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WLAN wireless network controller

A stable wireless network is especially important for the industrial solutions i.e. for the warehouse management program or the production management software mobile users. The cure can be the WiFi network controller deployment. A noticeable trend on the market is the migration of wireless networks equipped only with plain AP access points in the direction of the manageable network through a centralized controller that is responsible for some access point settings including the radio transmission parameters.

Basic controller features:

  • the WiFi network commonness and a limited radio band number available for transmission causes interference and electromagnetic noise issues. The controllers are up to date with the information collection from the whole wireless network and react to the environment changes. They optimize the signal strength, band width, and channels so that the devices do not interfere with one another.
  • The controllers support the customer station roaming process between several access points and use the new standards to achieve it, i.e. 802.11k, 802.11v. The customer station is informed in advance about the closest access points that it can connect to.
  • Centralized configuration and monitoring. The network setting change is automatically distributed to all the access points.
  • Advanced authorization. When using the wireless network controllers you can deploy advanced workstation authorization mechanisms.

Depending on the concept we can find a few controller types on the market.

  • Hardware controller – it is a dedicated device together with installed software. There are solutions in which the hardware controllers are duplicated and work in the failover mode.
  • Virtual controller – it is available in the form of virtual machine image meant for working in a certain environment.
  • Scattered controller – the controller is booted as a virtual machine only on one access point and not as in case of the virtual controller on the cluster. Scattered controller is most often duplicated in the network on the consecutive devices that take over the wireless network management functions in case of failure of the basic controller. Because of the small AP calculation power such a solution is meant for relatively small networks with uncomplicated configuration.
  • Cloud controller – management software is located on the hardware manufacturer cloud, the functionality most often requires purchasing the license that is valid for a certain amount of time. Additionally, the devices of some manufacturers after the power supply loss and the lack of access to the cloud do not work and to initiate them you need a cloud-embedded configuration.
  • Hybrid solutions – the combination of the above solutions.

Our engineers within our IT business services deploy the wireless network solutions.