Factors to Consider when Selecting a WLAN technology

There are so many factors to consider when selecting a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology as we are going to discuss below. Before selecting a WLAN on has to consider the technology you support and based on that go through the following check list.

• What type of standard do you support, there are 3 WLAN standard in the market that you can go for with each having different features as discussed earlier, the standards are the IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11B and the IEEE 802.11g
• Check on the maximum data rates that each standard support, here is the data rate for each standard the 802.11a support up to 54Mbps, 802.11b support up to 11Mbps, 802.11g support up to 54Mbps
• Check on the speed of the WNLAN standard, 802.11a has speed of 5GHz, 802.11b has a speed of 2.4GHz and the 802.11g functions at 2.4GHz  
• Consider the number of channels that each standard will give you as most support from three to 11 channels with 8.02.11a supporting eight to eleven channels
• Consider the amount of interference each WLAN standard would experience
• Bandwidth capacity that each standard can support
• Consider number of access points your network will support
• Type of security that the selected standard is going to offer most of them support both the WEP and WPA
• Vendors support for multiple standards into their wireless products. This will give you room to freely test other products on the same platform without interference at all
• The type of WLAN devices available in the market has to be considered this enables clients to implement networks with readily available equipment
• Consider the speed of these WLAN devices
• The cost of devices would also be taken into consideration as you can only use the device you can afford to buy
• Buying network adapters that support multiple protocols, and this could cost you additional money
• Support for migration and competing standards problems
• Consider networks degradation speed as you moves further from an access point, this help to know how weak is the signal of this particular standard compared to the others
• Type of protocol will influence the type of standard for your WLAN since protocols specifies a variety of speeds at which it can operate
• Site survey  
• Security implementations  
• Future technologies
• Value-add to the power user

Those are some of the few factors to consider when selecting WLAN technology, check other factors from already established clients near and find out there experience with the technology they are using, consult your wireless network technician on the available types of technologies that you can implement after doing a site survey and remember it’s very crucial for a site survey to be done in order to implement a more satisfying WLAN