This is a third in a series about Wi-Fi dinosaurs that are now mostly extinct. As mentioned in the first Wi-Fi Nostalgia blog installment, I have been cleaning out my office and purging myself of geriatric WLAN equipment.
The focus of this blog will be the 802.11 fossils known as autonomous access points (APS). Legacy access points were standalone devices that functioned as a wireless portal into a pre-existing wired network. These APs were often referred to as fat APs, or thick APs.
However, the most common industry term used for these legacy access points was autonomous APs. Initially there was no way to centrally manage autonomous APs, and they possessed minimal control plane intelligence. As mentioned in an earlier blog, Cisco Network’s first real 802.11 offering originated from the acquisition of Aironet, a manufacturer of autonomous APs.
I have configured many 802.11 and 802.11b Cisco 340/350 access points, bridges and workgroup bridges as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1
I discarded most of that equipment and moved forward to Cisco 1200 and 1100 series autonomous APs pictured in Figure 2.
The 1200 series APs had a fixed 5 GHz antenna and removable external 2.4 GHz antennas. The 1100 series were smaller, not quite as ugly and had integrated antennas. My original Cisco 1200 series APs were 802.11b and I was able to upgrade my 2.4 GHz radio in 2004 with a screaming fast 54 Mbps 802.11g radio. I did the upgrade during a CWNA training class and I was in hog heaven.
However, I very quickly learned about a nasty little 802.11g beast called the “protection mechanism” which allowed for the co-existence of HR-DSSS and ERP-OFDM technology in the same band. As many of you know, RTS/CTS or CTS-to-Self protection was defined in 802.11g and the layer 2 overhead was significant and impacted throughput.
Figure 2
The 1100 autonomous APs debuted with 802.11g 2.4 GHz radio and there was not a 5 GHz radio. Think about how overcrowded the 2.4 GHz band is today and how the 2.4 GHz band is often unusable for reliable WLAN communications. Can you imagine purchasing an access point that only transmits on 2.4 GHz? In reality, a good majority of the autonomous APs manufactured by WLAN vendors did not have 5 GHz radios because dual band APs were simply too expensive.
Another thing to remember about the majority of legacy autonomous APs is that they did not have Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) capabilities and AC power was required. Thankfully, PoE has now long been a necessary marriage when deploying enterprise access points. The 30+ watts defined by PoE+ and 802.3at may well be the norm in the near future as we move towards next generation 4x4:4 802.11ac access points.
So does anyone remember the original operating system on Cisco Aironet autonomous access points? The real-time OS was VxWorks, which is the same OS used by NASA on the Mars Pathfinder missions. Contrary to popular belief, there was not Wi-Fi on any of the Mars rovers. Figure 3 shows the configuration GUI on an old Cisco 340 AP using VxWorks. Eventually Cisco would vanquish VxWorks and the Cisco IOS became operational on Cisco autonomous APs. However, an entirely different OS had to be installed if these APs were to be used in the future with a WLAN controller, which I will discuss in the next blog.
Figure 3
Although Cisco had a large share of the autonomous AP market, there were other big players including Agere, Proxim, Intermec and others. One of the more popular autonomous APs was the ORiNOCO AP-1000, which had two modular, and removable PCMCIA radios as shown in Figure 4. One radio was usually a 5 GHz radio and the other was a 2.4 GHz radio. However, people used to actually put in two 2.4 GHz radios instead simply because there was not a lot of 5 GHz clients back in those days.
The problem was that the two 2.4 GHz ORiNOCO Gold cards would interfere with each other because they were right next to each other inside the AP and were not shielded. To solve this problem, WLAN installers would use the external antenna connector for both of the radios and position two external antennas about 30 feet or more apart. I still crack up laughing when I think about how often people actually deployed Wi-Fi in that manner. Proxim Wireless eventually purchased the ORiNOCO brand from Agere Systems.
Figure 4
Another thing to remember about autonomous APs is that for the most part they were just plain ugly. They were bulky, heavy, often had external antennas and simple not sexy. Every year, a World’s Ugliest Dog Contest is held in Petaluma, CA. One of these days, I am going to organize a World’s Ugliest AP Contest. Over the years, WLAN vendors have realized the importance of aesthetics and as a result, indoor APs are now much easier on the eyes.
One of the biggest challenges with autonomous APs was how to manage them if you had hundreds or more deployed. Initially all APs had to configured independently and there was no centralized monitoring solution. A company called AirWave introduced a wireless network management server that could be used to configure autonomous APs, and push firmware to the APs. AirWave was mostly used to manage and monitor Cisco fat APs, however, the AirWave server worked with many different WLAN vendor autonomous APs.
Aruba Networks eventually purchased AirWave. Several vendors introduced their own network management solutions such as Cisco’s Wireless Lane Solution Engine (WLSE) as shown in Figure 5. The WLSE was the ugly duckling of Cisco’s SWAN architecture. With all due respect to Cisco, most of us WLAN old-timers do not have fond memories of the WLSE.
When Cisco finally embraced WLAN controllers 12+ years ago, it was as wise move at the time.
Figure 5
Because old autonomous APs did not have a lot of horsepower, these legacy devices also did not have a lot of control plane intelligence such as role-based access control mechanisms. Two companies introduced a short-lived solution known as an Enterprise Wireless Gateway (EWG). An EWG was deployed behind autonomous APs and could be used to define different wired access roles and rules for wireless users. One of the worst investments I ever made was spending $6000 on a Vernier Networks 6500 Gateway as shown in Figure 6.
The solution was fantastic, unfortunately it was also short lived because the WLAN controller architecture debuted and quickly replaced the need for using an EWG. Bluesocket was another company that also manufactured WLAN gateways, but they quickly saw the light and transitioned into a WLAN controller company. Bluesocket is now owned by Adtran.
Figure 6
Autonomous APs ruled Wi-Fi for many years but eventually a new WLAN architecture had to emerge. Stayed tuned for my next blog, Wi-Fi Nostalgia, Part 4 – The Jurassic Age of WLAN Controllers. In the meantime, if you have any legacy Wi-Fi tales that you would like to share please leave a comment or send us your pictures of ancient Wi-Fi gear.
All blogs in this series
Feeling nostalgic about Wi-Fi? This will bring back memories