As with any project, you need to carefully consider all costs of a wireless LAN before moving forward with deployment. You may use your resulting numbers to compare a wireless LAN with an Ethernet alternative, perform a feasibility study for a specific mobile application, or provide the basis for a budget you're proposing to upper management or a customer. In all of these cases, you need to take into account the hardware, software, and services necessary to install and support the system.  Let's take a look at what hardware to consider.

Common applications, such as Web surfing and e-mail, perform very well over wireless LANs. All it takes is a browser and e-mail software on the client device. Users may lose a wireless connection from time-to-time, but the protocols in use for these relatively simple applications are fairly resilient under most conditions.

When wireless LANs first became available in the early 1990s, primary applications were wireless bar code solutions for needs like inventory control and retail price marking. Data transfers for these types of applications don't demand very high performance. In fact, 1Mbps data rates are generally sufficient to handle the transfer of relatively small bar codes for a limited number of users.
Today, enterprises are deploying wireless LANs for larger numbers of users with needs for corporate applications that involve e-mail, Web browsing, and access to various server-based databases. The need for higher data rates and techniques to improve performance of wireless LANs is becoming crucial to support these types of applications. To get that extra performance, you have a lot to consider.

The traditional architecture for wireless LANs includes access points, which forms a backbone enabling users to roam throughout a facility and interface with resources on the wired network. It's a proven, workable method, and that's why the use of access points is the most common method used today to fully cover a facility. You can sometimes even go without access points if you want to have client devices communicate directly, but that severely decreases the range of the wireless LAN. But there is another way.