Enterprises can now consider replacing high speed
networks with wireless equivalents with the recent ratification of
the802.11n
wireless standard, says wireless Lan
management firmAirMagnet.
"For the first time, it is viable to replace Ethernet
connectivity because of enhanced performance, reach and
reliability," said
Wade Williamson, director of product development at
AirMagnet.
Most enterprises are expected to use the 802.11n wireless
standard by the end of 2010, now that it has been ratified, he
said. The standard has been under consideration for seven
years.
Wireless networks are attractive because they are easier,
quicker and cheaper to set up than wired networks. They also make
it easier to add new users, said Williamson.
"The challenge is managing that network and enforcing the
corporate boundary from a security point of view," he said.
AirMagnet has released a re-architected version of its AirMagnet
Enterprise security and management product. This is to enable
businesses to tap into the benefits of the new 802.11n
standard.
All security sensors, optimisation tools and guides have been
updated to include 11n support. Five of 40 new alarms are aimed at
preventing hacker attacks designed to exploit the 11n standard.
One way the standard improves performance is by acknowledging
only after specific sets of data is sent and not after each
individual packet.
But hackers can exploit this to carry out denial of service
(DoS) attacks by sending extremely large data sets aimed at tying
up the network indefinitely, said Williamson.
The new version of the product is designed to resolve such
specific attacks as well as standard wireless network attack
methods, he said.