Switch eases wireless LAN installation

SAN JOSE - A beta-test version user of a wireless switch being announced this week by start-up Airespace says the device has simplified the work of running and securing his wireless LAN.

The Airespace 4000 Wireless Switch automatically changes radio channel assignments and radio power levels to optimize performance for 1,100 users at University of California, Berkeley, says Fred Archibald, network manager of the university's electrical engineering and computer sciences department.

"This is a huge win for us," says Archibald, who has been working for about six weeks with the switch and its accompanying access points.

The switch also lets network managers at the department set up an array of virtual wireless LANs (WLAN), each with its own access privileges and security requirements.

The university's new WLAN, which consists of three 24-port Airespace switches and 26 Airespace 1200 Access Points, eventually will supplant a traditional distributed WLAN of 36 access points that were simply plugged into Ethernet switches. "This [traditional] technique doesn't scale up very well," Archibald says.

Kevin Tolly, president and CEO of The Tolly Group, an independent research and testing company, says WLAN switch vendors such as Airespace are pushing the idea that "you can't keep plugging access points into your wired [network] edge and have an enterprise-scale wireless system. . . . I agree with that."

But Tolly says companies should take a detailed look at this emerging class of product. "Vendors have their own view of the wireless universe," he says. "[If you buy their products], you need to embrace their philosophy and buy into their architecture."

Airespace is the latest in a pack of mainly venture-funded start-ups that are trying to extend to WLANs the kind of control, management and security that network executives are used to in wired networks.

There's no formal definition for a WLAN switch. And these devices can't allocate the bandwidth of a shared medium, the radio spectrum (the one exception is Vivato, which uses phased array antennas to play three radio beams over a group of wireless clients). Symbol Technologies last year released the first switch-like product.

The 12- and 24-port Airespace switches fit in a wiring closet rack, and support an array of upstream network connections to a wired infrastructure. The software is the key difference from a Layer 2 Ethernet switch. The Airespace code creates a centralized security and management framework that can use the access points as radio monitors, and pin security policies to wireless users no matter where they move.

The Airespace access point incorporates security and management software so the switch can control it. Among other features, the access point continuously sweeps the surrounding air for unauthorized, or rogue, access points and clients. It can "capture" these devices and block their access into an enterprise network, the company says.

Airespace says it will announce a shipment date and pricing for the products around the middle of the year.

Airespace, initially Blackstorm Networks, has raised $15.5 million in venture funding. Its management team comes from Metricom, Packeteer, Sun and others.