[November 24, 2008] Meru Ramps Up with Virtualization Solutions for Wireless LANs Products Tweet (Wireless News Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Meru Networks has announced the introduction of techniques of virtualization to its enterprise wireless LAN products. The "virtual port" technology, available now on Meru products, provides client devices with its own dedicated virtual wireless network. Just as with dedicated ports on a wired switch, enterprises gain control over the wireless resources allocated to each client, lowering both initial expenditures and ongoing management costs. "Virtualization has brought dramatic cost savings, resource efficiencies and predictability to the server and storage worlds," said Ihab Abu-Hakima, Meru Networks CEO. "Now it is doing the same for wireless LANs - at a time when the increasing diversity of devices and applications in the enterprise makes cost-effective utilization of assets more critical than ever. When applied to the WLAN, the fine-grained control and effective resource-sharing of virtualization allow each user device to live within its own 'virtual world,' where performance and other policies can be customized to its specific needs." "For years our virtual cell technology has helped enterprises save on capital expenditures by reducing the number of APs needed and eliminating RF planning," he added. "With virtual port, customers gain additional savings on operating expenses. Once client behavior is bounded, they need no longer worry about the impact of new applications or diverse client populations. This saves them significant time and money on resource allocation and management, and gives them a much greater degree of predictability and control over future infrastructure costs." With Meru's virtual cell architecture, all client devices saw a single, common IEEE 802.11 Basic Service Set Identifier, or BSSID (the MAC, or Media Access Control, address in Wi-Fi networks). With the virtual port technology, every client device has its own unique BSSID. This enables the partitioning of pooled RF resources into virtual ports, eliminating "lowest common denominator" contention among devices and enabling the enterprise to exercise control over the uplink and downlink performance of each device, the company said. Virtual port technology is included in Meru's System Director 3.6 software, which is available immediately. ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) ((Distributed on behalf of 10Meters via M2 Communications Ltd - http://www.m2.com)) ((10Meters - http://www.10meters.com)) Copyright ? 2008 Wireless News [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]