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Generation W: Page 2 of 8

When the IEEE 802.11 standard was approved in 1999 and the Wi-Fi Alliance was established to promote 802.11b through marketing and product certification, the industry began its second-generation progression toward mainstream product sets. The so-called "smart" access point was a the key element of WLAN infrastructure. These APs provided both physical-layer radio modems and Layer 2 network services.

For the past five years, APs have grown increasingly powerful. But deploying and managing networks built around hundreds or thousands of APs is costly.

Moreover, the smart AP architecture has proved inadequate, giving rise to various third-party enhancements. AirWave Wireless and Wavelink Corp. developed software-based management systems that beat those provided by AP manufacturers. Bluesocket, Vernier Networks and ReefEdge stepped in to address fundamental security, roaming and management issues. AirDefense, AirMagnet and Wild Packets introduced monitoring systems. The list goes on.

Now, third-generation enterprise WLAN systems are emerging that provide a more comprehensive integrated solution--not only from established vendors like Cisco, Proxim and Symbol Technologies, but from new players--Airespace, AirFlow Networks, Aruba Networks, Chantry Networks, Legra Systems, Trapeze Networks and Vivato--as well as established wired infrastructure players like Extreme Networks and Nortel Networks.

These 3G enterprise WLAN products, often marketed as "wireless switches" to lure comparisons to the extremely valuable migration of Ethernet from shared to switched, provide a similar range of services and, in many cases, underlying system architecture.