* PowerDsine, AirTight Networks partnership
PowerDsine partnered with AirTight Networks this week to bring together PowerDsine’s equipment for supporting Power over Ethernet and AirTight’s wireless intrusion-prevention systems.
PowerDsine makes products that add Power over Ethernet (PoE) to regular Ethernet cabling. You can have your old Ethernet switch, add electrical power to the cables via PowerDsine’s midspan products, and use the combined power and signal to run wireless LAN access points, IP phones or other devices that can accept both on the same cable via PoE.
AirTight has integrated the midspan devices with its own SpectraGuard wireless IPS, or WIPS. AirTight will resell the midspan devices and support them.
Users will be able to add WIPS sensors to their network without having to upgrade their Ethernet switches to support PoE – they can just add the midspan devices instead.
AirTight says it is alson introducing a specialized cable splitter that was designed in collaboration with PowerDsine. The splitter, AirTight says, eliminates the need to pull new cables, which in turn keeps installation costs down. Apparently, the cost of installing sensors without the splitter can be as much as $1,000 higher per sensor to run the cables.
PowerDsine has been pushing for the use of PoE for as many different types of devices as possible, and now it is adding WIPS to the list. AirTight’s WIPS detects and classifies wireless threats, and can even locate where the threats are coming from on a floor map.
A bundle for one WIPS sensor, which includes a midspan PoE injector and a pair of cable splitters, costs $199.
