Cisco WAP4410N and Cisco 1140 Aironet are Wireless N access points for small to medium scale businesses. When do you need each of them?

Overview

One very important requirement in the small business network even for all scales of business networks is wireless access to mobile devices or to reach areas that are difficult to reach by cable networks. In the industrial environments such as in the factory warehouses, workshops or yards would be more practical for some desktop computers to get the wireless connection, although the less stable connection constraints could exist. I said some not all, because there are some clients who do require a stable connection without any drop constraints for running production applications that require a very reliable constant connection without an iota of the RTO (request time out).

Home or business AP

What is the difference between wireless APs to the needs of home-based or small office with the AP device for businesses? Security concerns are the main reason should be given priority in a business network in order to protect your business information assets.

There are several security features that can provide protection against your business wifi network such as rogue AP detection, multiple SSIDs etc. We know that the wifi network using airwaves as a transmission medium so it is susceptible to eavesdropping. The wifi access is not limited by your office building, the user can access from within wifi range without having to go through the physical network connection.

Cisco WAP4410N

Note the image of the product, Cisco WAP4410N is designed with a sturdy body with simple accessory including LED display indicator and with three external antennas can be rotated to provide the best signal broadcast position on your clients, can be placed horizontally or stand vertically depending on which is convenient to be placed. In appearance it is totally different from Cisco 1140 Aironet.

Main features

Some of the features of the product are well suited to support a small office wifi network or SOHO. The following list main features of this product:

• Powered by draft 802.11n with gigabit Ethernet port with PoE
• 3×3 dipole MIMO antenna, adjustable and removable
• Supports up to 4 BSSID (basic service set identifier)
• Supports up to 4 VLANs with SSID to VLAN mapping
• Advanced business class security

High speed

Even though they are still based on draft 802.11n standard (as opposed to Cisco 1140 is based on 802.11n) the speed and range of the product is good enough with the support of 3×3 MIMO antenna technology packed in three external antennas that can be adjusted and can be upgradable with the more powerful antennas.

Network Segregations

If the requirement of network security boundaries exists, no worries this product supports up to 4 SSIDs and 4 VLANs with SSID to VLAN mapping. Dividing your networks can limit the broadcast domain.

For a particular network segment that has a high burden of access to high bandwidth applications such as video surveillance or similar can be given specific network segment to limit the broadcast domain.

Advanced security

For added security, the Cisco WAP4410N supports Roque AP detection feature to avoid fake AP by intruders to trap user-name and password. This product also supports RADIUS authentication system that can be integrated with your Radius.

This device is suitable to support small scale network For SOHO and is good for providing wireless access for Android and other tablet computers. For small to medium scale businesses that require more robust environment, you may consider Cisco 1140 Aironet.

Easy installation

Installation is easy by using web-interface utility and it supports power over Ethernet for easy deployment of the device in area where power outlets are not available yet. This AP is designed for indoor purposes, for outdoor deployment and covering long distance area you may consider high power 600mW outdoor access point such as Amped AP600EX which can reach up to 1.5 miles away. For small offices with larger area to cover you may also consider the Amped SR300 wireless smart repeater. For home your Linksys E4200v2 is enough without any range extention.

Cisco Aironet 1140 series – wireless access point

Cisco 1140 Aironet

This product is not to be compared with Cisco WAP4410N because it is targeted for larger scale networks and more robust. The price difference is so much that can be between 3 to 5 times more expensive than 4410N.

This Aironet series wireless AP is a component of the Cisco Unified Wireless Network should you require large network scaling up to 18,000 AP devices with full layer 3 network for central and remote sites including enterprise campuses, remote project sites or branch offices. It is also ideal solution deployment in marine and mining projects networking.

Main features

The following features are ideal to support large scale businesses for easy to manage and more robust environment.

• Power over Ethernet (PoE) support for easy deployment in location where power is not available yet
• 1×10/100/1000BASE-T autosensing (RJ-45) port and Management console port (RJ45)
• System Memory including 128 MB DRAM and 32 MB flash
• Internal antennas 2×3 MIMO with two spatial streams
• Dual 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands with 802.11 dynamic frequency selection (DFS)
• Cisco M-Drive technology with ClientLink to improve reliability and coverage for legacy clients, and Band Select to improve 5-GHz client connections in mixed client environments
• ideal for video streaming with multicast

Both of these wireless access point devices are not targeted for home users, they are for businesses and good for those environments with multi-site locations.

Connection Diagram

Figure 1 is networking diagram of the Cisco WAP4410N deployed in small offices, it’s a standard deployment of this AP device which connects to the existing Gigabit LAN network with cable broadband internet connection.

Cisco WAP4410N Vs Cisco AP541

For larger small businesses, you may consider the smart Cisco AP541 business class access point with clustering technology. With clustering technology you can deploy multiple WAP541 in a dynamic configuration-aware group. You can configure a single WAP541 and then clone the configuration to groups of AP devices in the same network and subnet.

To understand the main differences for Cisco WAP4410N Vs WAP541, you can read the following manufacturer spec comparison table helps you understand better.

If this Cisco AP541 is not robust enough for your growing businesses, Cisco 1140 series would be the ideal choice.

By Ki Grinsing