Wireless Case Study

Wipro adopts WiFi on campus

Wipro recently went live with WiFi at its Bangalore HQ. It plans to roll out WiFi across all new locations.

Wipro’s primary business goal behind going in for a wireless campus is to provide mobility to upper management. The second objective is to use WLAN as an overlay network at Wipro’s 18 offshore development centres (ODCs) for providing additional seats or connections at short notice by deploying additional wireless access points when a project needs to be ramped up. Use of WLAN in sales offices or branch offices as a replacement for wired LAN will help set up such offices faster. Sunil P Rangreji, general manager-Global IT Infrastructure at Wipro Technologies says, “We treat WLAN as a overlay network and not a replacement for wired access. But we are treating WLAN as part of our disaster recovery strategy by building redundancy for wired ports and ensuring business continuity for our mobile users.”

Wipro’s immediate two-point strategy with WiFi has been to use WLAN as an overlay to wired LAN infrastructure and give mobility and flexibility to accommodate additional users at a short notice. This is limited to senior executives.

Wipro Technologies evaluated wireless LAN technology as a solution in 2000. To see how the WLAN technology could improve productivity and mobility and to meet its future needs, Wipro decided to set up a small pilot project wherein it created two hotspots at its Electronic City facility on the outskirts of Bangalore in early 2002. These two hotspots were created in a conference room. The company had to put the WLAN rollout on hold at that point because of restrictions in using the 2.4 GHz frequency in a campus environment that required a special permit.

Deregulation spurs large scale deployment

In 2003 the government de-licensed the 2.4 GHz spectrum. Wipro took a decision in favour of doing a large-scale deployment of WLAN and conducted a detailed feasibility study. The company identified notebook users who travel extensively both within India and globally and need to take business decisions on the move. Wipro’s corporate headquarters at Sarjapur, Bangalore was chosen as the location for the first implementation. The rationale behind the solution design was that WLAN would be considered as a productivity tool and mobility enabler. The strategy was to ensure a common global architecture while providing for geography-specific considerations. After evaluating various products from different vendors a framework was arrived at and Cisco products were picked for the implementation. Wipro’s IT Infrastructure Management Group (IMG), which provides IT infrastructure to its 18 development centres across the world did the implementation.

The following points were considered as recommended by Cisco while arriving at the solution:

• Wireless LAN products plug into a wired network and function as an overlay to traditional or wired LANs.
• Users can roam without losing network connection.
• Wireless LANs permit the use of desktops, notebooks and speciality devices in a system where connection to the network is essential. They are typically within a building, and for distances up to 1,000 feet (with external antennas).
• Wireless LAN is not an alternative to a wired LAN but it is a complementary architecture.

A detailed design survey was conducted. The number of wireless access points required was penned down by Wipro’s IMG team with the assistance of Cisco, whose domain expertise helped in setting up WLAN. Rangreji says, “We identified areas such as conference rooms, the cafeteria, workstations, lobbies and learning centres to be networked using 802.11b technology, offering 11 Mbps shared connectivity. The WLAN was set up in such a way that it provides seamless mobility from one hotspot to another without losing connection or signal strength.”

Phase 1 began in October 2003 in which locations such as the cafeteria, learning centres and lobbies were wirelessly networked. All five conference rooms were WiFi enabled in Phase 2. A two-member team worked full time along with a three-member system integration team and a project manager oversaw the entire WLAN deployment that went live on November 2, 2003. Today 30 notebook users are on the WLAN. Wipro uses Cisco’s Arrow Net 350 Series and Arrow Net 1100 Series products for access points. Currently, there are 10 access points at the corporate headquarters. All the 30 notebooks are equipped with Cisco PCMCIA cards. The hotspots have been created with an investment of Rs 4.5 lakh, which works out to be Rs 15,000 per user.

Security

WLAN security being a area of concern, Wipro has taken elaborate steps to stop unauthorised access. It uses a pre-configured default SSID (Service Set Identifier) and password for the first level of security (authentication). The secret SSID is configured by an IMG engineer on each notebook and access to the WLAN is denied if the SSID is changed. Only notebooks configured with an ID are allowed to proceed to the next level of authentication. Wipro is also using LEAP (Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol), an authentication protocol from Cisco, configured on the notebooks and wireless access points. Data transferred between notebooks and access points is encrypted. LEAP supports WiFi Protected Access (WPA), a new WiFi Alliance specification. It is based on the proposed IEEE 802.11i security standard. As a second level of security, the company is using TACACS-AD authentication for users to log into the IP network. This is the next level of authentication. Rangreji adds, “We have designed WLAN access points in such a way that the wireless network cannot be accessed beyond the restricted area—there is no leakage of signals. We are using Cisco Works, an enterprise software management component, to monitor all wireless access points.” There is a separate VLAN for mobile users where access level controls are defined.

Faster, denser and more productive

There are numerous benefits of having a WLAN as an overlay network. First, it provides notebook users with a seamless mobile connection to the corporate network (intranet and Internet) for downloading mails, presentations and documents and SAP. It also increases productivity—critical business decisions can be taken on the move. The deployment is faster; it cuts short deployment time by as much as 80 percent. You can pack more users in a restricted area. “This is an asset in itself,” says Rangreji.

Replicating the pilot

Wipro intends to replicate its success at Sarjapur by deploying 35 wireless access points at the company’s Electronic City office and 10 access points at Pune. All new facilities will be WiFi enabled using 802.11g, which offers higher speeds (54 Mbps), starting with Calcutta and Hyderabad.

Wipro’s long-term strategy is to give all its 15,000 notebook users seamless mobile access to its corporate network from anywhere in the campus. To meet its future requirements, Wipro is buying Centrino-based notebooks for all its offices. Branch offices with less than 50 users will be completely on wireless networking. All new infrastructure set-ups will include wireless by default and there will a particular area in the guestrooms that will be a hot spot. The company has some interesting plans—to introduce wireless VoIP phones and the ultimate dream is to offer global access using hotspots outside Wipro.