As part of its strategy to provide a range of signal transmission solutions, Belden has introduced the 4th generation solution for Wireless Access which greatly simplifies installation and offers improved performance over current technology by providing seamless mobility, high security, no co-channel interference and unmatched system capacity.
Belden’s new Wireless Access System is based on the Channel Blanket approach which has many benefits. It means that users have true mobility by combining the freedom of wireless with the ease and simplicity of a hard-wired network. It combines voice, video and data networking and increases throughput. Access points can be anywhere and require only the simplest of installations without any set-up or configuration required. The system is easy to plan, install, test and maintain. MACs (Moves, Adds and Changes) are also easily achieved by simply altering an access point.
Chris Chandler, Technical Manager for Belden UK and Ireland says: “In today’s fast-paced communication environment, people need mobility without any limitations to their physical location. They need fast and easy access to information without any security concerns and without giving up the quality. Belden wireless solutions gives people what they need - being able to communicate and access information fast with full, seamless mobility, ubiquitous coverage, and robust client connections that simply do not drop.
“With its wireless solution, Belden overcomes the problems of cell-based WLANs. Users are provided with mobility benefits of the wireless with a wire-like performance which is simple and easy to deploy and maintain. As a result, both the users and the installers benefit from the simplicity of the system. Seamless mobility for wireless access is a brilliant example of what Belden can achieve for its customers in EMEA and globally.”
Conventional hard-wired networks are designed for people working at desks in fixed locations using a wall or floor jack to gain access. These provide some limited mobility but do not fulfill today’s need for total freedom with access from anywhere and multi-service flexibility tailored to the user’s business or personal needs.
Hard-wired networks were designed only to carry data and not intended for the simultaneous transmission of data, multimedia streams and voice traffic. Cell-based systems are plagued by co-channel interference which is the primary cause of diminished system capacity. Another difficulty is they require deep radio-frequency (RF) engineering enterprise coupled with the need to balance channelization, acceptable interference, transmit power and unique antenna selection for each access point. With the Belden Wireless Solution all RF-related complexity disappears and only a basic understanding of wireless technology is required.
The Channel Blanket topology means that each radio channel is used everywhere at every access point to create blankets of coverage. The result is seamless mobility with no security concerns, no roaming latency, no co-channel interference, robust customer connections that do not drop and the ability to design for a guaranteed and predictable level of service. It means no access problems from the wireless equipment itself, from the type of information required or from the physical location. The end result is network performance that is dramatically improved and transformed, giving universal coverage and unmatched system capacity.
Belden’s innovative system is easy to plan, install, test and maintain. It is a solution which eliminates the classic trade-off between coverage and capacity, providing the industry’s highest capacity and bandwidth and achieving this on several levels.
There are many benefits for the user as they no longer need to consider their proximity to an access point in order to achieve connectivity. They can be secure in the knowledge that their grade of service will stay consistent, calls will not be dropped and there is no need to consider the network at all.
The new system eliminates edge users and client bunching which are common problems with traditional systems. It offers the highest capacity through layered blanket which means it is possible to multiply the capacity at any given point in the enterprise network. In addition it boosts the total system bandwidth. The result is a seamless coexistence of all applications and all user types.
Belden’s Switch is the central component of the Channel Blanket architecture. Powerful and intelligent 6-port and 24-port switches manage all WLAN traffic and network management activities. They work with and control the operation of Belden’s BWAP-200 Access Points. This enables the same channel to be transmitted from every access point in the system, without the interference which plagues other WLAN solutions.
The system’s Access Points are elegantly simple. They require no set-up and no configuration. They are designed to delegate all network traffic decisions to the Switch. Because of their simplicity and the fact that they are powered by standard power over Ethernet, they provide a true plug-and-play architecture for implementing large scale, enterprise grade WLANs. Importantly, the switch software also provides high security and centralized software control which means that the access points can never be the point of a possible security breach.
For more information about Belden, please visit www.belden-emea.com .
