Going Wireless

Auto major Honda Siel's campus is spread

across 20 different buildings/blocks over 157 acres. Effectively complimenting

the wired network with a wireless one, the company has not only managed to

provide the much needed flexibility of movement to its executives moving across

the campus, but has also managed the expansion of network to accommodate new

users-easier, faster and more cost effective. 

The initial push for a wireless network came around three

years back as suddenly the requirement of nearly 100 network points popped up as

the company was expanding its capacity and new persons were joining each day.

The key requirement was to be able to add new network points and manage

additional users faster and in a more cost effective manner. According to Hilal

Isar Khan, head-IT, Honda Siel Cars India, wireless was outlined as the best

solution available to cater to the huge need of network points in a very small

time interval. It was not possible to cater to the new demand of 100 more

network points with traditional UTP cables since it was not possible to lay the

cables in the existing ducts as it had no space left for more cables to be laid.

It was also not possible to lay the cables through the ceiling as it may have

destroyed the aesthetics. Furthermore, laying the cables would have come across

as a more expensive proposition.

Apart from the basic cost and time considerations, there was

also the need for providing mobility for the users, so that users can discuss

their work, access the network on laptops sitting anywhere in the administration

hall. The administration block houses several meeting rooms and there is also a

lot of movement within the block with the executives moving around for meetings

with vendors, suppliers, etc.

For Honda Siel one of the key considerations while deploying

the wireless network was that no black holes are left, which would have resulted

in data loss while moving. Another implementation challenge was to effectively

distribute the applications between the wired and wireless networks. Since the

maximum bandwidth available on wireless LAN was 54 mbps, which was further

divided, considering around 25 users were planned to be connected to each access

point. Therefore, the applications were segregated on the basis of bandwidth

hungry applications and not so bandwidth hungry applications.

An analysis was also carried out on who would be using,

which applications in order to determine the users who could be given WLAN and

wired LAN access. Based on the analysis the users who were using bandwidth

intensive applications were given wired LAN and the users who were using

internet, mailing and our AS400 client (not so bandwidth hungry application)

were given the WLAN access.

The security issues on the wireless network are being

tackled through Wired Equivalent Privacy (WeP) keys and MAC addresses. The WeP

keys are installed in the wireless network and anyone who needs to connect to

the network will require that key to connect to the WLAN.

On the other hand, the MAC addresses are the addresses that

are hard-coded into the device remains unique all over the world. MAC addresses

of the LAN adapters of the laptops are stored in each wireless access point so

that only those laptops can connect to the wireless network whose MAC addresses

are stored in the access points.

According to Khan, not only has the wireless network helped

in saving on the additional cost and time that would have gone into the

expansion of the wired network, it has also helped in terms of building an

effective redundancy into the wired LAN as well as giving flexibility of

movement to the users within the campus premises. The addition of the wireless

network has further made the task of network expansion and addition of new users

easier for the immediate as well as future requirements.

Shipra Arora 



shipraa@cybermedia.co.in