WiFi and the enterprise network

I would like to start this article off by mentioning a key point that many people are not aware of. Wireless networks are actually IEEE 802.11 which differs from what we all know to be Ethernet aka IEEE 802.3. The main differences between the two are at the physical and MAC layers. Beyond that, the two are comparable in terms of standards. That said, wireless technology is considered a mature technology, albeit, a rapidly evolving one. To whit, IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g and so on. These various subsets of 802.11 have led to changes in both speed and throughput on the internal wireless network. This rapid maturation of wireless technology has caught the eye of enterprise networks worldwide, and is now widely thought of as a business enabler. Many companies now think of wireless technology as a “must have”. With this wide scale adoption of wireless technology by big businesses has come the need to secure it.