Musical chairs for the WLAN industry?

Trapeze reportedly on the block, though Nortel renews OEM agreement

Industry analysis by expert Joanie Wexler, plus links to the day's wireless news headlines

Tongues are wagging about the possible sale of wireless LAN company Trapeze Networks, and St. Louis cabling company Belden has been fingered as a likely acquirer.

As is typical in the cat-and-mouse process of trying to get pending acquisitions confirmed, the major players aren’t committing to anything yet. Trapeze spokesman Brian Johnson said that the company could neither confirm nor deny reports that the company might be acquired within the next few weeks.

Dee Johnson, a spokeswoman for Belden, which manufactures and sells structured cabling systems and related data connectivity equipment, said, “We don’t comment on rumors, but it is part of our strategy to extend into wireless, fiber and connectivity, and we talk to lots of people.”

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Tongues are wagging about the possible sale of wireless LAN company Trapeze Networks, and St. Louis cabling company Belden has been fingered as a likely acquirer.

As is typical in the cat-and-mouse process of trying to get pending acquisitions confirmed, the major players aren’t committing to anything yet. Trapeze spokesman Brian Johnson said that the company could neither confirm nor deny reports that the company might be acquired within the next few weeks.

Dee Johnson, a spokeswoman for Belden, which manufactures and sells structured cabling systems and related data connectivity equipment, said, “We don’t comment on rumors, but it is part of our strategy to extend into wireless, fiber and connectivity, and we talk to lots of people.”

Belden currently OEMs the Extricom Channel Blanket WLAN system. Johnson said she couldn’t comment on whether that OEM agreement would preclude the sale of other types of wireless architectures and products. (Compare Enterprise Wireless LAN products.)

Another twist is that Nortel recently renewed its WLAN OEM contract with Trapeze for another two years, a deal that includes reselling Trapeze’s 802.11n and other SmartMobile products. Nortel outlined plans last year for its own 802.11n architecture and products, believing that select data forwarding should be bundled in wiring closet switches, rather than in distributed APs, as with Trapeze’s SmartMobile architecture.

Announced in October 2006, SmartMobile blends centralized and distributed switching capabilities, in part to alleviate controller bottlenecks under the heavy traffic loads of 802.11n.

Nortel spokesman Pat Cooper said in an e-mail that the renewed OEM agreement “ensures our current and future 2300 [Series] customers will be fully supported now and into the future,” but that “Nortel remains committed to…bringing our own 802.11n solution to market mid-2009.

“We recognize some customers may have an immediate need for 802.11n prior to the availability of our solution and to address those requirements, as part of the contract extension, we are able to sell Trapeze-branded 802.11 hardware. This includes, but is not limited to, their 802.11n AP and high-capacity controller. Nortel's next-generation 802.11n solution remains our preferred solution/migration path for customers.”

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Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology writer/editor in Silicon Valley.