Intel IT developed a new wireless LAN (WLAN) network architecture and design that is enabling us to converge data, voice, and video onto a unified network infrastructure and use wireless as the primary access method. We have begun a groundbreaking initiative to implement this approach at a major Intel site with about 5,000 users.  We needed the new architecture and design to overcome inherent WLAN bandwidth limitations and the many other technical challenges we faced when creating a primary wireless network on this scale. Our goals included:

-Delivering high throughput while avoiding problems due to radio frequency (RF) interference
-Providing seamless roaming and Quality of Service (QoS) to support voice, video, and data services on mobile clients
-Making the network highly reliable, secure, and manageable

We adopted a standards-based approach, adding proprietary specifications where necessary. We are implementing our architecture and design using the Cisco Unified Wireless Network*.  We are moving ahead to deploy voice, video, and data services over our primary WLAN to users throughout the campus. This initiative shows that WLANs can achieve the performance, reliability, QoS, and manageability needed to deliver converged services within a large enterprise.