WLAN vendors roll out improvements

By Jon Cox Network World, 7/31/06

Four wireless vendors are introducing new or improved products, two of them aimed at enterprise wireless LANs, the others at outdoor mesh nets. AirDefense and PanGo, are adding features to their enterprise network products, which address wireless LAN security and monitoring, and asset tracking via wireless tags, respectively. Ruckus Wireless and LastMile Communications are taking two very different approaches to improve performance on outdoor Wi-Fi mesh nets.

AirDefense: improved alarms

AirDefense Mobile is the laptop version of the Atlanta company's server-based wireless security and monitoring application. The laptop software, used with a 802.11-based NIC, pinpoints a rogue wireless device, and runs a series of diagnostics on access points and wireless connections.

The 4.0 release includes a new program borrowed from the Enterprise edition: with it, net administrators can receive over 100 security and performance alarms. Those alarms can be sent to administrators via e-mail or Syslog messaging.

Also new is a triangulation feature, which lets the software collect radio signal strength readings from three or more locations, and then calculate the radio's location and display it on a map. Previously the software used a less accurate and more time-consuming trial-and-error technique.

The reworked user interface now lets administrators create two separate views of the local net: one for security topics and issues, the other for performance issues. Finally, a new hardware option lets customers select a powerful 300 miliwatt Ubiquity laptop NIC, along with a package of three different types of antennas.

Mobile 4.0 is available now at $1,000 list; with the hardware option, the price is $1,695.

PanGo: retooled user interface for asset tracking

PanGo is releasing 4.0 versions of its PanOS systems software, and of the PanGo Locator, which is an asset tracking application. The company's software collects data from its active WLAN-based tags attached to such things as medical equipment, or from readers triggering conventional passive RFID tags.

The user interface has been redesigned, so users have a choice of seeing the tagged equipment displayed on a map, or via a text-driven search option, in a table. Alerts have been improved by tying them to time: the software can send an alert when an EEG machine is taken from one location but not returned within 30 minutes, for example.

PanGo has also adopted a new information model for location data based on the World Geodetic System, which specifies a fixed global reference frame for the earth, providing a standard for navigation and location data.

The new software release is available now. Pricing is unchanged. PanGo says that 500 individual assets can be tracked and managed for about $100,000.

Ruckus: smart CPE antenna

Ruckus Wireless this week unveils MetroFlex, which includes a smart antenna and Ruckus software to create a reliable wireless link between a laptop and other clients and an outdoor Wi-Fi mesh node. MetroFlex combines a high-powered amplifier to boost the transmit power of its antenna array from 100 to 200 miliwatts, allowing the signal to carry more data farther.

The array itself consists of six directional antennas, polarized both vertically and horizontally. The software can create a range of different antenna patterns, selecting the one that forges the most stable, optimal connection to the distant mesh node. If interference strikes or the node becomes unavailable, the array automatically reconfigures to find the next most optimal connection for the client.

Service providers in Las Vegas, Ontario, Texas, California, Minnesota and Toronto have begun offering the MetroFlex box to their mesh network subscribers. MetroFlex lists for $129.

LastMile: wireless caching

LastMile Communications is taking a different approach to improving mesh performance: storing bandwidth-hungry content such as images and video in wireless nodes on the edge of the net. It's a wireless analog to Akamai, the Internet content cacher.

LastMile, based in London with U.S. offices in Raleigh, N.C., is selling two versions of its WDirect 1000 Information Node, one storing 2GB in flash memory, the other 4GB. The node includes a Web server to display customized Web pages to local users.

Each node has two radios, in addition to an Ethernet port: a GPRS cellular radio for the uplink, for SMS messaging and for controlling the node; and an 802.11-based NIC to link with nearby wireless clients. In the future, the node will support the WiMAX wireless broadband standard. Content can be loaded to the WDirect 1000 via either link, or by connecting via the Ethernet port to ADSL or fiber links.

In effect, the node is a Wi-Fi hot spot that can be used by adjacent business subscribers to store and publish content, says Gabriel Vizzard, LastMile's director of marketing. As part of a network of nodes, it can be used to send out alerts or other public safety information for citizens as well as first responders.

By caching bandwidth hungry content on the edge, it reduces the traffic burden on a Wi-Fi mesh infrastructure, Vizzard says. "We can provide richer end-user experience at the edge of the net, without adding more load to the net itself," he says.

The node is being deployed in trials at University of Aberdeen, Dundee, Scotland, and at an unnamed healthcare provider. The WDirect 1000 costs $1,200.

Recent Related Stories:

Who's hooking PBXs to cellphones? (Network World)

Back to MobileVillage News Page

This story and associated images are copyright, 1995-2006 Network World, Inc.