Summary
802.11 WLANs facilitate untethered network mobility, but to properly deploy a mobility-enabled WLAN, you must understand the nature of your applications that leverage your WLAN. Many WLAN deployments begin as coverage-oriented (usually a high user to AP ratio), where just providing network connectivity is the primary goal. As new applications emerge and are implemented, such as VoIP over 802.11, changes to the WLAN deployment are required. Coverage-oriented deployments must move to capacity-oriented deployments (low user to AP ratio, but more APs in the coverage area). The move to capacity-oriented WLANs requires most enterprise deployments to at least consider roaming across roaming domains and the impact to client stations that is imposed.