JANET Wireless Technology Advisory Service
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Technology
On this page:
- Points to Consider About Wireless Networking
- Wireless Glossary of Terms
- User Authentication
- Surveying Wireless Networks Technical Guide
- WiMAX Technology Briefing
- Wireless Security
- The Alphabet Soup of the 802.11 Family of Standards
- The Overlapping Channel Problem
- The Care and Feeding of SSIDs
- Wireless Health and Safety Issues and Recommendations
- Safe Use of Wireless Networks: Web Redirect and 802.1X
- Wireless 802.11 standards
- Mobile Networking 1G to 4G
- Connecting Wired and Wireless Networks
- Guest and Public Network Access
- Rogue Wireless Suppression
Can 802.11a technology be used outdoors?
Yes, Band B, 5.470-5.725Gz can be used to support a network for mobile devices (licence not required) and Band C, 5.725-5.850GHz can be used for inter-building links provided an inexpensive licence is obtained from Ofcom, 5.8GHz Fixed Wireless Access Licence. Band A, 5.150-5.350GHz must NOT be used outside of buildings.
An excellent short paper on the 5GHz bands and legal usage in the UK can be found on this external link:
Can Cisco 'fat' WAPs be used with multiple broadcast SSIDs and dynamic VLANs?
This question concerns 'thick' access points - which are in fact 'smart'/'autonomous'/'distributed' standalone devices. Whilst a lot of organisations deploying large numbers of access points choose to deploy 'lightweight' 'thin' access points, there are a number that prefer to deploy autonomous 'thin' devices - particularly those in the early stages of WLAN deployment and where the size of the WLAN does not justify the cost of distributed technology. Until recently there was a widely-known issue with Cisco fat APs and multiple BSSIDs and dynamic VLAN allocation. This has now been addressed in the latest release of Cisco IOS 12.3.8-JEA.
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