More WLAN

A research survey conducted by AirMagnet found more than 92 percent of those polled plan to extend their wireless LAN deployments in 2009 despite the current state of the economy. Of those organizations expanding their networks, 15 percent wilt at least double the network in 2009. Fourteen percent will extend it by 50 percent to 75 percent, 33 percent by 25 percent to 50 percent, and 34 percent will grow it by up to 25 percent. Only 8 percent of those surveyed said they did not plan to extend their WLAN deployment in 2009.

According to the survey, two-thirds of WLAN deployments now support at least one "mission-critical" application. Forty nine percent stated they have multiple mission-critical applications running on their WLAN and 18 percent cited a single critical application. The remainder, nearly one-third of the respondents, cited using WLANs only for convenience access, such as lobby or conference room wireless access.

Organizations are also looking to put heavy-duty applications on their WLANs in 2009, with onethird saying they plan to add video and/or collaboration, and 30 percent indicating that voice-over-WLAN is scheduled for 2010. These applications join location services and guest access as the top WLAN applications.