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Virtualization Shown to Enhance WLAN Environments

By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor

The global market is increasingly moving toward the wireless environment. A recent Fairpoint Group whitepaper explored a new development in the enterprise-class wireless LAN (WLAN) architecture, the virtualization of the controller. This approach takes the controller functionality which resides on hardware and ports it over to software which can run in a virtual machine on a hypervisor platform.

A number of advantages were identified in this approach to the WLAN, including enhanced flexibility, improved reliability, lower costs and the simplification of function that is enabled through the now superfluous hardware element. As long as this is an important part of the direct-forwarding LAN architecture, characterized by the eliminated requirement for the flow of data traffic through the controller, this strategy will gain significance across the WLAN landscape.

WLAN provider, Bluesocket Inc. (now part of ADTRAN (News - Alert)) pioneered this approach and Fairpoint Group took the stance that there was no downside. To be sure, the company recently spoke with Doug Tamasanis, senior director of Networks and Security, and Chief IT Architect at Kronos (News - Alert) Inc., as the company is now using virtual controllers from Bluesocket as part of its WLAN facility.

As a manufacturer of global workforce management solutions, Kronos employs more than 3,200 people, including more than 800 engineers. Tamasanis relies on more than 1,500 wireless devices in his environment, a number that is only expected to grow in his WLAN environment over the next few years. With the rapid uptake of smartphones, Android-based devices and iPads, the trend toward wireless is growing.

In its WLAN environment, Kronos has 146 Bluesocket (News - Alert) access points throughout the world that cover four buildings on the corporate campus and another 40 sites globally. With roughly 800 virtualized servers in use today, Kronos is also a major user of VMware. As a result, Kronos was the ideal choice to evaluate the virtual controller architecture. Tamasanis reported he is pleased with the results and will now use Bluesocket’s vWLAN virtual controller for all new sites in the future.

The company is enjoying specific virtual WLAN benefits, including the ease of deployment and growth as it is simply software and there is no need for traditional considerations such as power, rack space, cooling, hardware installations and even maintenance. This WLAN virtualization approach also promises low overhead and low resource utilization. The hands-off hardware and centralized management makes it easy to operate controller instances spread over significant geographic areas.

Kronos also enjoys less hardware to manage in its virtual WLAN environment, as well as simplified stability, redundancy and fault tolerance. The automatic failover functionality is designed to be identical to its hardware equivalent. And, this software approach is cheaper than hardware in every dimension. Virtual controllers are added only as needed, offering an inexpensive and cost-effective approach to the WLAN.

The benefits to this virtualization approach were evident and measurable within the Kronos environment, demonstrating virtualization as a powerful value proposition.




Edited by Stefanie Mosca