TMCnet Feature

The enterprise WLAN space is hot, and it’s not hard to understand why. While wireless LANs have been around for years and always have been a nice-to-have networking option, the growth in ownership and use of mobile devices including laptops, smartphones and tablets is now making WLANs a must-have for many businesses.

"This market continues to gain momentum as vendors and end users discover more possibilities and growth potential with mobile enterprise applications and cloud applications and services," says Rohit Mehra, director of enterprise communications infrastructure at IDC. "The demand for adaptable, robust, easily deployed wireless LAN solutions is on the rise as more and more enterprise employees access the network through smart mobile devices."

In its latest MarketScape report, IDC named Cisco (News - Alert) and Aruba the leaders in the enterprise WLAN category for 2011/2012, and noted that several others are considered major players in the space. The report covers Aerohive (News - Alert), Bluesocket-ADTRAN, D-Link, Enterasys, Extricom, HP Networking, Juniper, Meraki, Meru Networks, Motorola Solutions, Ruckus, and Xirrus.

TMCnet recently spoke to Dirk Gates (News - Alert), founder and CEO of Xirrus, about his company and where he sees the enterprise WLAN market going.

How did Xirrus get started?

Gates: Back in 2002, I attended an Intel Capital (News - Alert) conference where companies were presenting and talking about Wi-Fi devices. I realized that the standard two-radio home access points would lack the horsepower and intelligence to handle the projected explosion in the use of Wi-Fi devices. I looked around and found the cellular market had already solved the capacity issue by installing multiple radios with sectored antennas into cell towers. I also found that the wired switch market had solved the scalability and distribution issues by distributing the intelligence to the edge of the network with modular chassis. In 2004, I formed Xirrus by pulling together some leadership from my previous company, Xircom. They created the first wireless array that comprises multiple modular radios, a sectored antenna system, and a distributed controller/chassis.

Who uses Xirrus solutions?

Gates: They were historically focused on organizations that depend on wireless access to support their business – this is increasingly the case across all types businesses as tablets, smartphones and other wireless-only devices proliferate. We see concentrations in education (both higher and primary), healthcare, hospitality (hotels and events), retail, transportation, and government. 

ADTRAN recently bought BlueSocket. How does that product and strategy compare, if at all, to what Xirrus is doing?

Gates: There has been some consolidation in the networking category as full-service vendors seek to fill gaps – ADTRAN/Bluesocket is the latest, following Juniper/Trapeze, HP/Colubris (News - Alert), and Cisco/Airespace. Xirrus is focused on meeting the accelerating demand for wireless access as wireless service replaces wired service at the edge of the network. Xirrus is focused on solving the toughest problems in Wi-Fi as more and more devices and wireless applications hit the network. Gartner says that 80 percent of today's wireless networks will fail by 2015 because they are not designed to handle the load that will be placed on them. That prediction opens a huge market opportunity for Xirrus.

How does Xirrus differentiate its offer in the marketplace?

Gates: When we designed our wireless networking solution, we saw little point in developing yet another conventional thin AP + controller architecture. That technology can't provide our customers the high-performance, ‘wired-like’ reliability they require. Therefore, we developed something different and better. We deliver noteworthy performance improvements over conventional thin-AP architectures: four times the coverage and up to eight times the bandwidth and capacity per access device, all with better security and reliability equivalent to that of wired networking. And at the user level, organizations see significant gains in productivity and satisfaction.

Our architecture includes:

·         improved device and user density and throughput, with 4 to 16 radios per array;

·         greater coverage, with high-gain directional antennas, than competing arrays;

·         distributed intelligence in each array, and with no central controller;

·         a modular platform for simplified capacity expansion and field upgrades;

·         easy installation and network integration, using an on-board switch, firewall and management; and

·         high RF security with a dedicated threat sensor in each array.