Deploying a Wi-Fi Hook-Up in Disaster Relief - Essay Example

?DEPLOYING A WI-FI HOOK-UP IN DISASTER RELIEF: WHAT ARE THE CONSIDERATIONS? Deploying a Wi-Fi hook-up in disaster relief: What are the considerations? Author Author Affiliation Date These days, Wi-Fi has become a very attractive technology. Basically, the Wi-Fi is usually abbreviated as Wireless Fidelity. Formerly it was known as Hi-Fi. In addition, Wi-Fi is an uncomplicated and well-organized networking technology that is commonly used to connect companies, people and organizations to the Internet for allowing them to carry out their daily tasks. On the other hand, always changing trends of information technology resulted in marvelous changes to PC related stuff with new Wi-Fi-supportive applications. In fact, there are numerous examples related to high-end Mobile Phones that require no wires or device for establishing a connection between two devices or computers. Additionally, in the past few years, Wi-Fi has appeared to be a very useful technology that is used widespread either at home or in an office environment or in any disaster situation. In this scenario, the usage of Wi-Fi networks completely depends upon the needs of users. Moreover, it offers numerous benefits over wired networks for instance there is no aspect of Roaming (access to get connected even far away from home), without requiring any change in Wire from one place to another and also offers conferencing facilities (Turban, Leidner, McLean, & Wetherbe, 2005; WellOiledPC, 2011; Eogogics, 2011). At the present, Wi-Fi technology is commonly used in business organizations for performing business operations. In fact, one the significant features of Wi-Fi technology is the access from any place (inside network premises). In this scenario, it facilitates a staff member to take a notebook or laptop from a place of work to the discussion room devoid of network connectivity. In addition, the access towards the resources of the network needs no hunting around for a computer. As we know that now Wi-Fi hotspots can be visualized in important places like that disaster situations, hotels, airports, coffee restaurants and shops. Moreover, a number of cities are installing community Wi-Fi networks to facilitate general public to complete their business related tasks when they are outside of the office. These services facilitate them to access wherever but within the city limits (Gallup, 2011). In addition, the Wi-Fi technology is currently believed to be a pervasive public service. For example the Mayor of London announced that they will probably deploy Wi-Fi communication infrastructure, near the Olympic Games. Additionally, they have completed the planning for this deployment and telecommunication firms are bidding in order to get tenders for Wi-Fi infrastructure. In this scenario, the deployment of Wi-Fi infrastructure will facilitate more than 120 London underground stations in June 2012. In this way over half of travelers believed that Wi-Fi technology may improve their living standards (Publicservice.co.uk Ltd, 2011; Robbins, 2011). Natural disasters are rising internationally because of the climate change and global warming. In addition, the destructions as a result of these disasters are ever-increasing at an alarming rate. In view of the fact that these disasters are mainly unpredictable and take place within a very short interval of time thus technology has to be designed and deployed to catch related signals with the smallest amount of monitoring interruption. In this scenario, Wireless technology is one of the advanced technologies that can rapidly meet quick variations of data and transmit the sensed data to a data analysis center in areas where wires are out of place. In fact, the wireless technology has the potential to quickly capture, process, and transmit significant data in an instantaneous mode with high resolution. Wireless technology offers a significant advantage of deploying signals in a disaster situation with an uncovered least maintenance. As a result, it fulfills a vital need for any instantaneous monitoring, particularly in hazardous or remote situations (Ramesh, 2010). At the present, wireless networks are playing a significant role in disaster situations. Keeping in mind the usefulness of wireless networking in a disaster situation, a team of researchers at Germany's Ilmenau University of Technology has started working on the development of a flying quadcopter robots will be used to structure a self-assembling unplanned wireless network in case of any disaster. These robots are built using off-the-shelf components such as a GPS unit and VIA's Pico-ITX hardware) and are aimed at offering both mobile phone and WiFi access. In addition, they have the capability to do it a great deal more rapidly than a technician on the earth might be able to do (Flatley, 2009). In a disaster situation such as Haiti, this kind of networks can be deployed by the government or Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). They can bear all the expenditures of its deployment. In addition, it is seen in many cases where many NGOs work very hard in an attempt to minimize the effects of disaster. In light of the above discussion on the advantages of the wireless network, it is clear that this technology can be deployed in environments where wired networks cannot be deployed. However, there are some considerations that should be kept in mind while deploying these networks: With wireless packet capture programs, it is significant for network designers make sure that both the network designers and wireless NIC are using the software support 802.11n functionality. If these rules are not followed carefully, some of the important features of wireless networking for instance frame aggregation, channel bonding, and block acknowledgement might not put on view appropriately (or put in an appearance in your display by any means) (Haider, 2010).   In view of the fact that the majority of people consider wireless Intrusion Detection as a security tool, thus they can make use of these tools to keep an eye on and protect the overall security of the WLAN. For that reason, it makes sense to deploy 802.11n enable sensors for security, troubleshooting, and investigation (Haider, 2010). In addition, there is another most important issue that must be considered while deploying a wireless network is the increased traffic on our central network coming from high-throughput 11n WLANs. In this scenario, we must ensure that our wireless network is capable of proving the flexibility for traffic forwarding and network segmentation. Moreover, the traffic can be forwarded locally by making use of bridge mode, or controlled by the controller by making use of tunneled mode (Siemens Enterprise, 2008). In a larger physical environment such as a disaster situation like Haiti the longer range of 802.11b may give way important savings, in view of the fact that we can cover the complete facility with fewer access points (Intel Corporation, 2003). However, similar to a wired network, we should plan for hardware location before deploying a wireless network (Symantec Corporation, 2008). In conclusion, wireless networks can work fine in situations where wired networks fail to perform. The basic advantage of wireless network is that it works without using wires. Thus, in disaster situations such as Haiti they can work effectively. For this purpose, governments of other countries or NGOs can bear the charges. References Eogogics. (2011). State-of-the-art of WiFi for Non-engineering Professionals, Managers, and Executives . Retrieved April 04, 2011, from http://www.eogogics.com/courses/WIFI Flatley, J. L. (2009, March 04). Researchers develop flying WiFi robots for disaster relief. Retrieved April 27, 2012, from http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/04/researchers-develop-flying-wifi-robots-for-disaster-relief/ Gallup, B. (2011). Wi-fi Business Advantages. Retrieved April 01, 2011, from http://business.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Wi-fi_Business_Advantages Haider, D. (2010, May 31). WiFiJedi to Speak at 6/2 Webinar. Retrieved April 27, 2012, from http://wifijedi.com/tag/80211n-deployment-considerations/ Intel Corporation. (2003). Wireless Networking: Deployment Considerations for Today and Tomorrow. Retrieved April 27, 2012, from http://www.nor-tech.com/solutions/dox/Wireless%20Networking.pdf Publicservice.co.uk Ltd. (2011, March 28). Tube travellers to get WiFi. Retrieved April 02, 2011, from http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=15897 Ramesh, M. V. (2010). Wireless Sensor Network for Disaster Monitoring. Retrieved April 27, 2012, from http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/12467/InTech-Wireless_sensor_network_for_disaster_monitoring.pdf Robbins, D. A. (2011). The Internet: The Gospel's Great Opportunity. Retrieved April 02, 2011, from Victorious Network : http://www.victorious.org/internet.htm Siemens Enterprise. (2008). Practical Considerations for Deploying 802.11n. Retrieved April 28, 2012, from http://www.enterasys.com/company/literature/802.11n%20whitepaper_EN.pdf Symantec Corporation. (2008, October 01). Tips for wireless deployment. Retrieved April 28, 2012, from http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH82165 Turban, E., Leidner, D., McLean, E., & Wetherbe, J. (2005). Information Technology for Management: Transforming Organizations in the Digital Economy . New York: Wiley. WellOiledPC. (2011). Advantages and Disadvantages of Wi-Fi. Retrieved April 03, 2011, from http://welloiledpc.com/wifi.htm Read More