As the wireless LAN switching market matures a bit, some WLAN management start-ups are realizing the benefits of partnering with traditional industry vendors. To that end, Roving Planet and Airespace Inc. this week both announced plans to support hardware other than its own.
Airespace on Wednesday announced plans to team up with D-Link Systems Inc. to develop an access point that supports the nascent Lightweight Access Point Protocol, a proposed standard for communication between access points and switches. The AP, which will use software and antenna technology from Airespace, is due at the beginning of the second quarter, said officials at Airespace in Fountain Valley, Calif.
The partnership is a sign that traditional WLAN hardware makers are willing to work with start-up switch players. Still, D-Link is more of a small-office/home-office player.
LWAPP does not have the support of enterprise access point market leader Cisco Systems Inc., which is busy with its own WLAN management scheme, dubbed the Structured Wireless Aware Network (SWAN) framework.
Meanwhile, Roving Planet on Tuesday announced the latest version of its Central Site Director WLAN management platform.
CSD 2.5 supports IBMs x304 and x335 Linux servers, in addition to the current install base of Roving Planets own hardware. Support for Linux servers from Dell Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. is due later this year, officials said.
The new software also includes new management and security tools.
“In 2.5 the security features fall under virus protection – giving the administrator the ability to have all their users go into a quarantine zone,” said Harry Simpson, vice president of business development at Roving Planet in Boulder, Colo.
CSD 2.5 also focuses on voice services for wireless LANs, supporting QoS management for voice versus data traffic on SpectaLinks NetLink VoW-LAN system. Support for Ciscos WoWLAN system is forthcoming, Simpson said.