Following Cisco’s launch earlier this month of an access point based on the draft IEEE 802.11n wireless LAN standard Aruba is reported to be preparing to unveil its own AP by November.
According to Techworld.com:
Aruba is understood to be preparing a series of Draft N APs, and has shown prototypes to journalists including Techworld. The products are expected to include a remote AP for branch offices, and products capable of indoor and outdoor mesh, where draft N will be used for backhaul.
Aruba’s AP is not announced, but is expected to have 300Mbit/s throughput, like other Draft N products, with a usable data rate around 150 Mbit/s, and have two radios, for the 2.4GHz band (802.11bg/n) and the 5GHz band (802.11a/n). Like other vendors, Aruba will have to deal with the fact that the current power over Ethernet standard, 802.3af, cannot drive two Wi-Fi radios. It is expected to launch an adaptive device which will switch radios on and off according to the power available.
But apparently Aruba has been sending mixed messages – in a whitepaper it cautioned users that 802.11n is power hungry and the existing b/g infrastructure may mean “a number of years will pass before the full benefit will be felt.”
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