Beam me up, Ruckus

Ruckus ZoneFlex WiFi system uses beam forming technology to deliver powerful, secure, flexible enterprise-grade WLAN

The Ruckus Wireless ZoneFlex Smart WiFi system is designed to be a stable, easy to manage and highly secure wireless networking solution for the enterprise. The heart of the system is the ZoneDirector controller, which can communicate with up to 500 ZoneFlex access points.

The controllers and the access points are highly configurable, they can be connected directly to your wired network or they can work in a mesh configuration.

We tested the ZoneDirector 1100 ($1,200), which will support up to 50 access points, with two ZoneFlex 7962 ($999 each ) and two ZoneFlex 7363 ($599 each) access points. The ZoneDirector and the ZoneFlex 7962 access points were connected to the lab network via Gigabit Ethernet. The ZoneFlex 7363 access points were tested both in direct-connect and mesh modes.

To continue reading, register here to become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

The Ruckus Wireless ZoneFlex Smart WiFi system is designed to be a stable, easy to manage and highly secure wireless networking solution for the enterprise. The heart of the system is the ZoneDirector controller, which can communicate with up to 500 ZoneFlex access points.

The controllers and the access points are highly configurable, they can be connected directly to your wired network or they can work in a mesh configuration.

We tested the ZoneDirector 1100 ($1,200), which will support up to 50 access points, with two ZoneFlex 7962 ($999 each ) and two ZoneFlex 7363 ($599 each) access points. The ZoneDirector and the ZoneFlex 7962 access points were connected to the lab network via Gigabit Ethernet. The ZoneFlex 7363 access points were tested both in direct-connect and mesh modes.

One important capability of the Ruckus WiFi APs is the ability to beam the WiFi signal at clients, thus extending the range of the WiFi signal over much longer distances than standard access points.

The ZoneFlex 7962 will also adapt its RF polarization to improve reception for portable devices, such as smartphones and tablets that may be operated in a variety of orientations. The ZoneFlex access points are able to handle extremely high speed connections on 802.11n, if they're connected to the network over Gigabit Ethernet.

Using the Ruckus System

When you unpack the Ruckus Wireless gear, the first piece of equipment that needs to be configured is the ZoneDirector. You do this by connecting a computer to the ZoneDirector using an Ethernet cable, and then running the device's setup wizard. The primary goal of the initial setup is to give the ZoneDirector a name and to assign an IP address or tell it to use DHCP. Once you've done that, you can manage the ZoneDirector from any computer on the network by browsing to the device's IP address.

Once you can reach the Web-based management interface and set your user name and password, you can configure other settings, such as whether you want the ZoneDirector to act as a DHCP server on your wireless network. You can also configure what Ruckus Wireless calls Smart Redundancy, which allows you to configure two ZoneDirectors so that one device stays in a standby state to take over if the other fails.

Click to see: Photo of Ruckus access point

At this point, the ZoneDirector is set up enough that you can add access points if you wish. However there are a wide number of other features that you can turn on or configure if you choose, including the type of security you want to use, the method of finding system time, telling it the country you're in so that it uses the correct WiFi channels, and telling the ZoneDirector whether you're going to be using mesh networking.

Note that all of these settings can be configured after the wireless network is up and operating.

The level of flexibility dictates a fairly complex management interface, but Ruckus has mitigated the potential for confusion by dividing up each of the areas into tabs, and sections within tabs. This means that if you want to configure access points, you go to the configuration page (it's a tab on top) click on Access Points on a menu on the side, and then look for the section that contains the access point you want to configure.