Foundry readying WLAN assault

Foundry Networks plans to go beyond its copper/fiber roots next month when it launches enterprise wireless LAN access points, supporting several 802.11 flavors with features such as Power over Ethernet and 802.1x security.

The company - known more for pushing big bandwidth over fiber and copper - reportedly also will offer software upgrades for its existing LAN equipment that will add WLAN switching capabilities, such as access point management and control.

Industry watchers and customers have anticipated such developments from Foundry, which has been mum, as rivals such as Enterasys, Extreme Networks, HP and Nortel have unveiled access point and WLAN switch products earlier this year.

"We're excited to be getting the Foundry [wireless] products," says Richard Nelson, director of information processing at the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute (USC-ISI), a supercomputing research center. Foundry's WLAN access points are slated for a beta test at the USC-ISI, which runs a network of Foundry switches for desktop connections, as well as Gigabit and 10G Ethernet in the core. Cisco Aironet WLAN equipment also is installed. Depending on how the beta test goes, Nelson says he might keep a dual-Cisco/Foundry Wi-Fi network, or opt for an all-Foundry infrastructure.

Wireless access-point management is sometimes difficult, he adds, because there is no easy way to combine management functions of his Foundry wired and Cisco wireless gear. Having WLAN and wired LAN gear act seamlessly as one system is something Nelson says he has been hoping for.

"The ability to add wireless management to switches through a software upgrade is also interesting," Nelson says, because his organization won't have to buy new network gear to manage the access points.

Foundry next month is expected to release WLAN access points that will support IEEE 802.11a (54M bit/sec), 802.11b (11M bit/sec) and 802.11g, which supports speeds up to 54M bit/sec.

It's expected that Foundry's access points will support 802.3af PoE standard, letting the devices receive AC power and Ethernet connectivity over a single Category 5 or 6 wire. Competitors such as 3Com, Avaya, Cisco and HP offer POE access points and switches. The access points will work with Foundry's PoE switches, which the company released in March, or any other 802.3af-compliant products. For security, 802.1x port authentication will be included in the access points, allowing the devices to force authentication at the connection level through a RADIUS server.