Introduction

In November 1999, in an effort to catch up to other vendors who had already entered the wireless field, Cisco purchased one of the leading wireless technology companies called Aironet Wireless Communications, Inc. Aironet was a leading developer of high-speed wireless products who also played an important role in the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 wireless work group. Since then, Cisco has been aggressively expanding their technology in wireless offerings in both hardware and software, providing one of the industry s most competitive wireless solutions.

In June 2003, Cisco again showed its ambition and interest in wireless technology by acquiring a popular wireless company called Linksys. Linksys helped Cisco establish its presence in the small office/home office (SOHO) market by mainly targeting wireless home users. There is currently no plan to integrate Linksys wireless devices with the Aironet product line. Linksys is still operating under its own banner with insight and direction coming from Cisco.

Cisco has a diversified selection of wireless solutions and wireless-aware products that are capable of providing wireless networks to small and enterprise-level environments. This chapter reviews each Cisco product including wireless access points (APs) and wireless bridges and their benefits. It looks at how Cisco s strong wire-networking heritage is being incorporated into its wireless networking offering and its management in order to provide true enterprise-level solutions for both data and voice over wireless. With its new wireless solutions portfolio, Cisco has positioned itself to be a strong future player of wireless technology...