Wireless and Mobility - understanding wireless and mobility

Whether you are thinking about adding a wireless network to your office or find that you need to support increasingly mobile employees, you may be concerned that supporting wireless and mobile technologies is daunting, expensive, and risky. The good news is that adding or expanding your wireless options can be very simple, the costs very reasonable, and the connection secure. HP has developed this guide to help dispel the myths associated with wireless, help you understand your wireless and mobility options, and provide you with step-by-step instructions on implementing wireless technology in your business.

What wireless and mobile technologies can do for  your business

Wireless and mobile technologies free your business from the need to use wired cables to connect your company's network and offer your employees the flexibility to work from anywhere they need to: at home, in the field, or even at their favorite coffee shop. When you take wireless and mobile to the next level and deploy solutions like mobile mail and messaging and mobile sales force automation, you will see increased mobility, flexibility, time savings, productivity, responsiveness, and collaboration throughout your business.

HP Mobility solutions provide you with a complete set of products and services that offer you smarter, simpler, and safer ways to stay connected. Non-stop connectivity, integrated mobility, and voice and data convergence save you time and trouble as you move about. You get solutions that are easy to buy and easy to own, along with expert support to help you respond faster to the changing business landscape. And, because security is a key factor for every business in today's world, HP solutions offer built-in security and the dependability you've come to expect from HP so you can minimize the technical and financial risks to your business. With wireless and mobility solutions from HP you can:

Offer secure e-mail access to mobile workers

Wirelessly enable your mobile sales force to manage deals with sales excellence solultions

Secure your mobile devices and the data they carry

Address specific needs in the real estate, accounting, legal and heal care industries

Inside wireless and mobile technologies

Although you don't need to be a technology wizard to take advantage of wireless technologies, you can make better decisions about which solutions are best for you if you have a basic understanding of the terms and concepts associated with wireless. Generally speaking, wireless is a technology that uses radio waves rather than wires to send data along a communication path. Wireless devices can operate in three different network environments:

• Wireless PANs (Personal Area Networks): a small collection of mobile devices that make up a piconet (tiny network), typically located in one room. The PAN replaces the wires that would normally connect one piece of equipment to another. For example, a PAN may connect a desktop to a nearby printer, digital camera, scanner, keyboard, mouse, and PDA. In a PAN, each mobile wireless device communicates directly with other devices, and devices must be relatively close together -- typically within 33 feet of each other.
• Wireless LANs (Local Area Networks): a workgroup of wireless devices joined into a network, yet spread out over an entire office or perhaps one floor of a building. Instead of using cables to connect desktops and servers to the network, wireless LANs connect mobile devices to a small collection of wireless access points that are wired to the network. For example, employees with wireless notebooks or PDAs can access the Internet using wireless access points affixed to the ceiling in your office, and they are able to move from room to room without losing their connectivity. In a wireless LAN, each mobile wireless device communicates with the access point, which can be several hundred feet away
• Wireless WANs (Wide Area Networks): a network of wireless devices that work beyond a single building, operated by a public carrier such as your cellular provider. In a wireless WAN, you can use wireless to reach a carrier's voice or data network instead of plugging your notebook into a phone jack and dialing into the Internet. For example, field personnel can check prices or inventory while visiting a customer site by using a wireless WAN to query a database back at the office. In a WAN, each mobile device communicates to a public carrier's base station. Public carriers install networks of base stations (similar to cell phone towers) throughout large geographic areas, effectively providing coverage across entire states, regions, or even countries.

Utilizing these technologies has become much easier in recent years. Furthermore, industry standards have significantly stabilized and vendors of hardware and applications/software have created offerings with robust capabilities -- this means that data is kept safer during a wireless transmission or when a device is lost or stolen.

Wireless protocols

For computers, handhelds, printers, and other wireless devices to communicate with a wireless network, they have to speak the same language (technically called a protocol). Each type of wireless network has its own protocols and standards:

Bluetooth™ and Infrared for PANs

• Bluetooth™ (also known as the IEEE 802.15 standard for wireless PAN communication) is ideally suited for connecting up to eight devices within a single room. Bluetooth™ operates in the 2.4 GHz radio band (part of the "Unlicensed Spectrum" that does not require the user to obtain a license to operate the equipment). To minimize potential interference from other devices that might transmit in the same band, Bluetooth™ uses a technique called FHSS (Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum) to ensure that each device transmits only briefly on a given radio channel and then moves (hops) to another channel.
• IR (Infrared) communication is a Bluetooth™ alternative that allows you to connect two devices that have built-in IR ports and are located in the same room. Simply line up the devices' IR ports and beam (or send) data

Wi-Fi for LANs: The IEEE 802.11 family of standards was introduced to establish a common, secure set of standards for device-to-device data communication over wireless in much the same way that Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) connects computers on a wired LAN. On a wired network, computers are connected to the network by cables plugged into Ethernet hubs and switches. In a wireless LAN, computers connect to the network by sending radio signals to an access point. Each access point is connected to a wired network and it relays traffic between wireless devices and the wired network. Today, most wireless LAN products support 802.11b (also called Wi-Fi), a standard that operates in the 2.4 GHz band at speeds up to 11 Mbps. However, a growing number of products are beginning to support two newer standards: 802.11a (operating in the 5 GHz band at speeds up to 54 Mbps) and 802.11g (sharing the same 2.4 GHz band at speeds up to 54 Mbps). As with Bluetooth™, these frequencies were chosen to allow unlicensed operation

CDMA2000 and GPRS/EDGE for WANs

• CDMA2000 is a second-generation (2G) protocol originally designed to carry voice and then retrofitted to carry a modest amount of low-speed data traffic. 2G data services can support brief e-mails and other short transactions, but are too slow for transferring large files.
• GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is an advanced wireless data network. Although it is faster than a 2G network, it is slower than a true third-generation network (3G network -- see below). For that reason, it is often referred to as a 2.5G network. GPRS uses exactly the same network as GSM, the voice network. A typical 2.5G network can transfer data at 40 to70 Kbps, a bit faster than v.90 dial-up Internet access, and is suitable for conducting business activities such as checking e-mail
• EDGE is an upgrade to the GPRS network that offers 3G data services (>100 Kbps). These networks offer the promise of megabit speeds in the future to carry multimedia content

Dispelling wireless myths

Wireless is one of the hottest technology topics and as such receives a great deal of press. As is true about many other technologies before it, wireless has its fair share of myths about problems and risks. If any of these myths are preventing you from taking full advantage of the business benefits of wireless, read on to discover the truth behind the myths and remove them as a roadblock to your wireless success.

Myth: "Wireless LANs are not secure."

The most commonly cited myth about wireless networks is that they aren't secure. In reality, technologies and software exist to make a wireless network as secure as any wired network.

HP offers the latest in wireless security so you can implement a wireless network out of the box with confidence and without hiring an IT specialist. HP products support integrated data encryption as well as user and device authentication systems so that you can be sure that your data is secure. If you need additional assistance with specific security needs, contact an HP mobile and wireless expert.

Myth: "If I lose my notebook or handheld while on the road, I'll expose my company's confidential information."

HP ProtectTools makes it easy for you to protect and encrypt the data on your notebook or handheld so if it is lost or stolen, the data isn't compromised. HP is also working with best-in-class partners like Credant to provide solutions that extend security beyond the device and make managing security for all of your company's mobile devices easier.

Myth: "Wireless is only for road warriors."

Even though they don't travel away from the office during the day, your onsite staff members may find that they are spending a good portion of their workday away from their desk with limited access to their computer, printers, and the network. When you combine wireless connectivity with notebooks, tablets, handhelds, projectors, and even printers, all of your employees can continue to be productive even when they are away from their workspace.

Myth: "Wireless networks are expensive."

When you remove the cost of running wires throughout a building from the equation, you take away one of the most expensive elements of setting up and maintaining a network. HP Wireless solutions can cost up to 30% less than creating equivalent wired networks, and the total cost of creating a wireless network that works with your existing technology can be as little as a few hundred dollars.

For larger installations, HP Financial Services offers a complete range of leasing and financial products to help you easily and cost-effectively acquire a solution, then manage that solution through its life cycle.

Myth: "Wireless networks are hard to set up."

HP delivers end-to-end wireless solutions including wireless notebooks, Tablet PCs, iPAQ handhelds, printers, projectors, and access points that are easy to set up and use. However, finding the right wireless networking solution with the right capabilities for your size business can be a challenge, as can finding the adequate in-house expertise and time to install and implement the wireless solution you choose. To make the entire process easier and more cost-effective, HP offers two affordable Care Pack services to help you sift through the options and implement cost-justified wireless solutions much faster, with less risk and less disruption: the HP Wireless LAN Site Assessment Service and the HP Wireless LAN Installation and Startup Service.

Myth: "I have to replace my wired network with wireless equipment to use wireless technology."

If you already have a wired network, you can easily extend it by adding wireless capabilities. Simply connect an HP wireless access point to your network and add wireless cards to your mobile devices. Expansion is easy -- just add another card or a wireless access point. Installation is simple and the technology is inexpensive.

Myth: "Accessing e-mail with attachments, calendar, and contacts real time is expensive."

HP works diligently to be sure that cost doesn't prevent a business of any size from taking advantage of the latest in wireless and mobile technologies to stay connected with key business information. Our preferred partners offer specific capabilities that enable secure e-mail access for your business.

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