Unlike home consumer models, industrial wireless access points can also be used as a bridge, router, or a client.

Introduction

Prior to wireless networks, setting up a computer network in a business, home, or school often required running many cables through walls and ceilings in order to deliver network access to all of the network-enabled devices in the building. With the advent of the Wireless Access Point, network users are now able to add devices that access the network with few or no cables. Today's WAPs are built to support a standard for sending and receiving data using radio frequencies rather than cabling. Those standards, and the frequencies they use are defined by the IEEE. Most WAPs use IEEE 802.11 standards.

Common WAP Applications

A typical corporate use involves attaching several WAPs to a wired network and then providing wireless access to the office LAN. The wireless acess points are managed by a WLAN Controller which handles automatic adjustments to RF power, channels, authentication, and security. Further, controllers can be combined to form a wireless mobility group to allow inter-controller roaming. The controllers can be part of a mobility domain to allow clients access throughout large or regional office locations. This saves the client time and administrators overhead by automatically re-associating or re-authentication. Further, multiple controllers and all of the hundreds of access points attached to those controllers can be managed by a software called Cisco Wireless Control System Which handles the same functions as a controller yet adds the bonus features of mapping user or RFID locations to an uploaded map, upgrading controllers and access point firmware, and rogue detection/handling. This In this instance, the WAP functions as a gateway for clients to access the wired network.