ARUBA WIRELESS NETWORKS CATALYZES THE WIRELESS MARKET WITH THE FIRST-OF-ITS KIND WI-FI MUX

New Aruba 800 Delivers Unprecedented Integration of Conventional APs at Lowest Price Point in the Industry

SAN JOSE, CA ? October 20, 2003 ? Aruba Wireless Networks today began shipping the Aruba 800, the industry?s first Wi-Fi multiplexer (mux), that finally eliminates the challenges of integrating legacy access points (APs) into wired campus networks. The highly programmable Aruba 800 hardware platform also functions as a full-featured Wi-Fi switch with unique RF management capabilities when connecting to thin APs and is ideally suited for deployment in branch office networks.

A Wi-Fi mux moves the integration point of legacy APs with wired networks, from the wiring closet to a centralized location such as the backbone or the data center. It acts as a proxy for legacy APs and securely tunnels traffic over IP networks to a centralized Wi-Fi switch. The Wi-Fi switch aggregates traffic from multiple Wi-Fi muxes and enforces security and mobility policies at a central network location. The Aruba 800 Wi-Fi mux can attach to both the Aruba 5000 and the Aruba 800 Wi-Fi switches.

"The Aruba 800 Wi-Fi mux is perfect because it allows an enterprise with significant investments in conventional APs, to integrate them into a centralized switched wireless architecture," said Keerti Melkote, co-founder and VP of Marketing at Aruba Wireless Networks. "In addition, the Wi-Fi mux can be easily converted to a full-featured wireless LAN (WLAN) switch, a secure mobility gateway or a WLAN IDS appliance for the branch office and small enterprise deployments by simply turning on these functions as software applications."

The Aruba 800 also acts as an 802.3af compliant Power over Ethernet (PoE) switch with a built-in terminal server based on Aruba's patented Serial and Power over Ethernet (SPOE) technology. With SPOE, enterprises don't have to buy discrete devices for connecting, powering and managing conventional APs.

With the 800, Aruba becomes the only company to provide a complete enterprise-wide Wi-Fi switching solution that safely extends the wireless enterprise from the campus to the branch offices. Aruba's comprehensive suite of Wi-Fi switching products includes modular Wi-Fi switches, stackable Wi-Fi multiplexers, stackable branch office and wiring closet switches, AirOS switching software, RF Director air management tools, 802.11 a+b/g access points and 802.11 a+b/g air monitors.


Deploying Wi-Fi Never Easier or Safer for Branch Offices
The Aruba 800 Wi-Fi mux converts to a stackable Wi-Fi switch that scales to support hundreds of simultaneous users and thousands of stateful user firewall policies with the simple addition of the Wi-Fi switching software application. Multiple Aruba 800s can be remotely configured and centrally managed from a single Aruba 5000. Interworking among all Aruba Wi-Fi switches enables per-user policies to follow the user as he/she roams across APs and switch locations.

"Wi-Fi switching is the holy grail for us on a number of fronts," said Joe Duff, coordinator of Wireless Technologies for the Fraser Health Authority in British Columbia. "The Aruba 800 will replace a number of disparate appliances, give us RF visibility and security on a single device and allow for central management and monitoring to remote facilities that are up to two hours away."

Fraser Health Authority is a regional health care provider that operates more than 100 facilities throughout its service area. One of every three British Columbians is served by Fraser Health, the province's largest health authority. Fraser Health's 20,000 employees serve 1.4 million residents of urban and rural communities from Burnaby to Boston Bar. Currently, Fraser Health Authority operates several 802.11b networks in different locations using legacy wireless equipment.

Fraser Health Authority's Wi-Fi networks are used by physicians and nurses to administer relevant patient records, provide patients with interactive clinical information at their bedside and for employees, access to the corporate network. Fraser Health Authority plans to build a cohesive enterprise-wide wireless system using Wi-Fi switching technology. With recent news of the Fraser Health Authority's plans to build a new 300 bed Acute Care facility & Cancer Center, they will be undertaking a massive roll out of 802.11 wireless access points expanding from 25 today to over 200 in the near future.

"Managing hundreds of fat APs, each of which operates as an isolated system, is simply absurd from a capital and operational cost perspective," said Joe Duff. "With the 800, Aruba gives me centralized control and robust security for remote facilities now with my existing wireless equipment and a unified wireless model moving forward."


Aruba 800 Product Details
The Aruba 800 is a single rack unit Wi-Fi switch equipped with eight 10/100 Mbps power over Ethernet (802.3af) ports along with one copper gigabit Ethernet uplink and a serial management port. An optional module converts the copper uplink into a fiber uplink.

An integrated crypto engine enables the Aruba 800 to deliver hundreds of megabits of L2/L3 encrypted traffic every second. The 800 supports Aruba thin 802.11a+b/g access points and air monitors as well as conventional access points.

Only Aruba's Wi-Fi switches support IP-attached thin AP technology. APs are connected anywhere within the wired IP network and automatically attach to the Aruba Wi-Fi switches using standard generic routing encapsulated (GRE) tunnels. APs are then automatically configured with the optimal transmit power and channel settings and become part of a seamless mobile overlay network. Because GRE tunnels are transparently carried over an IP network, no new cabling changes or VLANs are required for the wired network.

All of Aruba's Wi-Fi switches now support the new Wi-Fi protected access (WPA) standard (that uses the 802.1x authentication framework and Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) and its APs support the 802.11g standard that defines wireless operations at 54 Mbps within the 2.4 Ghz spectrum.

Pricing and Availability
Compliant with all worldwide regulatory certifications, the Aruba 800 is available immediately and priced at US $2,995. WLAN IDS, WLAN Switching and Secure Mobility Gateway are add-on software applications and priced at US $1,995 each. The Aruba 800 runs Aruba's AirOS software along with RF Director and supports all the same features and functions of other Aruba Wi-Fi switches.

Source: Aruba Wireless Networks http://www.arubanetworks.com/