Virtual Wi-Fi

Meru Networks has announced "virtual ports" for its wireless networks - a development it claims will finally enable Wi-Fi to replace Ethernet by making it as reliable as a switched Ethernet port.

The new fast version of Wi-Fi, 802.11n, can match the performance of Ethernet, but it can still be unpredictable, said Meru's vice president of marketing, Rachna Ahlawat. Virtual ports, introduced to the latest software on Meru's wireless controllers, give each user a dedicated network service, which can be tied to quality of service and delivered data rates.

Laptops and phones connecting to a Meru network with virtual ports will each see a dedicated BSSID or Wi-Fi Mac address, analogous to a wired switch port, said Ahlawat. This will follow the user throughout the network.

"It's like having a wired network port following you, hopping from radio to radio as you move," said Meru's chief architect, Joe Epstein. "One client can't affect the performance of others," added Ahlawat.

"The approach is very interesting," said analyst Craig Mathias of Farpoint Group, "providing greater control over the relationship between the infrastructure and a given client. I'm looking forward to testing it."

The feature is made possible by Meru's existing virtual cell architecture, said Ahlawat. This "virtualises" the Wi-Fi network, so access points do not all have separate identities: the BSSIDs are centralised, and network resources can be pooled for all users. Virtual ports take this further, by partitioning the pooled resources, to deliver service level agreements to individual clients, said Ahlawat.

Most rival wireless network equipment can also set up multiple BSSIDs, sometimes called "virtual APs," for instance to provide multiple wireless networks for guests and contractors on a site. But they cannot offer virtual ports, because the BSSIDs are held on the individual access points, and not centralised and pooled, Epstein said. "In that situation, attempting to assign a BSSID per client would be wrong - the network would rapidly run out of addresses. Without pooling, virtual ports would be the utter worst case of preprovisioning - not a virtualisation solution."

"Aruba, Cisco and others are trying to find ways to optimise a hublike technology," said Epstein, making a comparison with the old-fashioned hubs that shared access to Ethernet networks until they were replaced by switches which give each client its own port. "They make it work as well as a hub can work, but there will still be a difference between that and a switch-like technology."

Virtual ports can't make capacity out of nothing, acknowledged Epstein: they still share the bandwidth of a limited number of channels. But Ethernet switches are also limited by the uplink bandwidth - and the virtual port puts the two technologies on an equal footing: "The reaction of a switch to load is predictable."

The virtual port was designed for fast Wi-Fi in mind, using the IEEE 802.11n standard, but works on the previous 802.11abg standards, and is already available on Meru's 802.11abg products, said Epstein.

Belden acquired Trapeze Networks

St. Louis - Belden – June 6, 2008 – (NYSE:BDC) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Trapeze Networks, a leading provider of wireless local area networking (WLAN) equipment and management software, for $133 million in cash. The acquisition builds on Belden's market-leading position as a complete signal transmission solutions provider by adding a recognized leader in the wireless LAN market.

Wireless extends the reach of Belden's physical-layer cable and connectivity products and enables the company to address the growing mobility needs of customers. "Belden's strategic vision is to provide the best signal transmission solutions to our customers regardless of technology," said John Stroup, President and Chief Executive Officer of Belden. "We believe the acquisition of Trapeze Networks uniquely positions Belden to offer our enterprise customers tailored connectivity solutions that benefit from blending the strengths of copper, fiber and wireless technologies. Trapeze Networks Smart Mobile wireless LAN solutions deliver superior performance, security, reliability and management capabilities, making this a highly attractive wireless investment for Belden's future. The acquisition will make Belden the world's largest unified wired and wireless solutions provider and will provide expanded market access for Trapeze Networks' Smart Mobile solutions.

"We believe we are at an inflection point in enterprise wireless LAN expansion, a market that is already growing nearly 25 percent per year, and that wireless connectivity is no longer considered a luxury but is a customer expectation," added Mr. Stroup.

Trapeze Networks, a privately held company based in Pleasanton, California, with 2007 revenues of $56 million, sells its products into healthcare, education, manufacturing, retail, government and other enterprise verticals through OEMs and distribution channels. The Trapeze product portfolio is an end-to-end WLAN system built on a highly scalable and secure wireless operating system running on Trapeze Networks access points and controllers and features the industry's most robust management software capabilities. More than 4,000 organizations around the world have deployed Trapeze wireless platforms.

Jim Vogt, President and Chief Executive Officer of Trapeze, said, "During the past six years, enterprise customers around the world have invested in Trapeze Networks Smart Mobile because they can depend on it for constant connectivity and reliable mobility. The superior performance and cost benefits of our highly acclaimed wireless LAN products have fueled our global growth through distribution and through our OEM relationships with 3Com, Enterasys, Nortel and other large networking companies. Our customers can now be assured of continued product innovation and new capabilities from the combined resources of Belden and Trapeze."

Impact on Belden's Outlook

Because Trapeze Networks sells software as well as hardware and services, the company is required under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States to defer and amortize certain revenues over the lives of contracts until it can establish vendor-specific objective evidence of the fair market value of each separate deliverable. The majority of Trapeze Networks' revenue is deferred and is typically amortized over periods of a year or more. This accounting treatment makes the acquisition more dilutive to Belden's expected earnings in 2008 and 2009 than would otherwise be the case.

John Stroup said, "The acquisition of Trapeze Networks furthers our strategy, and we expect that it will provide a return on invested capital for Belden consistent with or better than that of our successful 2007 acquisitions. We expect that the total dilutive impact of revenue deferral and amortization for 6 months in 2008 to be $0.15 to $0.20 and in 2009 $0.25 to $0.30. Despite this impact, we expect the transaction to be neutral in operating cash flow in 2008 and a positive contributor to operating cash flow in 2009 and beyond.

"The expected dilution from the Trapeze acquisition, including the impact of revenue deferral and the recurring amortization of intangible assets resulting from the purchase, but excluding short-term, nonrecurring amortization, will be in the range of $0.27 to $0.32 in 2008 and $0.25 to $0.30 in 2009," said Mr. Stroup. "We expect that the acquisition will be accretive on a GAAP basis in 2010 and beyond.

"Our outlook for 2008 remains unchanged except for the expected effects of the planned acquisition. Because of the mid-year timing of the closing of this transaction and the deferral of Trapeze Networks' revenue, our expectations for consolidated revenue remain in the range of $2.2 to $2.3 billion. We expect our operating margin to be in the range of 11 to 12 percent, and we are adjusting our expectation for 2008 earnings per diluted share to the range of $3.15 to $3.35."

Aruba's 10000th 802.11n AP

Aruba Networks announced that its shipments of 802.11n enabled access points have passed a milestone 10,000 units. Aruba announced its dual-radio AP-124 and AP-125 802.11n Access Point family in November 2007, and volume shipments commenced in February 2008. The company's AP-124ABG and AP-125ABG field-upgradable access points were announced last month. Based on 2nd generation RF chips, the access points can be powered from a single 802.3af Power-over-Ethernet source and feature 3x3 MIMO operation and ultra-compact packaging.

"The second half of 2007 saw the first shipments of coordinated enterprise-class '802.11n Draft 2.0 Wi-Fi Certified' access points," said Gartner Senior Research Analyst Christian Canales, author of Gartner Dataquest's 2008 Market Share: Enterprise Wireless LAN Equipment, Worldwide, 4Q07 and 2007 report. "Worldwide revenue from sales of WLAN enterprise equipment increased more than 10% from 2006 to 2007, and coordinated access points accounted for 48% of the overall enterprise access point shipments in the last quarter of 2007, versus just 39% in the last quarter of 2006."

The California State University system, recipient of the 10,000th 802.11n access point, selected Aruba's wireless networks for use across its 23 campuses in September 2007. With nearly 450,000 students and 46,000 faculty and staff members, the California State University system is the largest in the country. Aruba was selected after it passed a stringent functional test, and demonstrated the lowest total cost of ownership for the specific criteria used in the evaluation.

Aruba's implementation of 802.11n offers substantive ease-of-use, performance, and interoperability advantages over competing solutions. Aruba's Adaptive Radio Management (ARM) technology automates wireless LAN set-up and maintenance, and adapts the network in real-time to accommodate user behavior, interference, and nearby networks. ARM features include:

• Airtime fairness to ensure that slower 802.11b/g clients have minimal impact on high speed 802.11n clients in lecture halls, trading floors, convention centers, and logistics facilities with densely deployed clients
• Co-channel interference management for the highest possible throughput in the presence of nearby access points and RF transmitters;
• Intelligent client steering to provide high speed clients with access to the greatest available bandwidth by associating them with the best band, channel and access point.

Interoperability tests published in March validated the efficacy of ARM - laptops containing wireless radio chip sets from Atheros, Broadcom, and Intel delivered the highest throughput with Aruba's 802.11n solution compared with three competing wireless LANs.

"Ease of use, high performance, and interoperability are the hallmarks of Aruba's 802.11n solution, and the fast uptake of our 802.11n access points reflects the importance of these features to customers," said Keerti Melkote, Aruba's co-founder and head of products and partnerships. "Not content to sit on our laurels, we continue to drive innovation into the 802.11n market. A case in point is our new line of economical 802.11a/b/g access points that can be upgraded via software download to 802.11n Draft2.0."

Source Aruba Networks

Wi-Fi in Education

Althought 802.11n 2.0 Wi-Fi isn't an official wireless standard, 99 percent of all North American universities will be using it in the year 2013, according to a report released in these days by market-watcher ABI Research. 802.11n, a proposed upgrade to today's wireless networking schemes such as 802.11b and 802.11g, promises far greater speed than its predecessors.

Less than three percent of such universities and colleges are using 802.11n Wi-Fi, but adoption of the wireless technology will grow rapidly during the coming five years, ABI Research predicts. This study examines the differences in environments, buying patterns, and usage patterns.. Wi-Fi usage in lower-level academic environments, like K-12 schools, is also expected to grow significantly during that time period, due largely to a need for enhanced security, which could be provided via wireless video surveillance, and that fact that more and more schools are instituting what ABI calls "anytime-anywhere learning.".

North American universities are clearly leading the charge towards ubiquitous Wi-Fi in academic locales, but the rest of the globe is starting to join in, led by Europe, according to ABI. However, Wi-Fi adoption in European cities could be hindered, ABI says, by lingering health concerns in that region associated with the technology.

Regardless, global revenue from Wi-Fi access point and controller equipment in the higher-education space will jump more than six-fold from $137 million in 2007 to $837 million in 2013, ABI says.

"ABI Research believes that Wi-Fi access point and controller equipment revenue in the global higher education space will skyrocket," in the next five years, says Stan Schatt, ABI VP and research director.

More ABI

Nationwide Wireless Network

Sprint Nextel, Clearwire, Google, Intel, Comcast, and Time Warner have all come together under the name of Clearwire, in an effort to produce a nationwide wireless network. The deal is estimated to be approximately 14.5 billion dollars. The investment by the five strategic investors will be based on a target price of $20.00 per share of Clearwire's common stock, subject to a post-closing adjustment. This adjustment is based upon the trading prices of new Clearwire common stock on the NASDAQ Market over 15 randomly selected trading days during the 30-trading day period ending on the 90th day after the closing date. The price per share will be based upon the volume weighted average price on such days and is subject to a cap of $23.00 per share and a floor of $17.00 per share. In addition, Trilogy Equity Partners, led by wireless veteran John Stanton, will invest directly in the new Clearwire's common stock.

The deal, which has been approved by the boards of all companies involved, is expected to close during the fourth quarter. The company will apply for a Nasdaq listing under the ticker "CLWR."
The new company is looking for a US network deployment reaching 120 million to 140 million people by the end of 2010. Company officials said they'll need up to $2.3 billion more in funding by getting additional investors or borrowing. They also could simply shrink the size of the network.
The network is predicted at being so fast that it will deliver video and advertising as well as text and simple Web pages.

Benjamin G. Wolff, chief executive officer of Clearwire, said, "The combination of robust next-generation mobile WiMAX technology and nationwide spectrum that we believe is optimal for delivering mobile broadband services - coupled with substantial new financial resources, a team of experienced wireless industry veterans, and distribution and technology agreements with some of our nation's leading communications, technology and content companies - creates what I believe to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. "

In addition to its investment in the venture, Google will integrate many of its online services with Sprint’s forthcoming WiMAX networks. The Mountain View, California-based search engine will become Sprint’s default mobile search provider, and Google Maps Mobile and YouTube accessibility will be offered on all new Sprint handsets.

"This exciting new venture enables Time Warner Cable to help shape the next generation of wireless services in ways that will complement and enhance our products and services," said Glenn Britt, Time Warner Cable's president and chief executive officer. "We're committed to giving our customers more control over how and where they can easily connect to what's important to them - entertainment, information, and each other. The agreements we're announcing today are a financially prudent way for us to add mobility to our offerings when our customers demand it."

Mobile WiMAX is a standards-based wireless broadband technology designed to operate multiple times faster than today's 3G wireless networks. With embedded WiMAX chipsets in laptops, phones, PDAs, mobile Internet devices and consumer electronic equipment, mobile WiMAX technology is expected to allow users to wirelessly access a range of multimedia applications, such as live videoconferencing, recorded video, games, large data files and more - anywhere in the network coverage area.

Watch here the full story from Reporter Abby Prince.

Source WebProNews

Wi-Fi spectrum

Look at the spectrum of the Wi-Fi at 2.4 GHz on a Tektronix Spectrum Analyzer. Watch closely the bursts. The analyzer uses a Yagi probe antenna.
Short movie taken at Romcontrola 2008.

Wireless data prices fall, usage booms

Mobile data traffic ramped up between four- and eightfold in 2007 thanks to the knockout combination of dramatically decreasing prices and faster network downlink speeds, according to a report from Heavy Reading.

The surge in data traffic is extremely good news for operators, but the challenge they now face is how to withstand the reductions in data prices without destroying their business models and becoming mere bit-pipe providers.

In 2007, an eightfold increase in data traffic compared with 2006 levels was common for mobile operators that introduced competitive flat-rate data plans and weren't carrying much data traffic prior to the deployment of HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) technology, according to the report, "Flat IP Architectures in Mobile Networks: From 3G to LTE."

For operators with a lot of pre-HSPA 3G data traffic and without competitive flat-rate data plans, three- and fourfold increases in data traffic in 2007 were common.

Gabriel Brown, Heavy Reading senior analyst and the report's author, says it' is "no wonder that data usage is growing because performance is getting better and prices are coming down. 2007 was the breakthrough year. You're getting 1 Mbit/s to 2 Mbit/s downlink routinely, and prices have come down massively."

According to Brown's report, data traffic volumes at Telefónica O2 Europe plc doubled every quarter in 2007 after it launched a one Euro ($1.59) per day flat-rate service using USB modems in Spain. And T-Mobile International AG recorded a 57 percent increase in 3G data volumes in the third quarter last year compared with the previous three-month period.

Brown stresses that the increase in mobile data usage is primarily due to lower tariffs -- prices declined more than 300 percent in 2007, according to the report.

Now operators have to decide how low they can take their prices, and how they deal with the impact of the data surge on their business plans and strategies. "Mobile operators are essentially becoming ISPs," says Brown. "They are going down the bit-pipe road. They don't want to do that, particularly, but what should they do?"

In Europe, the price competition is most aggressive in markets where 3 Group is present, such as Austria, Italy, Sweden, and the U.K. 3 shook up the U.K. market in August last year with a £10 ($20) per month offer for a USB mobile broadband service.

The operator is reportedly ready to cut that offer by 50 percent to £5 ($10) per month.

Original article

Telsima's 50km broadband Internet connection at 450MHz

Telsima Corporation announced that is has successfully demonstrated a 50km (30mile) high capacity broadband connection using its Sub-GHz WiMAX system in a 3 MHz channel under near line of sight conditions in the 450 MHz frequency band. Telsima’s Sub-GHz solution is able to accommodate any carrier frequency from 400MHz to 1000MHz, enabling operators to rapidly deploy a tunable solution to suit their allocated frequency band.

The tests, conducted under over a period of several days in the months of February and March of 2008 in Slovenia, stimulated significant commercial interest for using 450MHz and other sub-GHz frequencies carrier grade frequency bands. The base station was located at Vir Domžale silos with a vertically polarized antenna with 10.15 dBi gain. The subscriber station, using a Yagi antenna with a 10.65 dBi gain, was installed in a car that drove across terrain that included dense foliage and wooded hills. At a distance of 50 km, at Javornik, the WiMAX system communication link yielded excellent results; modulating at 64QAM in the downlink and 16QAM in the uplink; providing over 6Mbps throughput over the wireless link.

Wolfgang Mack, CMO Telsima commented, “Compared to higher frequency systems, the Sub-GHz solutions are technically and economically suited for covering large areas where the foliage is dense and the terrain does not allow for line of sight communications between the subscriber station and base station. We are very optimistic in our Sub-GHz solution’s capability to address the needs of high coverage, low density markets with high modulation rate capacity”.

Burcak Beser, CTO Telsima, explains, “These lower frequencies perform better in wooded and hilly environments because of their superior wave propagation characteristics enabling large sectors and wave diffraction around interfering objects such as hills and buildings. Rural areas in global markets, where the subscriber density is lower, are therefore more efficiently served using these sub-GHz frequencies. Of particular significance of our system demonstration is the excellent connection quality; sustaining modulation rates of 64QAM in the downlink and 16QAM in the uplink in a WiMAX system configuration suitable for wireline replacement voice quality services.

Telsima’s 450/700 MHz solution includes Base Stations, Subscriber Stations, NMS and Service Provisioning. Telsima’s Sub-GHz systems are able to deliver Internet, Voice and Multimedia services over a wireless broadband connection to remote users where coverage is more important than initial system capacity. This solution was unveiled in December 2007 and is expected to be in commercial deployments in the second half of 2008.

Telsima’s mobile WiMAX product portfolio allows operators to offer mobile services, MIMO antenna diversity and ASN network control today while smoothly migrating to 802.16e-2005 and NWG ASN solutions once commercially available.

More about here

Chrysler goes wireless

Chrysler will offer Wi-Fi Internet connectivity as a dealer-installed option on all models in the fourth quarter of 2008 and a blind-spot monitor as a factory option on its 2009 Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans.

Chrysler said the Wi-Fi and 4G (fourth-generation wireless) technology will allow Internet and e-mail access along with the ability to download movies and music to a vehicle. Chrysler said it plans to make the technology a factory-installed option at some point.

The radar-based blind-spot monitoring system for the minivans displays a visual warning in the sideview mirror when the vehicle is moving forward and another vehicle enters a blind spot. If a turn signal is activated, it sounds a warning. A "rear cross path" feature also offers alerts when the minivan's in reverse.

Ford will offer a similar system on some 2009s that works with its radar-based blind spot monitoring that will show the blind spot in secondary convex sections of the sideview mirrors.

Chrysler also is adding front-axle disconnect on all-wheel-drive versions of the 2009 300 and Dodge Charger to allow them to get better fuel economy from rear-wheel-drive.

Wireless08 21-22 May London

Wireless’08 is about delivering wirefree enterprise mobility and services. It brings together all the leading suppliers and expert speakers giving you an overview of the full breath of wireless solutions for your business whatever your chosen delivery platform is be it WiFi, WiMax, RFID, 3G, 4G.

Wireless08, now in its sixth year has an unprecedented track record of exhibitor and visitor growth, reflecting the demand for a dedicated enterprise mobility event. Wireless08 will deliver in excess of 4,000 technical and strategic decision-makers, all eager to discover how wireless can be put to work for their enterprise.

You can register here

Aerohive launches new 802.11n AP's

Aerohive Networks announced a portfolio of 802.11n HiveAPs. This includes the attractively designed dual-radio HiveAP 320 for indoor use, the metal-chassis dual-radio HiveAP 340 for indoor-industrial use, and the waterproof three-radio HiveAP 380 for outdoor use. Each product has two Gigabit Ethernet ports that provide power-over-Ethernet (PoE) using Aerohive's patent-pending Smart PoE technology. Aerohive's cooperative control architecture eliminates the need for costly centralized network controllers, enabling Aerohive to provide a resilient 802.11n solution for the cost of most vendors' 802.11g solutions. More information about the new products and the company's cooperative control wireless LAN architecture is available at www.aerohive.com.

Cooperative Control Unlocks the Power of 802.11n

Aerohive's controller-less wireless LAN architecture is ideal for 802.11n networks, because it eliminates the need to deploy the expensive, high-capacity controllers that are required to handle the increased throughput of 802.11n. Removing controllers from the network also eliminates the bandwidth bottlenecks, latency, and jitter that result from backhauling traffic through a controller. Resiliency is also increased when the single points of failure found in controller-based architectures are eliminated. The result is a scalable wireless LAN that can support high-performance, mission-critical applications.

"The wireless LAN in our Emergency Room environment runs mission-critical applications," said John Gaede, director, information systems, El Centro Regional Medical Center. "We evaluated three other leading WLAN vendors and chose Aerohive for our .11n deployment because of the Aerohive architecture's benefits of scale, resiliency, and ease-of-use. Of all the systems we evaluated, Aerohive also had the best performance, the least packet loss, and the best coverage. Cooperative control is the wireless LAN architecture of the future."

"The problems generally associated with centralized network controllers - cost, capacity, performance, and availability - are exacerbated in an 802.11n environment," said David Flynn, chief executive officer, Aerohive. "By contrast, the benefits of our unique, controller-less architecture become even more apparent in 802.11n deployments. Every organization interested in 802.11n needs to reconsider their WLAN architecture, and when they do, they will see the compelling advantages of Aerohive's cooperative control architecture."

Cooperative Control, Smart PoE Technology Accelerates Migration to 802.11n
The Aerohive cooperative control architecture makes it easy for enterprises to upgrade their wireless access points to 802.11n on an as-needed basis. Aerohive 802.11n HiveAPs may be seamlessly deployed along with 802.11a/b/g HiveAPs. Aerohive also enables easy migration to 802.11n from autonomous or "fat" access points. If 802.11n HiveAPs are deployed on the same subnet or VLAN as an enterprise's fat access points, network users can even roam between the HiveAPs and their old fat access points, which is often not possible with controller-based 802.11n deployments.

The new HiveAPs also facilitate the transition to 802.11n by providing flexible support for legacy network switches. Aerohive's Smart PoE technology automatically detects the level of Power over Ethernet (PoE) being delivered by the connected switches. Most legacy switches can provide a HiveAP with full power via a single 802.3af PoE connection. If required, HiveAP services can be automatically reduced to fit within the delivered power envelope.

When the HiveAP's dual gigabit Ethernet ports are connected to two PoE ports, the HiveAP is always fully powered. If the HiveAP is connected to two separate switches, it can optionally support dual homing for increased resiliency. If the HiveAP is connected to two ports on the same switch, the HiveAP provides Ethernet link aggregation for increased bandwidth if the switch supports link aggregation. A single PoE+ or 802.3at connection will also fully power a HiveAP. When two PoE+ connections are available, the HiveAP will also support redundant power and data resiliency.

Resilient 802.11n for the Price of Other Vendors' 802.11g

Aerohive's resilient 802.11n wireless LAN solutions cost approximately the same as competitors' 802.11a/b/g resilient solutions. The Aerohive cooperative control architecture, with its inherent resiliency, eliminates the need for costly network controllers and backup controllers. In addition, critical features, such as wireless mesh capability, security, and QoS, which are commonly separately licensed, are included in HiveAPs at no additional charge. Aerohive's 802.11n HiveAPs are priced approximately the same as competitors' 802.11n access points. As a result, solutions that require network controllers will nearly always be more expensive, often 200%-300% more expensive, than an Aerohive controller-less solution.

Pricing and Availability

The HiveAP 320 indoor access point has a U.S. list price of $1299 and will be available in July. The HiveAP 340 indoor-industrial access point has a U.S. list price of $1499 and will also be available in July. The HiveAP 380 outdoor access point has a U.S. list price of $2999 and will be available in the fourth quarter of 2008.

New Wi-Fi APs from Aruba

Aruba Networks announced a new line of 802.11a/b/g access points that can be upgraded over-the-network to enable 802.11n dual-radio operation. The new access points allow enterprises, schools, universities, hospitals, and other institutions to prepare today for a future migration to 802.11n without incurring the cost of an immediate upgrade.

The new AP-124ABG and AP-125ABG Access Points can be used for wireless access, intrusion-detection monitoring, secure enterprise mesh or remote access point applications. The mode of operation is determined by network-downloadable software, which eliminates the expense of physically accessing the devices to re-purpose or update them. Full 802.11n performance is delivered using existing 802.3af Power-over-Ethernet (PoE), precluding the need for an expensive PoE upgrade.

"The exact timing of the migration to 802.11n varies by user based on their application requirements, the availability of 802.11n clients, and budget," said Michael King, Research Director at Gartner, Inc. "Since WLAN infrastructure purchases must address both current and future requirements, enabling a flexible approach to 802.11n roll out will meet the needs of a wide range of organizations including those that haven't yet nailed down the timeline for implementing 802.11n."

Aruba's new dual-radio AP-124ABG and AP-25ABG Access Point family is based on the newest generation RF chips and high-performance MIPS CPUs with hardware-accelerated cryptographic processing. Featuring 3x3 Multiple-In Multiple-Out (MIMO) operation, the access points include automatic Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) management that supports 802.3af, 802.3at, and PoE +. The access points will operate in 3x3 MIMO mode using a single 802.3af PoE injector over a single Ethernet cable. A local 5VDC power source is provided for non-PoE applications.

Unique to this family of products, a Trusted Protection Module (TPM) manages security credentials to protect access points installed in unsecured areas. The TPM specification was defined by the TPM subgroup of the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) for the secure generation and storage of cryptographic keys, and is widely implemented on devices for which high security is essential.

The new access points will be managed by Aruba's vendor-neutral AirWave Wireless Management Suite. AirWave is a leading tool for centrally managing large, multi-vendor wireless LAN, mesh, and WiMAX networks. One of the key benefits of the tool is its ability to simplify technology migrations by integrating both legacy and new infrastructure under a single management console.

"The new access points address two primary customer concerns: how to prepare for 802.11n when the budget to make a full conversion is not available, and how to support 802.11n without replacing existing infrastructure such as 802.3af PoE," said David Munro, Aruba's head of controller platforms. "We believe we have accomplished both objectives with the AP-124ABG and AP-125ABG, and anticipate that the products will be especially attractive to customers such as school districts that are going through a wireless LAN refresh cycle now with an eye on their networking needs one or two years down the line. The new access points should meet today's budget constraints, while paving the way for a future upgrade without a forklift replacement."

The new access points will be shipping early this summer, and will be introduced at Interop Las Vegas, April 29, May 1, booth 1262, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

New WIPS from Aruba

Aruba Networks, a global leader in user-centric networks and secure mobility solutions, today announced a new version of its RFprotect Wireless Intrusion Prevention System (WIPS) software that allows users to define their own attack-detection signatures and defend against previously unknown, undisclosed, or unpatched vulnerabilities (zero-day attacks). These user-defined signatures can be implemented almost immediately, enhancing security and giving users more control over their threat vulnerability. All other wireless intrusion prevention systems require the supplying vendor to provide updates, leaving customers vulnerable in the meantime when a new attack is developed.

In addition, Aruba customers will be able to make their user-defined signatures available to others by contributing them to the Wireless Vulnerabilities and Exploits (WVE) database at www.wve.org, a community vulnerabilities database. Aruba has long been an active participant in the WVE Project.

"Security is an unending, iterative process in which the best defense is built by rapidly integrating updates about real or potential attacks as quickly as possible," said Rajeev Shah, Aruba's wireless IDS product manager. "User-defined threat definitions are used successfully in other segments of the security market, and we're pleased to be the first to make it available for WIPS."

The new software represents the full integration of the RFprotect software that Aruba acquired from Network Chemistry in 2007. RFprotect software automatically detects network vulnerabilities and contains unauthorized clients and adhocs even as they roam. With its customizable security policies, RFprotect software delivers organization-specific security policy enforcement, reduces false positives, and generates reports to meet compliance requirements.

Originally acquired from Network Chemistry in 2007, RFprotect software automatically detects network vulnerabilities and contains unauthorized clients and adhocs even as they roam. Featuring customizable security policies, RFprotect software delivers organization-specific security policy enforcement, reduces false positives, and generates reports to meet compliance requirements. The new RFprotect software has been integrated into Aruba's secure mobility solutions to enhance Layer 1-2 security capabilities.

"It is important that interval between the detection of a security threat and its mitigation be as short as possible because of the vulnerability created by the gap," said Paul DeBeasi, senior analyst at Burton Group. "Collaboratively developing, testing, and disseminating security features, including user-defined signatures, can minimize the vulnerability more rapidly than relying on a single vendor for periodic updates. This method has been used effectively in areas such as virus detection, and is an innovative way to enhance WIPS security."

The new RFprotect software will be shipping early this summer, and will be introduced at Interop Las Vegas, April 29 May 1, booth 1262, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

Meru launched a new 802.11n AP

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Apr. 21, 2008 – Meru Networks has introduced the AP440, a four-radio IEEE 802.11n wireless access point that provides the data rates and functionality to let enterprises replace aging wired infrastructures with wireless networks without compromising access speed, throughput capacity, security or resiliency.

The AP440 has four radios that can each support the full draft IEEE 802.11n standard, in either the 2.4GHz or the 5GHz band. Meru's "channel blanket" architecture means that all four can be in use at once, though likely set-ups will probably use one radio for monitoring, intrusion detection, and protection from rogue access points.

Each of the AP440's four IEEE 802.11n radios supports access at up to 300 megabits per second (Mbps), for 1.2 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) capacity. Because the four radios work together to provide internal redundancy, load-balancing and security, enterprise users can dramatically reduce the number of access points and additional security sensors they need, realizing significant savings on cabling, connection and deployment/installation costs.

"By 2010, we predict that 79 percent of new connections will be wireless," said Rachna Ahlawat, Meru's vice president of marketing. "Security is no longer the number one concern - it is now reliability, followed by capacity, scalability, security and price."

Although the access point will be announced at next week's Interop conference in Las Vegas, it won't be available until the third quarter of this year. This could be useful in that it may allow electrical power to catch up with it. The current standard for power over Ethernet, IEEE 802.3af, will not deliver enough electrical power to run four Wi-Fi radios, but the next specification, 802.3at, should start to be available in products by then, said Vaduvur Bharghavan, Meru Networks chief technology officer.

The four radios should operate omni-directionally and without interfering with each other, said Bharghavan. With four channels, it will be easier to avoid unexpected interference, such as that from microwave ovens, said Bharghavan. "The best thing is to have a parallel channel available in the same band," he explained, saying traffic can move across right away, whereas in a channel-planning WLAN, such as those of Aruba, Trapeze and Cisco, moving an AP from one channel to another would mean dropping all the clients, and then changing the channel - and then changing channels on neighbouring APs. "If clients need to change channels, we are optimised to do that. It's not been done before."

The access point also includes a USB port, so the user can plug in a Wi-Fi monitoring device, on a few access points, such as the Metageek Wi-Spy spectrum analyzer, which improves on plain Wi-Fi monitoring by spotting other sources of interference such as microwave ovens and Bluetooth. "We have software on the AP that interfaces and pulls spectrum analysis off the Wi-Spy" said Bhargavan. "As spectrum analyzers get more sophisticated, it won't require a hardware upgrade to the AP - you can just plug in a different analyzer."

Meru is also announcing a virtual-reality visualisation tool which can display three-dimensional "heat-maps" of Wi-Fi coverage in a building. It relates access points on different floors, so should give a better indication of coverage, and allows the network manager to move through the building checking on likely coverage from his or her desk. This is an additional extra to Meru's existing management software, and costs $9,995.

The AP440 Access Point is priced at $2,995 and the MC5000 4-Gbps Acceleration Module at $15,000 (U.S. list). Both products will be available in the third quarter of 2008.

More: Meru

Wireless signals up to 100km

Intel’s researchers have come up with a way to send Wi-Fi signals up to 60 miles (100km), while maintaining a usable throughput of up to 6.5Mbits/s.

According to MIT’s Technology Review, the system is known as the 'rural connectivity platform' (RCP) for the way it can, at relatively low cost, connect towns to out-of-the-way locations otherwise bypassed by new communication technologies.

This is to be more than a lab engineer’s daydream and has been field tested in India, Panama, Vietnam and South Africa.

The technology is innovative on a number of levels. It works using a point-to-point design, which automatically lowers cost to a quoted region of $500-$1,000 (£250-£500) for a single connection – way below rival systems such as cable broadband or satellite.

Once terminated at the remote location, the connectivity it provides could be distributed using off-the-shelf Wi-Fi hardware.

It is also low-power, using around five to six watts for a system with three radios in a link, making it possible to power it during the day from solar power or by battery during the night.

A lot of this is down to clever re-engineering of the software used by conventional Wi-Fi hardware to keep data acknowledgements to a minimum. This also has benefits for bandwidth because it shaves back-channel chatter in favour of sending and receiving usable data.

"Applying a TDMA modification to the MAC layer of standard 802.11, Intel RCP is able to achieve connection distances of up to 100km unobstructed line-of-sight," says one of the researchers. "Additionally, the relay and fork modes of operation allow for more complex topologies. So even if there are mountains or rough terrain, the connection between the base station and the rural end point can be maintained."

The main limitation on the system looks as if it is the number of obstructions and the curvature of the earth, hence the 100km limit.

Intel has a video demonstration of the system on the Intel Research Berkeley lab website.

The RCP, while hugely attractive to locations without connectivity, nevertheless looks like a low-bandwidth connection. Higher bandwidths and lower latencies would still need custom-designed wireless systems such as WiMax.

See more here

Extricom switch wraps Wi-Fi in 802.11n blanket

Enterprise Wi-Fi vendor Extricom has launched an 802.11n switch, claiming its "blanket" Wi-Fi technology solves the power problem of the new standard, allowing a smooth transition to faster Wi-Fi.

"Other vendors' implementation plans for enterprise-class 802.11n abandon the 2.4GHz band, move to the 5GHz band, and require costly non-standard power-over-Ethernet schemes," said David Confalonieri, vice president of marketing at Extricom. Extricom's "blanket" architecture avoids all these problems, he said, and supports four radios in one access point (AP).

Although the draft 802.11n standard offers a substantial speed increase over today's Wi-Fi, most vendors have been unable to make a full implementation, using two radios and multiple antennas, which uses less electrical power than the maximum of 12.95 watts which can be provided using the power-over-Ethernet standard with which enterprises drive their APs.

Only Siemens has apparently solved the problem for a two radio access point, while other Wi-Fi vendors have offered different work-arounds including proprietary power-over-Ethernet, and tuning back the throughput of the access point.

Extricom can vault past that, because its blanket architecture - which puts all access points on the same radio channel - centralises more of the processing. "Our AP has no CPU," said Confalonieri. "We can offer four radios and use less than 6 watts." Extricom's four-radio N access point is a new version of quad-radio 802.11abg APs launched a year ago.

Despite this, Extricom suggests companies should introduce N in stages, especially in the 5GHz band which has rarely been used for Wi-Fi till now, and whose propagation differs from the normal 2.4GHz band. Extricom says its systems can provide full N coverage and support legacy 802.11b and 802.11g using only the 2.4GHz band, because every access point uses the same channels - in contrast to "cell-planning" systems from Cisco Aruba and Trapeze, where adjacent APs have to use different channels.

This leaves the 5GHz band empty for gradual deployment. "You can introduce a slow roll-out of N, without changing the real estate, until your business has clients which require 5GHz N," said Confalonieri.

“The 802.11n standard promises to play a pivotal role in finally making the all-wireless enterprise a reality,” said Stan Schatt, director of wireless connectivity at ABI Research.

“The implementation of 802.11n should be about evolution, not revolution," said Gideon Rottem, chief executive of Extricom, who has said cell-planning is the 'original sin' of Wi-Fi.

The EXRP-40En four radio access point includes two n/a/b/g radios and two a/b/g radios, which can be operated in any combination of channels and bands. The ‘n’ equipped radios support 3x3 MIMO (multiple-in, multiple-out) antenna configuration. Extricom has also launched a tri-radio AP, with two 'n' radios and one a/b/g radio.

A firmware upgrade can give existing Extricom switches the ability to support the new APs, and a new switch, the EXSW-1600 has been announced, along with an antenna bar, which can add more antennas so one AP can have up to twelve antennas on a wall-mounted bar, connected to the AP by a single cable.

802.11n for Enterprise

Enterprise equipment developers have done their research and are incorporating additional technologies into 802.11n equipment and by doing so should garner some impressive wireless network performance characteristics:

1. The physical data rate selection algorithm (whew) has the tough job of determining what data transfer rate should be used based on the measured signal strength. 802.11a/g uses 12 steps from 1Mbps to 54Mbps. Whereas 802.11n has a total of 88 incremental data rate steps, which provides a more granular drop off when the signal strength weakens.
2. 802.11a/g uses transmit diversity which is useful and logical as the device transmits from the antenna that displayed the best reception characteristics during the last receive cycle. 802.11n uses spatial multiplexing, a technique that divides the information to be transmitted into independent and separately encoded data signals called streams. Each data stream is then transmitted from an independent antenna. The 802.11n standard allows up to four transmit streams. This is an interesting concept that increases data transmission capacity by multiplexing or reusing the space dimension multiple times.
   
3. In order to be able to transmit multiple data streams, designers had to rework OFDM, which is the digital multi-carrier modulation scheme used by 802.11a/g. MIMO-OFDM used by 802.11n devices is the results. MIMO-OFDM is viewed by many as the most singularly significant development of 802.11n.
4. 802.11a/g networks do not work well in multipath environments as I discussed in an earlier post. Basically having multiple—slightly different in phase or timing due to the environment—copies of the same transmitted RF signal arrive at the receiving antenna, drives the receiver nuts to put it politely. Since the real world is mostly a multipath environment, 802.11n was developed to make use of the slight differences exhibited by the arriving RF signals to distinguish the different data streams being transmitted.
   
5. Channel size is one determinant of how much data can be passed over a wireless link. The 802.11a/g standard uses 20 MHz channels and history has proven that amount of bandwidth to be a limiting factor. In the past few years equipment developers have tried to improve the physical transfer rate of data by using proprietary technology which combined adjacent channels to support greater data rates. The 802.11n standard describes how to use the much wider 40 MHz channels—that are easy to implement, cost effective, and only require moderate increases in digital signal processing. If properly implemented, 40-MHz channels can provide greater than two times the usable channel bandwidth.
6. By design, TCP/IP traffic requires error-free transmission of data and one of the controls used to regulate the processing of traffic is the ACK bit. The ACK bit is sent by the receiver to acknowledge receipt of each frame, which turns out to be significant management overhead just for receipt verification. One way to improve throughput would be to devise a way to acknowledge the receipt but more efficiently. That is exactly what 802.11n does with the Block-ACK. By removing the need for one acknowledgment frame for every data frame, the amount of overhead required for the ACK frames, as well as preamble and framing, is reduced.
7. No stone was unturned when the developers were looking at ways to improve throughput and efficiency. Even the lowly guard interval was tweaked. The guard interval is used to prevent data loss from propagation anomalies as well as interference created if the following transmission starts too soon. Can that interval be reduced? It would help throughput, even if just slightly. 802.11n specifies two guard intervals 400ns and 800ns. If optimal conditions exist the 802.11n device will drop down to the 400ns guard interval to reduce what is considered unnecessary idle time.

The 802.11n equipment developers are not satisfied with just these improvements. Smart antennas, multiple radios, and mesh technology are some heavy duty technologies that are being added to enterprise 802.11n appliances, which will allow 802.11n gear to evermore approach wired network parameters.

WLAN spectrum analysis from AirDefence

AirDefense has released a new version of its wireless intrusion-prevention software for enterprise wireless LANs, which adds an optional software application for analysing and troubleshooting the physical layer of enterprises' wireless environments.

The 7.3 version of AirDefense Enterprise can use two Wi-Fi radio frequencies, 2.4 and 5GHz, to detect possible interference from Bluetooth devices, microwave ovens or other radios. The new software program works with the vendor's existing radio sensors, analyses the data it collects from them, and displays the results.
Also new is a centralised management console that spans scores of AirDefense appliances. In the past, each appliance was managed by its own console.

AirDefense also introduced three appliance models: replacements for its existing low-end and midrange servers, managing up to 150 and 500 sensors respectively; and a new high-end device, with redundant hard drives and power supplies, that can manage at least 37,000 active wireless devices.

Additionally, the vendor's existing optional Advanced Forensics application has been updated so that it can analyse traffic patterns and radio behaviour (325 variables in all) over much longer periods of time, now months or even years.

Spectrum analysis traditionally has been the domain of specialised and often expensive tools. They can be more or less portable devices, used for personally scanning a specific location, or sensor systems that blanket a site and constantly monitor the air waves.

Airdefense's archrival AirMagnet introduced spectrum analysis in its intrusion-prevention software in 2006. That was based on an OEM deal with Cognio for its Spectrum Expert product. Cisco bought Cognio in 2007 and rebranded the product.

AirDefense decided to write its own spectrum-analysis software that could exploit the data collected by its existing radio sensors.

Other changes include new code that can pull information about devices on a Cisco WLAN from Cisco's WLAN controllers. A new tool called Device Manager creates a table-based view of information on devices in a given area, such as all access points assigned to channel six.

A starter AirDefense Enterprise 7.3 kit begins at US$8,000 (£4050) for one appliance, software, and five sensors. Each additional sensor is $995 (£500). The Spectrum Analysis module costs $195 (£100) per sensor; the Advanced Forensics module is also $195 per sensor.

See more info here

Wireless LAN systems of 2008

Best-in-class networking products receive honors for 2008. The top winners in the Wireless LAN systems category are:

GOLD AWARD:
Cisco Unified Wireless Network
For network managers who need uptime – and isn't that everyone? – behavior analysis is fast becoming a critical tool. Based on reader feedback, the MARS system from Cisco handily won our gold medal, thanks to its ability to detect network threats of all stripes, malware and misconfigurations alike.

SILVER AWARD:
SonicWall Secure Wireless Solution
The Secure Wireless Solution from SonicWall grabbed the silver in wireless LANs. The solution, which comes fully integrated into the company's enterprise-class firewall gateway appliance, was applauded for reliability and security.

BRONZE AWARD:
Aruba Wireless LAN
Combining the multiple components needed to secure a wireless network into a whole, the wireless LAN system from Aruba Networks earned high marks all around and succeeded in collecting the bronze medal in our 2008 Product Leadership Awards.

The four generations of wireless LAN networking

1st generation: early consumer Wi-Fi equipment, with minimal amounts of security

2nd generation: first release of enterprise-oriented wireless products. Access points still stand alone, but security was improved.

3rd generation: most current enterprise wireless products. Central controllers help regulate AP connections, much improved security, but deployment issues remain: proper layout and channel spacing needed for maximum benefit.

4th generation: All access points share a channel, with a central controller determining which access points communicate with various devices. Denser implementations become possible without risk of co-channel interference.

Fourth-generation APs, currently developed by Meru and Extricom, use a smart, centralized controller to create a large, virtual wireless cell that spans several APs, making the handoff between cells transparent to endpoint devices such as laptops and, ideally, reducing dropped connections as a user moves around a wireless LAN. As far as the device can tell, an entire office is just one large wireless zone (see sidebar for a look at the other wireless generations).

Extricom's APs have much less intelligence than typical offerings. They act similarly to antenna extensions that are intelligently tuned in to the appropriate device by a central switch to which each AP is directly connected. Meru's devices, on the other hand, have more intelligence in the AP, allowing them to communicate to the network on layer 3.

Each company claims its technology is superior in several ways, but King said they were similarly capable for most tasks.

These fourth generation methods also have the benefit of reducing planning complexity -- no more careful spacing of APs at set intervals, overlapping – but not by too much – connectivity zones to provide maximum range and throughput. Instead, these options can pack APs more closely to ensure stronger cover without the fear of radio interference.

But is it time to jump aboard? Maybe, maybe not. The technology is promising, but it is so new that network architects don't understand all its pitfalls.

See more info on wiki