HP nx9030 WLAN solutions for HP enterprise notebooks and Tablet PCs - Page 3

Executive summary HP has a comprehensive offering of mobile wireless local area network (WLAN) solutions that address enterprise business requirements for security, performance, and manageability. This offering has been recently strengthened with the introduction of the Intel® Pro/Wireless 2200BG WLAN adapter and a new release of the Atheros Client Utility, version 3.1. This white paper includes: • An overview of primary enterprise WLAN requirements • A comparison of HP WLAN adapters • A comparison of HP WLAN client software features • Guidelines for choosing a WLAN solution • A preview of emerging WLAN standards Introduction Since early 2003 there has been explosive growth in the sales of mobile computers with integrated WLAN. Adoption of WLAN by enterprise businesses, initially held back by concerns over security and manageability, is growing. These concerns have been-and continue to be-addressed by HP and our WLAN technology partners. HP offers a selection of standards-based WLAN solutions for enterprise notebooks and Tablet PCs, including WLAN adapters based on technology from Intel and Atheros, and software that supports a comprehensive set of enterprise features such as Cisco Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol (LEAP) and profile import/export. All HP WLAN solutions are Wi-Fi Certified to ensure the greatest level of interoperability with other WLAN products. HP WLAN solutions allow enterprise businesses to unlock the productivity and convenience benefits derived from a secure, high performance, manageable wireless network. Enterprise WLAN requirements Security Security is a fundamental concern for enterprise IT managers. WLAN is a particular concern, since an intruder does not need physical access to the network to attempt to breach it. Aside from physical access, however, the security challenges for a WLAN are similar to those of a wired LAN: • Authentication - How to ensure that only authorized users can access the enterprise LAN? • Data protection and integrity - How to ensure that data on the network are not compromised? • Manageability - How to make network security more manageable? HP addresses the need for WLAN authentication through support for 802.1x EAPs. The IEEE 802.1x standard and EAP protocols define a framework for authenticating users on a network, as well as a mechanism for dynamically changing and distributing keys. There are several 802.1x EAP types supporting a variety of authentication methods, including passwords and digital certificates. 802.1x is a proven, scalable authentication method that is widely deployed. Data on the WLAN is protected by encryption. HP WLAN solutions support all commonly deployed encryption standards, including Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), and the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)1. 1 The HP W400 and W500 WLANs support AES now; other HP WLANs will be upgraded to AES in future driver releases. AES support will be standard for all HP WLANs 2005 and later. 3