The wireless LAN security landscape

One of the core challenges in selling wireless LAN (WLAN) security solutions is understanding the big picture of this critical part of enterprise networking within the current security climate. As it turns out, there are a number of distinct categories of products involved in a complete WLAN security strategy, with significant functional overlap between them. Crafting the right solution for your customer involves a detailed understanding of their specific requirements, as well as the ability to define a cost-effective and manageable solution based on the components available -- and there are a lot to choose from!

I generally break down the wireless LAN security landscape as follows:

And, just to provide a complete picture here, additional security functionality may exist in upper-layer network management tools (NMS), enterprise service and network application management tools, and, for carriers and operators, operational support systems (OSS). Looking ahead, we expect a general roll-up of wireless security functionality into a smaller number of products --

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a trend that is already evident. We also expect that wireless and wired LAN management will converge, resulting in a single security management platform for all networks and users within a given building or even across the enterprise.

The specific combination of products required for a particular solution will vary with local security policies and, of course, budgets. The good news is that all of the above functionalities will eventually be integrated into most wireless LAN system products, simplifying security configuration to a great degree. Expertise within the channel will always be required, of course, to configure, re-configure, verify, and monitor network installations throughout their lifecycle.

About the author
Craig Mathias is a principal with Farpoint Group, an advisory firm based in Ashland, Mass., specializing in wireless networking and mobile computing. The firm works with manufacturers, enterprises, carriers, government, and the financial community on all aspects of wireless and mobile. He can be reached at craig@farpointgroup.com.