WLAN vendors roll out improvements

Four wireless vendors are introducing new or improved products, two of them aimed at enterprise wireless LANs, the others at outdoor mesh nets.

AirDefense and PanGo, are adding features to their enterprise network products, which address wireless LAN security and monitoring, and asset tracking via wireless tags, respectively. Ruckus Wireless and LastMile Communications are taking two very different approaches to improve performance on outdoor Wi-Fi mesh nets.

AirDefense: improved alarms

AirDefense Mobile is the laptop version of the Atlanta company's server-based wireless security and monitoring application. The laptop software, used with a 802.11-based NIC, pinpoints a rogue wireless device, and runs a series of diagnostics on access points and wireless connections.

The 4.0 release includes a new program borrowed from the Enterprise edition: with it, net administrators can receive over 100 security and performance alarms. Those alarms can be sent to administrators via e-mail or Syslog messaging.

Also new is a triangulation feature, which lets the software collect radio signal strength readings from three or more locations, and then calculate the radio's location and display it on a map. Previously the software used a less accurate and more time-consuming trial-and-error technique.

The reworked user interface now lets administrators create two separate views of the local net: one for security topics and issues, the other for performance issues.

Finally, a new hardware option lets customers select a powerful 300 miliwatt Ubiquity laptop NIC, along with a package of three different types of antennas.

Mobile 4.0 is available now at $1,000 list; with the hardware option, the price is $1,695.

PanGo: retooled user interface for asset tracking

PanGo is releasing 4.0 versions of its PanOS systems software, and of the PanGo Locator, which is an asset tracking application. The company's software collects data from its active WLAN-based tags attached to such things as medical equipment, or from readers triggering conventional passive RFID tags.

The user interface has been redesigned, so users have a choice of seeing the tagged equipment displayed on a map, or via a text-driven search option, in a table. Alerts have been improved by tying them to time: the software can send an alert when an EEG machine is taken from one location but not returned within 30 minutes, for example.

PanGo has also adopted a new information model for location data based on the World Geodetic System, which specifies a fixed global reference frame for the earth, providing a standard for navigation and location data.

The new software release is available now. Pricing is unchanged. PanGo says that 500 individual assets can be tracked and managed for about $100,000.

Ruckus: smart CPE antenna

Ruckus Wireless this week unveils MetroFlex, which includes a smart antenna and Ruckus software to create a reliable wireless link between a laptop and other clients and an outdoor Wi-Fi mesh node. MetroFlex combines a high-powered amplifier to boost the transmit power of its antenna array from 100 to 200 miliwatts, allowing the signal to carry more data farther.