Stories about: Aruba Networks

Starting now, you no longer have to buy a software application to monitor your enterprise wireless LAN. You can just rent one online.

Wireless LAN technologies promise many positives, including flexible network availability and enhanced client mobility. But never do wireless proponents claim the unwired environment will be easy to manage.

Motorola has released a Draft 802.11n access point that supports wireless meshing, plus a new wireless controller.

Enterprise customers thinking of upgrading to faster 802.11n Wi-Fi have been warned that not all new access points (APs) deliver the promised performance gains.

A rare large-scale, wireless LAN stress test using three vendors' equipment found many WLANs could run into a performance ceiling as they grow in size and traffic. The study's authors say the problem lies not with the vendors' gear but with the design of the 802.11 protocol.

"Explosion resistant" isn't a label most of us expect to see on a wireless LAN access point, but Aruba Networks' new rugged access points are aimed at industrial and outdoor applications where conditions are harsh, hazardous and even explosive.

Siemens is launching a wireless LAN system that it claims can run full 802.11n on normal power over Ethernet, but refuses to divulge how it has managed a trick that is beyond other players including Cisco.

Some day the IEEE will get around to finalizing the 802.11n standard that it began working on in 2003. That some day was supposed to be 2006. Then 2007. Then 2008. Maybe, the standard will be finalized in 2009. Maybe 2010.

One of the surprises to emerge from CES 2008 is the idea that the 802.11n wireless LAN standard just isn't good enough.

Aruba's announcement today that they are acquiring AirWave is of course interesting to anyone who follows the WLAN industry, but its significance extends far beyond WLANs alone. Management has traditionally been one of the less interesting aspects of networking, perhaps because so few people are actually involved in it on a day-to-day basis, and those folks tend to speak in obscure dialects and sit behind consoles in dimly lit rooms. But if the network is indeed the circulatory system of the enterprise, these guys are the ones who make sure the heart is within normal operating parameters, and all the arteries and veins are free of plaques and clots and otherwise working at peak efficiency. And, of course, these guys are only as good as the tools they build their solutions on. Management is to my way of thinking is in fact going to become the critical differentiator in networking (wireless and wired) as we move ahead. A solid management offering will be the part of a proposed solution that wins deals.

Enterprise Wi-Fi vendor Aruba Networks is going to buy AirWave Wireless, a multi-vendor WLAN management company, in a bid to take business from Cisco. The purchase may prove awkward for rival companies who work with Airwave.