Airespace plugs WLAN appliance

Airespace, which announced its first wireless LAN management products a few months ago, has followed up with a new WLAN appliance that the company said responds to market evidence showing a need for better integration of WLAN management capabilities with existing wired Ethernet environments.

The WLAN 4100 WLAN Appliance allows for an RF overlay on top of those existing Ethernet infrastructures and works in combination with the vendor’s AireWave Director software to manage wireless LAN facilities and coverage. That means a corporate enterprise doesn’t have to replace wired Ethernet switches and routers it has deployed previously, said Alan Cohen, vice president of marketing at Airespace.

“If something works, why rip it out?” he said. “Corporate customers in all markets want wireless to work with their existing equipment. Wireless LANs in the enterprise are not about hardware and switching. They are about software and management capabilities.”

Having said that, the San Jose, Calif., company also has the Airespace 4000 security switch, which could be deployed behind an existing Ethernet switch or in place of one if a customer desires.

However, Cohen said Ethernet is so widely deployed that many of the vendors that are “just pushing a security switch will have to change their tune.”

The new appliance is available now, and has already been deployed at Frostburg State University, part of the University System of Maryland. Among other capabilities, the Airespace 4100, as an overlay, does not require direct connectivity individual access points to manage them, which removes port limitations. This also makes it easier to add new access points as a corporate enterprise wants to expand its network.