Symbol Technologies  this week is expected to unveil its latest wireless switch, a box intended to handle a range of emerging wireless technologies for the enterprise.

The RFS7000 will let Symbol catch up with rivals in some areas, such as its support for Layer 3 roaming and handling as many as 256 access points. But the switch design is aimed at ever-more-demanding enterprise wireless nets, with a powerful 16-core network processor, 4 gigabit Ethernet interfaces, and the ability to support RFID, wireless sensors nets and the developing IEEE 802.11n wireless LAN (WLAN) standard.

The switch is the first to embody Symbol's revamped WLAN architecture, unveiled earlier this year. Previously, the vendor offered a software upgrade that added some of the new features to its existing 5200 model.

Symbol's enterprise wireless product line is at the heart of Motorola's recent announcement that it will acquire the company.

The network processor, from RMI Electronics, replaces the previous model's Intel chips. The multicore design means that different chip cores can be dedicated to specific functions, such as encryption or packet forwarding. "With a set of processors, we can act on a wireless packet in parallel," says Chris McGugan, senior director of Symbol's wireless infrastructure division. Parallel processing makes it possible for the switch to handle the high traffic volumes, according to McGugan.

The operating system is based on Linux, but customized by Symbol for wireless data and voice traffic. A modular architecture means the vendor can add software modules to support a growing array of wireless technologies.

Initially, the switch will support RFID standards, so that third-party RFID readers can terminate at the switch, just like a WLAN access point. Symbol is working with a battery of RFID vendors to ensure the RFS7000 will be able to work as the intermediary between RFID tags and the reader network on one hand, and the back-end database of tag data on the other, according to McGugan.

In the future, Symbol plans to add support for wireless sensor standards including IEEE 802.14.5 radios and the ZigBee protocol stack, as well as the fixed and mobile 802.16 WiMAX wireless standards, and 802.11n. "Today, our customers can deploy 802.11a/b/g and RFID nets, with a common security and overall management infrastructure," McGugan says.