Cisco has gone the extra mile to make their latest 802.11b access point robust enough for enterprise level deployments. Sure its a more expensive than most access points but if you're looking for more performance, reliability and security, Cisco's Aironet 1100 is worthy of consideration. Cisco's latest Aironet product continues its tradition of new features and enhancements that are made for integration into corporate IT infrastructure. Along with supporting the wireless 802.11b standard, it is designed for upgrageability to support future version of 802.11 such as 802.11g. Aironet 1100 is also built for higher level deployments than most access points found on the market with features such as VLAN, Hot Standby and Load Balancing. The 1100 is Cisco's lower cost alternative to the 1200 series that provides support for both 802.11b and 802.11a standards.

The 1100 supports the latest 802.11b standard with transmission speeds up to 11Mbps. The access point operates in the 2.4GHz frequency band and has a range of 150 ft (indoors) @ 11Mbps and 400ft (indoors) @ 1Mbps. The access point auto scales its data rate to match the most efficient rate according to distance and interference.

Aironet 1100 is unique in its support of features such as VLAN, Hot Standby and Load Balancing. Virtual LANs (VLAN) allows segmentation of different types of data such as voice, video and data to guarantee a minimum level of bandwidth for each type. Hot Standby allows a failover to a standby access point if problems occur with the main access point. Load Balancing optomizes aggregate throughput by distributing traffic among the available access points that are within range.

The 1100 has an integrated 2.2 dBi omni directional diversity dipole antenna. It can transmit at 20 dB (100mW) and has a receiving sensitivity range of -94 to -85 dB. The access point uses DBPSK (1Mbps), DQPSK (2Mbps) and CCK (5.5 & 11 Mbps) modulation alogithms and provides 11 communication channel selections.

Cisco has tried to improve on the normal security found in 802.11b's WEP security protocol. WEP security has been shown to have holes that hackers and snoopers have taken advantage of to break into wireless networks. While providing standard 40 and 128 bit WEP data encryption, the access point also integrates Cisco's Wireless Security Suite. This includes authentication protocols such as EAP, LEAP and RADIUS and secure encryption with EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS and EAP-SIM.

The access point can be managed by a variety of different methods. A web based console allows IT personnel to manage the device through a browser. SNMP, Telnet, FTP and TFTP provide additional network management capabilities. Aironet 1100 also support Cisco's IOS software management through CLI which is standardly used on other Cisco network equipment.

One drawback to the 1100 is that it only operates in access point mode and can't be configured to act as a wireless client or bridge like some other access points do. The data rate is also a somewhat slower when compared to some 802.11b access points operating at 22Mbps.

Pricing and Availability

Aironet 1100 Access Point is available through Cisco's resellers and distributors and comes in at a mid level price of $599.

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