In past columns we've talked about some "switched" wireless LAN solutions: devices that control and aggregate multiple access points in an enterprise or campus Wi-Fi deployment. These switches provide central management of all access points in a Wi-Fi network - traffic prioritization, load balancing, and even, in some cases, monitoring of the airwaves for unauthorized users and rogue access points. A host of these solutions have hit the market in the past six months from vendors such as Aruba Wireless Networks, Chantry Networks, Airespace and others. The main selling point of all of these solutions is that they provide a centrally managed wireless LAN system as opposed to the more traditional enterprise approach of installing a series of "smart" access points, each of which handles its own authentication, security, routing and other network functionality.

While each of these solutions has its own special features and "secret sauce," they all share a similar network architecture. A centralized "wireless switch" or "router" is placed in the enterprise wiring closet, and a number of access points (dozens or even hundreds are possible with many of these products) are placed throughout the enterprise or campus. Another start-up in this space - Vivato - has received a lot of press for their very different approach to the enterprise Wi-Fi network. 

Vivato takes an even more centralized approach by allowing an enterprise to install a single device: Vivato's Indoor or Outdoor Wi-Fi switch. The Vivato Wi-Fi switch uses the company’s "smart antenna" technology, a planar phased array antenna system (similar to the systems used in many military radar systems). This phased array system consists of a flat panel that can electronically form narrow radio wave "beams." Because these beams can be precisely aimed and the wave form can maintain a narrow area of coverage, Vivato claims their system can virtually eliminate interference from adjacent channels (an issue in 802.11b and g systems, where channels have a high degree of overlap).

Vivato’s smart antenna system has other benefits worth noting. First, the system can create multiples of these aimed beams, providing a virtual point-to-point system when transmitting to clients on the network (Vivato calls this "Packet Steering"). So these clients are not contending for bandwidth in a shared environment, as they are in a typical Wi-Fi system. Second, the process of precisely shaping and aiming these discrete beams has the side benefit of increasing the range of the system. While typical Wi-Fi access points have a range of 300 feet, Vivato claims a reach of miles.