications. With the right building blocks at your disposal, the networking world is your oyster.

WIRELESS

Strange but true, the 2.4 GHz 802.11b and 5 GHz 802.11a standards both emerged in 1999 whereas 802.11g didn't arrive until 2003. So with a four-year head start, we remain somewhat perplexed as to why 802.11a didn't become a raging success. Perhaps a large part of it had to do with the technology's shorter reception range. While 802.11b (and later 802.11g) is rated up to 300 feet, 802.11a spans only 60 feet. Throw up a couple of walls and you might get only half of that distance, meaning the end-user faces additional costs from extra access points and repeaters.

However, the flip side to 802.11a now is the clarity of its reception precisely because of its unpopularity. Between cordless phones, competing LANs, microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices, and more, the 2.4 GHz band on which 802.11b/g sits is crammed with interfering traffic. The 5 GHz band is comparably empty. For file sharing, where packet resends and lower throughput aren't terribly important to the end-user, interference isn't much of an issue. But for streaming multimedia files, where reliable throughput is essential to a satisfactory experience, 802.11a makes far more sense.

"802.11a simply doesn't get the play that it should," says Tony Stramandinoli, vice president of marketing for SMC. "We originally thought in a home entertainment environment that dual-band routers in the home would be great. Streaming media content would be over 802.11a and data sharing and Internet would be over 802.11g. But no one's really pushed that ‘future-proof your wireless' angle. In a business environment, you could have the people in the office on 5 GHz while several device types, such as print servers and guests, could be on 802.11g. It's just a universal connection point."

In time, "turbo" products evolved based on competing (and somewhat incompatible) chips from Atheros and Broadcom offering rated wireless throughput in excess of 100 Mbps. This speed gain was primarily obtained by bonding wireless channels, in effect combining the bandwidth of two wireless streams. Real-world peak rates generally hit around 60 Mbps. These "turbo" modes were available for both 802.11g and 802.11a technologies. The problem was lack of support from an industry standard, not to mention spotty interoperability across manufacturers, which is why many businesses still shy away from turbo wireless to this day.

As if the turbo technologies weren't confusing enough, MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) hit its stride in 2005. MIMO uses multiple antennas to capitalize on a radio phenomenon known as multipath propagation. Essentially, this involves a radio signal reaching a receiver from two or more paths at two or more different times. Imagine you send a beam of sound through a mountain valley to a receiver. Because the sound waves spread out, some of that signal goes straight to the receiver. Some bounces off a hillside on the left before continuing on to the receiver. The same thing happens a little further down the valley with a hillside on the right. Hence the signal reaches the receiver multiple times. Traditionally, multipath propagation has wreaked havoc on radio transmissions, but MIMO intelligently uses these multiple paths to carry discrete data streams. The more antennas you use, the higher the possible channel capacity. MIMO primarily serves to improve signal reception, so communications can be received at greater distances with fewer dead spots. When combined with multiple data streams flowing across multiple antennas, greater throughput can be realized over those improved ranges.

We should be clear about this: MIMO is a model for communication systems; it is not a networking specification or standard. Since 2004, the industry has expected MIMO to be a facet of the next-generation 802.11n spec, but when the IEEE's 802.11n efforts slowed because of internal disagreement, some manufacturers opted to apply MIMO to existing technologies.

The ZyXEL XtremeMIMO X-550 is a perfect example. This wireless router blends 108 Mbps "Super G" (Atheros) turbo technology with MIMO. As such, you're not going to see throughput higher than that achieved with regular Super G routers, but you will get much improved signal integrity and pull in those speeds over greater distances thanks to the use of dual antennas.

The X-550 packs in plenty of other perks, too. The unit is a four-port 10/100 switch with a handy on-off DIP switch in the back to disable the router's wireless functionality so users don't have to dig into the Web-based config menus. The latest and best security spec, WPA2 (802.11i, based on the bulletproof AES encryption algorithm), is here, as is a very nifty set of port configuration options for game hosting. Parents and employers may appreciate the Web filtering functions, a USB port facilitates client configuration via XP2's Windows Connect Now technology, and ZyXEL's StreamEngine technology allows for QoS prioritization on lag-sensitive traffic. You can create custom rules for StreamEngine, but we've seen easier low-end QoS setup arrangements. With a street price just south of $100, the X-550 is a great SOHO play.

But here's the tricky part. On January 19th, the IEEE 802.11n Working Group finally approved a draft specification for 802.11n, which is expected to reach its final standard form in early 2007. The significance of the draft spec is that it is close enough to the final standard for manufacturers to create wireless products based on the N draft that will be firmware upgradeable to the final N specification. Industry experts predominantly feel that the present "pre-N" products based on Airgo chips are too far astray from the IEEE draft and will not be upgradeable to the industry standard.

"Now that the standard got smoothed out, I think you're going to see the disappearance of all the pre-N stuff," says ABI Research analyst Mike Wolf. "All the vendors are in transition, and you'll see N compliance emerge at some point this year. MIMO has a lot of overlap with N, and vendors like Linksys and NETGEAR have had a lot of success with MIMO. I think you'll see even more of that as true N products become available."

Belkin took the leap with "pre-N" early on and has had some success with it, in part because Belkin for wireless networking is predominantly a consumer brand, not corporate, and consumers are less sensitive to standards adherence and long-term interoperability. As a point of contrast, NETGEAR as well as Linksys and its parent, Cisco, have rejected anything in the "pre-N" vein. However, that didn't stop the likes of NETGEAR from creating a new brand, RangeMax, to do more or less the same thing. The Airgo-based RangeMax 240 (WPNT834) specs up to 240 Mbps, and real-world performance rings in at about half of that, which is still better than wired Fast Ethernet.

Today, the RangeMax 240, when paired with a RangeMax 240 client adapter, is more or less the fastest wireless solution available in the mainstream. This fact alone makes it a formidable upgrade prospect, and it remains backward compatible with 802.11b/g. But it is likely not going to be upgradeable to 802.11n. Expect NETGEAR to debut a new product line soon with nomenclature akin to "draft-N".

Again, selling an Airgo solution like RangeMax to consumers is probably safer than business accounts. That said, don't let the corporate bias against wireless that has pervaded in some circles for the last year or two confound your small business sales efforts.

"I think wireless is an even more compelling story for small businesses than larger business," says Allen Powell, of Cisco-Linksys. "We're seeing rapid adoption of our wireless solutions in medium and large businesses, as well, but the value proposition for buying a wireless device in small business is much, much greater. Smaller businesses that tend not to have dedicated IT staff can overcome their installation as well as moves, adds, and changes much easier with our integrated switch/router wireless devices."

Powerline/HomePlug

We remember trying out the first generation of powerline network adapters years ago, right alongside HomeRF and HomePNA gear. The pitch seemed reasonable: Every home and office has electricity wired to outlets in every room, so just grab a patch of bandwidth on the power lines, plug a wall wart adapter into the nearby outlet, and run some CAT5 from the wall wart to the PC. Setup was easy, but even the supposedly 14 Mbps HomePlug 1.0 spec products tended to plod along at less than 4 Mbps. In reality, the wall adapters were often large and ugly, and the technology quickly went the way of HomePNA into oblivion.

Almost. The HomePlug Alliance kept on even while sales were virtually nil. Finally, last August saw the approval of HomePlug AV, which specs raw data rates of up to 200 Mbps, although 85 Mbps is the commonly accepted rate after PHY and overhead considerations.

"HomePlug was left for dead two years ago, and now there's a lot of new interest in it, particularly from service providers," says ABI's Mike Wolf. "It's pretty reliable. It has whole-home reach, which wireless really doesn't, not even MIMO. NETGEAR is doing a lot of volume here, actually, on the high-end consumer side."

NETGEAR's XE104 is a HomePlug AV wall adapter. The device is in part a four-port switch, as well. One XE104 connects to the LAN's router while the three remaining RJ45 jacks can connect to other Ethernet devices. Across the house, another XE104 plugs into a wall outlet and connects with the first XE104. Through the second unit, another four Ethernet devices can connect, now enabling up to seven network clients on the router. This is a very slick setup for home theater buffs. Consider a user with a theater cabinet housing an HTPC, digital media adapter, and an Xbox console. That's three Ethernet devices without a single RJ45 wall jack in sight. However, the cabinet does contain a power outlet. Just plug in the XE104, connect all three devices, and you've still got a port left open for future equipment. As we head into Viiv-based PCs destined for living rooms, this sort of approach might become quite valuable as an alternative to erratic wireless connectivity.

As with older powerline gear, plugging into surge strips or other filtered devices is not advisable, and if users want to protect their data from neighbors that might be on the same circuit line they'll need to install the bundled encryption utility. Up to four XE104 units can coexist on one network.

Quite often, troubleshooting a powerline network is as simple as moving the adapter to a different wall outlet. SMC makes this process a bit easier with its PowerPacket utility, which comes bundled with the SMCHT-ETH EZ Connect 85 Mbps Turbo Powerline to Ethernet Desktop Adapter. The utility displays all SMC powerline adapters recognized on the network as well as their line quality rating and throughput rate. With this, identifying faulty or slow outlets becomes much simpler. SMC's device is also notable for its desktop design. The unit only features one RJ45 port, but it connects to the wall via a standard size power cable, which may prove handy if wall space is tight.

Also noteworthy is NETGEAR's WGXB102 kit. This SKU is based on the older HomePlug 1.0 spec, so beware of wired throughput speeds. However, one of the two bundled wall warts contains an 802.11g receiver. Thus the set works as a LAN range extender able to bring wireless connectivity into virtually any dead spot. Of course, while the bridge boasts 54 Mbps speeds, data still has to run back into the router along a HomePlug 1.0 pathway, so don't expect much in the way of stable streaming. But for low-demand file sharing in problematic environments, the WGXB102 may be a life-saver.

To date, powerline networking is being aimed almost exclusively at consumers, but don't ignore opportunities in the business space. Companies can face the same interference and dead spot problems as homes, and business-class access points can cost up to $400 a pop. Some corporations won't want to trust their data to the hackable DES encryption found in many powerline products, but small businesses may value affordable networking over security and not mind.

"Powerline gives users a solution that is easy to understand, easy to maintain, and most of all, easy to install," says Andy Ju, product manager for ZyXEL, which offers its PL-100 Power Line Ethernet Adapter as a very similar alternative to SMC's unit. "Powerline will find a niche in the marketplace just as other networking technology, such as high powered devices, has. Boosted antenna signals do not promise one of the deliverables that powerline solutions can: easy installation. There's nothing on the market today that can be called a true Plug-n-Play device without drivers and hassle of setup menus. Wireless will be the mainstream method of connectivity, but there will always be a market for alternative networking."

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