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With the same aerodynamic design as the company's single 802.11a solution, the 5000 LAN Dual Access Point houses both 802.11a and 802.11b radio chipsets and antennas. If your WLAN is operating in the 5-GHz spectrum with eight nonoverlapping channels, you can install up to eight collocated dual access points while supporting existing 802.11b wireless users in the 2.4-GHz spectrum. The access point has one chipset for each solution and separate administrative Web pages. Both chipsets support 128-bit and 64-bit WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) encryption as well as 802.1x authentication and PoE (Power Over Ethernet).

Simple Setup

The setup and configuration of the 5000 LAN Dual Access Point was a breeze -- after some minor hiccups. By default the unit is set to grab an IP address from a DHCP server. If one is not available, it uses a factory-set static IP address. But though my setup had a DHCP server, the access point would not accept an address for it. I was forced to connect a laptop directly to the AP using the factory-default IP address.

The unexplained difficulty with DHCP was inconvenient, but connecting directly to the unit wasted little time in the lab. In an enterprise setting, however, this DHCP client malfunction could be problematic.

I gave the 5000 LAN Dual Access Point a static IP address on the network via the hierarchical Web interface. From that point I could use any computer on the same subnet to configure the AP. I had a problem with roaming clients that required a reinsertion of the client card before reassociating to an AP. A firmware upgrade followed by a reboot corrected the problem.

Throughput and Range

For throughput tests I used NetIQ's Chariot 4.1 network-performance tester and set up two 1-GHz laptops running Microsoft Windows 2000 five feet from the AP and three feet from each other. I blasted 100 iterations of a 1-MB, TCP-based, unidirectional long-file send (filesendl) and long-file receive (filercvl) transfers. First I tested each mode independently, then I tested both modes concurrently. In each case I tested with and without 128-bit WEP enabled.

With the 802.11b mode, the transfer speeds were slightly different: 4.49 Mbps for filesendl and 3.25 Mbps for filercvl. But I saw no difference at all with WEP enabled. My reference 802.11b access point, Cisco's Aironet 350, had an average throughput of about 5 Mbps, a touch faster than the 5000 LAN Dual Access Point's 802.11b average.

To test the unit's range, I placed the 5000 LAN Dual Access Point in an elevated location in a hall of our labs. The AP was placed in its recommended position for optimal coverage by the static 802.11b omnidirectional antenna and the software-configurable 802.11a omnidirectional/patch antenna. I ran a continuous ping from the laptops to the static IP address of the AP to measure range based on packet loss from various locations.

In respect to range, the 5000 LAN Dual Access Point's 802.11b component is on par with other 802.11b units. However, the 802.11a component's range was middle-of-the-road, topping out about 40 feet shorter than Proxim's Harmony access point. I especially noticed a difference in signal strength while testing range. Packet loss immediately went from 0 percent to 100 percent on the outskirts of the coverage area. Intel acknowledges that it focused on stability and quality of signal in the dual offering, rather than on extended range or higher throughput.

Stats Galore

The 5000 LAN Dual Access Point's configuration interface is well-designed and makes most configuration tasks easy, primarily because of the separate administrative Web interfaces for each mode.

Impressively, the Web interface offers an abundance of statistics for each radio device. Similar to the devices settings pages, the Web interface separates the statistics pages so you cannot view information for both radios simultaneously, but the capability is useful nonetheless.

To make management easier, the unit supports SNMP, but Intel does not provide its own central-management solution, which makes this product ill-suited for enterprise deployment. In comparison, Proxim offers the hardware-based Harmony Access Point Controller and Intermec has its software-based MobileLAN manager utility for use with its MobileLAN products.

The Right Path?

Although Intel has done a credible job integrating 802.11a and 802.11b radios, WLANs need to support multiple standards, and it's not clear that simply integrating 802.11a and 802.11b radios is the best approach. And though the 5000 LAN Dual Access Point fits into a host of different situations that would require backward compatibility with existing 802.11b devices, the difficulty comes when trying to design an efficient WLAN solely with the 5000 LAN Dual Access Point.

At $649, Intel's 5000 LAN Dual Mode Access Point is a cost-effective WLAN convergence solution. For users of Intel's 802.11a AP (priced at $449), an upgrade might soon be available at $249 to support 802.11b users, the company says.

As of yet, Intel says the legality of a user-serviceable access point has yet to be shown by the FCC, which should raise a red flag for people waiting to turn their current single-mode APs into dual solutions. Support of upcoming industry standards (such as 802.11g) is a given for Intel, but the ability to upgrade this particular model to meet standards is not a sure thing.

Intel clearly wants to be a bigger player in the growing WLAN market, and it has the resources to be one. For deployment in an environment where extended range and high performance are not the primary goals, Intel's device would get the job done at a reasonable price. But in the long run, deploying functional dual-band WLANs requires more than APs with multiple radios.

Jesse Lindeman is a research associate at the Center for Emerging Network Technologies at Syracuse University. He has also been a systems administrator for a historic roofing firm in Washington. Send your comments on this article to him at jwlindem@syr.edu.