Meru announced on Wednesday high-performance Wi-Fi access points and software designed to let enterprise IT groups replace wired Ethernet switches at the network edge.
Dubbed Teton, the new 802.11n platform includes software to optimize usage by increasingly diverse Wi-Fi clients, including iPads and other tablets as well as smartphones. Teton introduces what Meru calls the “WLAN 500 mode,” which is a network-wide service with features that let one access point deal with up to 500 Wi-Fi clients in a 500-square foot area.
Best Microsoft MCTS Training – Microsoft MCITP Training at Certkingdom.com
ANALYSIS: “Major Wi-Fi changes ahead”
(Earlier this week, in separate announcement addressing big wireless networks, Motorola Solutions said it was jacking up its WiFi controller tenfold to handle up to 10,000 access points.)
As for Meru, its Teton-based AP400 indoor and outdoor models will have three 802.11n radios, with an option for a fourth via USB port, with each radio supporting three data streams. For three radios, the total throughput per access point is 450Mbps (compared to the prior two-radio, two-stream Meru models of 300Mbps). Adding the optional fourth radio, boosts this 1.8Gbps.
Meru is not yet announcing prices for the new hardware, due out later this year. The company’s pitch is that the new product line will enable enterprises to phase out Ethernet edge switches, which are increasingly left idle as laptops and other clients connect via Wi-Fi. But even idle, there are support contracts, electricity, operational costs and traditional switch replacement cycles for which enterprises are paying. It seems likely there will be some premium for the powerful new radios and the software features, but Meru’s pricing calculations may take into account the capital and operational costs of edge switches to spur adoption.
The idea of eliminating wired Ethernet as the primary network access has been controversial for the past two or three years. But even in 2009, a range of enterprises (many of them colleges and universities) were discovering that a majority of their wired Ethernet ports (90% at one university) were completely idle, because users were relying on Wi-Fi.
The new products make use of Meru’s distinctive “WLAN virtualization” software, which among other things, lets you assign one channel to all access points, simplifying access and management. Additional channel assignments, for specific groups or types of clients or applications, can be in effect stacked across the access points, in what Meru calls channel layering.
Q&A: Meru Networks closing in on the all-wireless enterprise network
But Meru is adding several capabilities that give the AP400 series the power, flexibility and intelligence to replace edge Ethernet switches (see the AP400 data sheet). The WLAN 500 “mode” or service already mentioned is one: a set of Meru algorithms let each radio coordinate with others, load balance, and steer radio signals to optimize throughput.
A second is called Distribution Mode, which Meru proposes to replace or at least reduce the racks of wiring closet switches. In Distribution Mode, AP400 becomes an aggregation point (or “root AP” in Meru lingo) for other access points in the network, via Meru’s Wi-Fi meshing software. They pass their traffic wirelessly back to these aggregators, which can offer 900M to 1.8Gbps of backhaul capacity depending on the number of radios. The aggregator has a Gigabit Ethernet port to a higher-end, aggregation-level Ethernet switch.
