The Cisco Aironet 1100 Series supports a single 802.11g radio. Users can enjoy up to 54 Mbps data rates while maintaining full backward compatibility with legacy 802.11b devices. Administrators can configure the access point to support both 802.11g and legacy 802.11b clients for investment protection, or for higher performance, the access point can be configured to support only 802.11g clients. The Cisco Aironet 1100 Series also features an innovative mounting system for easy installation and reliable coverage in a variety of locations and orientations.
The Cisco Aironet 1100 Series is a component of the Cisco Unified Wireless Network, a comprehensive solution that delivers an integrated, end-to-end wired and wireless network. Using the radio and network management features of the Cisco Unified Wireless Network for simplified deployment, the Cisco Aironet 1100 Series extends the security, scalability, reliability, ease of deployment, and manageability available in wired networks to the wireless LAN.
The Cisco Aironet 1100 Series is available in two versions: unified or autonomous. Unified access points operate with the Lightweight Access Point Protocol (LWAPP) and work in conjunction with Cisco wireless LAN controllers and the Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS). When configured with LWAPP, the Cisco Aironet 1100 Series can automatically detect the best-available Cisco wireless LAN controller and download appropriate policies and configuration information with no manual intervention. Autonomous access points are based on Cisco IOS® Software and may optionally operate with the CiscoWorks Wireless LAN Solution Engine (WLSE). Autonomous access points, along with the CiscoWorks WLSE, deliver a core set of features and may be field-upgraded to take advantage of the full benefits of the Cisco Unified Wireless Network as requirements evolve.
Figure 1. Multiple access points give mobile users with client adapters the ability to maintain uninterrupted access to all network resources.
Enterprise-Class Security Solution
The Cisco Aironet 1100 Series is part of the award-winning Cisco Wireless Security Suite, which supports 802.11i, Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2), WPA and numerous Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) types. WPA and WPA2 are the Wi-Fi Alliance certifications for interoperable, standards-based WLAN security. These certifications support IEEE 802.1X for user-based authentication, Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) for WPA encryption, and the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) for WPA2 encryption. These certifications help to ensure interoperability between Wi-Fi-certified WLAN devices from different manufacturers.
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A switch is more sophisticated than a hub, giving you more options for network management, as well as greater potential to expand. A switch filters the data packets, and only sends the packet to the port which is connected to the destination address of that packet. It does this by keeping a table of each destination address and its port. When the switch receives a packet, it reads the destination address and then establishes a connection between the source port and the destination port. After the packet is sent, the connection is terminated.
A switch provides higher total throughput than a hub because it can support multiple simultaneous conversations. For example, when a 100Mbit/sec hub has five workstations, each receives only 20Mbit/sec of the available bandwidth. When a 10-100Mbit/sec switch is used every port on the switch represents a dedicated 100Mbit/sec path, so each workstation receives 100Mbit/sec of bandwidth.
Switches also run in full duplex mode, which allows data to be sent and received across the network at the same time. Switches can effectively double the speed of the network when compared to a hub which only supports half duplex mode.
Why choose one of our Switches?
Switches improve the performance and efficiency of a network and should be used when you:
- Need to make best use of the available bandwidth
- Have multiple file servers
- Require improved performance from file servers, web servers or workstations
- Use high speed multi-media applications
- Are adding a high speed workgroup to a 10Mbit/sec LAN
- Plan to upgrade from 10 to 100Mbit/sec or Gigabit network
The standard features on all N-Way switches are:
- 10-100Mbit/sec Auto-Negotiation on all ports, the switch automatically senses the speed of the attached device and configures the port for the proper speed. This simplifies deployment in mixed Ethernet and Fast Ethernet environments
- Auto MDI/MDI-X auto-detects whether the connected cable type is normal or cross-over
- Full or Half Duplex operation
Hubs and switches function as a common connection point for the workstations, printers, file servers and other devices that make up a network. The main difference between hubs and switches is the way in which they communicate with the network.
A hub functions as the central connection point of a network. It joins together the workstations, printers, and servers on a network, so they can communicate with each other. Each hub has a number of ports that connect it to the other devices via a network cable.
A hub is an inexpensive way to connect devices on a network. Data travels around a network in ‘packets’ and a hub forwards these data packets out to all the devices connected to its ports.
As a hub distributes packets to every device on the network, when a packet is destined for only one device, every other device connected to the hub receives that packet. Because all the devices connected to the hub are contending for transmission of data the individual members of a shared network will only get a percentage of the available network bandwidth. This process can slow down a busy network.
A 10Base-T hub Ethernet Hub provides a total of 10 Mbit/sec of bandwidth, which all users share. If one person on the network is downloading a very large file, for example, little or no bandwidth is available for other users. These users will experience very slow network performance.
A router, a key component of the Internet, has a lot more capabilities than other network devices like a hub or a switch. A hub or switch is designed to perform basic network-related functions. A hub is often used to transfer data between computers or network devices. But it does not analyze or do anything with the data it transfers. However, a router can analyze the data being sent over a network, change the way it is packaged and send it to another network, or over a different network. Routers are commonly used in home networks to share a single Internet connection with multiple computers.
Technically speaking, a router is hardware device designed to take incoming packets, analyzing them, and then directing them to the appropriate locations. It moves the packets to another network, convert the packets to be moved across a different network interface, drop the packets, or perform any other number of other actions. (more…)
