Wifi Revolution

Large organizations continue to see new tools and platforms designed to increase the flexibility of wireless networks.

Trapeze Networks has released the SmartMobile platform, a WLAN solution that uses intelligent switching that the company says is the first of its kind to allow both centralized and distributed switching on the same network.

“Smart Mobile represents a fundamental shift in WLAN architectures,” said Dan Simone, vice president and chief technology officer at Trapeze Networks. “By distributing intelligence throughout the network while retaining centralized policy and management, Smart Mobile delivers the technological breakthrough enabling customers for the first time to deploy next-generation wireless applications such as voice over WLAN on an unprecedented scale.”

To date, wireless architectures have offered enterprise clients a choice between a centralized or distributed architecture. The SmartMobile system allows users to select either option depending on which application is being used. The system features a centralized management stack that establishes authentication and other policies, but then pushes the implementation of those policies out to the access point.

“When a client authenticates a set of policies to handle traffic, it normally switches the program data path within the switch itself to forward traffic,” Simone said during an interview with TMCnet. “We have essentially the same forwarding pass-code, but in the access point. The control side of the switch can control forwarding in the switch, or it can reach out to the access point. It gives you the flexibility to mix and match your wireless network based on the needs of the application.”

Voice communications, for example, would be most suitable for switching at the access point to allow better peer-to-peer communications and lowering bandwidth usage on internal wired and wireless networks. Internet access to non-employee guests, on the other hand, would probably be more suitable on a centralized switch where traffic is funneled to the LAN and corporate data can remain hidden behind firewalls.

“With SmartMobile, there is nothing to prevent a distributed voice service and centralized guest access,” Simone said. “The environment drives behavior, rather than trying to force-fit everything into a particular model.”

Voice is one of the key applications for SmartMobile, enabling what some are dubbing voice-over-WLAN (VoWLAN) as a way to reduce cellular bills as much as VoIP has reduced costs for landline services. Centralized switching has limited traditional VoWLAN services to several hundred users. But with traffic flowing directly from handset to handset in a distributed model, VoWLAN can be deployed to several thousand users.

The software-based system is 802.11n-ready, so it doesn’t require any major hardware upgrades or network reconfiguration, Simone said.

“You can connect access points anywhere on the network, with one switch in a central location,” he said. “All management configuration can be handled from anywhere using (Trapeze’s) RingMaster network management platform.”

Simone added that the company intends to pitch the system as an indoor/outdoor solution, bringing wireless connectivity from the front office to the shop floor and the warehouse. The company plans to offer WiFi (News - Alert) Multimedia (WMM) and WPA2 security to outdoor mobile applications, largely through the reduction in bandwidth needed for backhaul and client services in centralized-only solutions.

“We are most definitely focused on the large enterprise,” he said. “This system has a lot of value to our existing installed based as a pure indoor deployment as well as an outdoor deployment.”

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Arthur Cole is a freelance writer specializing in high-tech information and communications. To see more of his articles, visit his columnist page.

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