我们的WLAN奶酪会被严重感动，但是什么时候？

请注意：此博客的问题多于答案。我不能是唯一一个对无线快速演变中“下一步”发生的事情，对“下一步”发生的事情进行刺耳，脸部刺耳和头部刮擦。我已经看到在线同事推测，身份管理可能是下一件大事，或者其他许多奇异技术中的任何一个都螺栓固定在我们心爱的802.11网络上。我自己对无线的“下一步发生了什么”？我说这是一个错误的问题。

冒着对它提出好处的风险，质疑WLAN接下来会发生什么是在一系列新的影响力都聚集起来的时候串行思考。这也意味着一些过时的“旧学校” Wi-Fi思维，当WLAN是有线网络的配件时，以太网是任何真正后果的连通性发生的地方。现在，我们在一个将网络吹捧为“无边界”的地方，“统一”，或者只是在无线和有线访问之间没有区别。现在，我们有令人印象深刻的魔术中的中间（例如Aruba的Clearpass和Cisco's ISE），它为智能提供了支持以太网和WLAN之间紧密整合的主张，并将用户及其设备以许多组合或两者组合为访问媒介。询问WLAN接下来会在许多方面进行什么what comes next for the network？即使是基于位置的技术和基于位置的技术和分析，它们也会在媒体上夸大其词。因此，我没有问无线接下来会发生什么，我会问这一点：什么时候所有时髦的网络都在近地平线上实际上会变得足够深到WLAN范式以有所作为？

Funky network things… like what, you say? Not BYOD- we've pretty much hyped that to death. We still have to contend with it, but it's a beast that's lost it's bite and we're now years into it despite the occasional marketing beat-down of the almost-dead horse. And not so much 802.11ac, but I don't completely relegate this one to the "old hat" category. I know well that there are vendors not even shipping 11ac product (and that the standard isn't quite yet "official" even at this point), yet the early .11ac story has been told frequently enough that we yawn a bit over it too, already. (I reserve the right to get excited again when Wave 2 gets better defined, and to go nuts if we ever get to a Wave 3 and 4.) The networky things that I'm keeping an eye on to rock the WLAN world are somewhat un-wireless, per se.

正如我最近在我的Wirednot blog, I've worked myself into a groove where I'm trying to come to grips with the likes of IPv6 and SDN as they both might mpact the WLAN. Let's hit each of these in brief.

Depending on where your wireless compass is pointing right now, you're either ahead of me and actually doing legitimate IPv6 over wireless, with me in trying to figure out how to tame what you have and march forward sensibly, or are choosing to let others suffer the pain and learn from them for later implementation. It's not that IPv6 is so difficult to comprehend academically, but rather it feels wildly variable when applied to WLAN building blocks because not only are vendors at different levels of maturity for IPv6 support, but the version of code that your controllers and such are on also have an impact on how far you can go with it. It certainly takes the comfort that many of us have worked hard to gain on already-complicated Wi-Fi systems and adds a new dimension of mastery to be achieved. And achieve it we must… but the "when" isn't so clear against the backdrop of each one of our own bigger Enterprise IPv6 stories.

Then there's Software Defined Networking. SDN was certainly a hot topic during 2013, and will only become more front-and-center this year. But the human side of SDN is already getting muddy, as it means different things to different people. I've talked to smart managers and directors that see SDN as fit only for the Data Center, yet many vendors have SDN painted end-to-end across the network in their presentations even if it's not clear how we get there yet. WLAN controllers are often held up as an analogy for SDN with central control and other distributed functions, yet none of them (that I know of) have a lick to do with the likes of VXLAN and OpenFlow. I've seen mention by Cisco and Extreme Networks on SDN in their wireless lines, but they don't appear to bethat sort ofSDN. But again, you know that all-encompassing SDN is coming at SOME point, and big WLAN as we know it will never be the same.

Beyond our cheese eventually getting moved by IPv6 and SDN, something also has to break in a big way soon between Mobile and WLAN. Small cells are a simmering technology that行星just haven't aligned right for yet. But with so many mobile devices out there stressing the carriers' networks while their owners get tired of burning through pricey data plans, something has to develop in this regard soon -and in a fashion that becomes viable for players in both industries, and customers alike. I look for seemless inter-technology roaming to be at the front of this story. Bluetooth's eventual integration into the same IP networks where our WLAN hardware play,由IPv6和蓝牙版本4.1启用也将是相当变革的。

I realize this is a bit of heavy fretting going on here. But we all know by now that the WLAN of just a few years ago has morphed into a major part of the collective network fabric of today, and so we gotta play the "what if, and when" game now and then. What else do you see coming that will change WLAN as we know it? When do we start worrying about each?