wireless capabilities include seven metal detectors from Lock Inspection, and 13 thermal-transfer print-and-apply labelers from Weber Marking. Integrated into each of these is an 802.11g wireless Ethernet card that permits communication with the Local Area Network (LAN). Making that network accessible throughout the facility—manufacturing and office space alike—are Cisco Aironet 1240 Series access points. Cisco also provided the 4400 Series wireless LAN controller that governs all 45 or 50 access points. Miceli says the network at Norris Foodservice is an example of a fairly recent development known as LWAPP (Light-Weight Access Point Protocol). He explains:

“Access points can contend with each other for band-width. What Cisco and a few others have come up with instead is a centrally managed wireless infrastructure. Much of the intelligence that would ordinarily reside in the individual access points has been removed and resides instead in the LAN controller. It makes decisions about signal accessibility across the entire network, boosting power to access points that need it and reducing it to those that don’t. It reduces the chance for ‘coverage holes’ that can occur when access points act as free agents.”