Specifications

6 |
WIRELESS LAN
Business today faces increasing challenges in controlling and managing users of the IT
Infrastructure without compromising the security of the network. Increasing numbers
of users are wanting to migrate across the companies premises from their desk to a
meeting room as either a guest user or as an employee of the organisation.
Controlling Mobile Users in Business
Unied Access Solution
More and more businesses are inviting consultants
or guests to hot desk or connect in dierent locations
and meeting rooms within the organisation.
Handling the migration and access to company
resources requires a unied access solution that
identies users at the edge of the network and
delivers the required applications securely.
The normal way to address this connectivity would
be to either just plug the users device into the
Ethernet network and hope they get connectivity
or to share the company WiFi SSID and associated
secure key, both of these situations eectively
compromise the security of the IT infrastructure
and could introduce critical issues into the network.
The ideal scenario is to have an edge based
authentication or access control methodology that
is in place if the user connects to either the wired of
wireless solution.
Combining the latest 2.24 Firmware for the
NXC5200 and the 4.0 Firmware for the XGS and
GS2200 Switch Series delivers a comprehensive
edge access solution for business.
Access Management
Within the Network deployment the NXC5200
WLAN Controller provides the management
platform the consolidation of access across the
wireless and wired network. The IT manager in the
organization can setup administrators within the
network. These could be a receptionist within the
business or hospitality environment or trusted
individuals within each department. The new
features enable these localized administrators
to create and printout guest access tickets. To
support this function in the rmware a new user
prole called “guest-manager” has been created
alongside the capability for the administrator
to dene a new user group setting called
’Dynamic Guest Setting’. This prole enables the
administrator to dene content that is printed on
the tickets and could include the SSID, security
keys and policies of the organization regarding
to internet content and downloads. The guest
manager can also monitor active accounts and
check which are still active and delete any that
have expired.
Dynamic guest deployment
By deploying the dynamic guest setting users
could provide guest access in scenario’s such as
a large hospitality environment. Collaboration
with visitors, other business employees and local
sta require dierent degrees of network access
to be oered while they are visiting the business.
To give these guests the access they need, one
of the biggest challenges facing IT departments
is how to provide Internet connectivity, without
giving guests access to private LAN resources
or to have limited access with authentication.
The dynamic guest setting enforces the prole
of the user across the network and pushes such
users directly to the dened resource such as the
Internet connectivity without compromising the
internal applications or network resources.
Captive Portal
A captive portal intercepts all network trac
regardless of address or port until users
authenticate their identity through a designated
login Web page. As an added security measure,
the NXC contains captive portal functionality; this
means that all Web page requests can be initially
redirected to a special Web page that requires
guests to authenticate their sessions against the
database generated by the IT manager or guest
manager.
Once the authentication processes are
successful, guests can then connect to the rest
ZyXEL NXC5200
Wireless Business Controller
ZyXEL XGS-4526
10-Gigabit Ethernet switch managed L3
ZyXEL GS2200-24P
Gigabit Ethernet switch managed L2
’The ideal scenario
is To have an edge
based auThenTicaTion
or access conTrol
meThodology ThaT
is in place if The user
connecTs To eiTher
The wired of wireless
soluTion.’