In order to address the demands driven by mobility, smart devices and the rapidly expanding wireless-enabled Internet of Things, Extreme Networks has announced the expansion of its wireless portfolio with high-density 802.11ac Wave 2 access points (APs).
Using Extreme's unique flow-based technology, the new access points deliver location-based application analytics while also providing the upgraded speed, additional capacity and enhanced security available through 802.11ac Wave 2 technology.
“Extreme's end-to-end portfolio of wireless, wired, software and security solutions allows organisations to pair unified high-density switching with Wave 2 APs to unlock the total capabilities offered by the 802.11ac technology standard, and meet the needs of a diverse and rapidly increasing number of users, devices and applications,” the company explains in a statement.
"Organisations of all kinds, from education to healthcare to hospitality and general enterprise, are putting increasing demands on their wireless access networks,” says
Eric Broockman, CTO and EVP of Engineering, Extreme Networks. “Extreme's software driven networking solutions are focused on tapping into the technical potential of 802.11ac Wave 2 to deliver measurable business results based upon our uniquely scalable flow based AP architecture.
"Extreme's Wave 2 offering bolsters an already strongly integrated wired and wireless LAN solution,” explains Nolan Greene, research analyst at IDC. “ It will give Extreme customers in healthcare, education, manufacturing and entertainment a way to unify their network for management, potentially bringing about improved performance and streamlined network operations.
“ExtremeAnalytics is also enabled for the Wave 2 Access Point allowing customers to analyse performance across the entire network,” he says.
Key Enhancements
· Flow-based AP Technology – Extreme's newest flow-based access points are built on over a decade of proven flow-based switching experience. Application flow processing embedded natively in the APs provides real-time visibility of mobile application usage, network response times and application response times without sacrificing performance to thousands of applications. The combined solution of ExtremeWireless and ExtremeAnalytics extends application visibility and control all the way to the wireless edge, providing even higher levels of security and control of network resources than previously possible.
· Indoor - Outdoor APs – The ExtremeWireless AP3935i/e Indoor and AP3965i/e Outdoor access points deliver exceptional performance and higher speeds via dual Gigabit Ethernet ports to provide greater connectivity for more users and devices with higher resiliency. The Outdoor AP is also available with an indoor or outdoor antenna configuration for increased flexibility.
· MU-MIMO – ExtremeWireless 802.11ac Wave 2 access points provide multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) technology and may deliver an increase of up to 20 percent more packet processing power and up to a 50 percent increase in overall throughput than previous generations. This allows the network to provide a consistent experience to more concurrent users and devices for high-density BYOD and IoT deployments.
· Voice over WLAN – Grants mobile customers the ability to utilize the WLAN for voice services.
· HotSpot 2.0 – Allows for seamless and secure roaming and data off-loading between Cellular and Wi-Fi networks, ideal for high-density environments such as college campuses, hospitality, stadiums and venues.
“We foresee delivering superior voice over WLAN, best-in-class video learning in classrooms, highly scalable application identification, Hotspot 2.0 data offloading and higher spatial capacity for high density environments and venues as just some of the many benefits for customers to move up and future proof with 802.11ac Wave 2,” adds Broockman.