The widespread use of wireless access points and wireless routers provides great convenience and flexibility in network access for businesses, universities and other organizations.
Yet in spite of the numerous advantages WLAN infrastructures offer, there are still a number of unsettled issues:
- All wireless access points must be configured and require appropriate monitoring in order to recognize unwelcome WLAN clients, etc. The administration of the access points, especially for larger WLAN infrastructures with the appropriate security mechanisms, requires advanced qualifications and experience on the part of those responsible, and it ties up considerable resources in the IT departments.
- The manual customization of the configurations in the access points when changes are made to the WLAN infrastructure can be time-consuming, with the result that different configurations can be present in the WLAN at the same time.
- Combined utilization of the shared communications medium (air) requires effective coordination of the access points to avoid frequency interference and optimize network performance.
- In public places, access points are a potential security risk because the devices themselves, including the security-related data in them such as passwords, etc., are susceptible to theft. In addition, rogue access points may be able to connect to the LAN unnoticed, bypassing the security policies that are in place.