Ruckus Wireless announced the ZoneFlex P300 bridge system, a Gigabit-class, outdoor Smart WiFi bridging system.
The P300 bridge system is designed specifically for high-density user environments such as school campuses, business parks, warehousing environments, urban centers, parks and other outdoor venues.
The bridge can support up to 10 node links, and each link is secure through the use of AES encryption, with the ability to support multiple networks segmented by virtual local area networks (VLANs).
By combining the signals received across two distinct polarizations (vertical and horizontal) and across high-gain directional antenna elements, the bridges are designed to maximize the received signal-to-noise ratio, resulting in more reliable connectivity and yielding optimal performance between two or more points.
“Smart mobile devices are literally used all the time, in different orientations, everywhere and for everything,” David Callisch, vice president of corporate marketing at Ruckus, told eWEEK. “This mandates the need for reliable wireless, preferably WiFi, everywhere. Since companies and carriers can no longer dictate the device that is being used, or anticipate the capabilities of these devices, what they can do is build an adaptive infrastructure that is better able to accommodate this phenomenon. This is an important new trend.”
Through a combination of custom integrated directional technology and the new 802.11ac standard, the P300 bridge system can deliver fast broadband connectivity between locations miles apart. They contain internal antennas that offer hundreds of megabits of performance at line of sight distances up to five miles, and more than 12 miles with external antennas.
Featuring a compact and lightweight form factor, the P300 bridge system supports RF capacity up to 867 Mbps, and is aimed at businesses that want to extend broadband services, back haul small cell traffic, or offer high-speed broadband connectivity to locations where fixed lines are limited or simply cost-prohibitive.
The P300 bridge system provides 30 degrees of coverage from one root- bridge with internal antennas to handle many receiving bridges, or 360 degrees of coverage with external antennas.
In addition, the system features a dedicated sniffer radio for radar avoidance pre-scan, which results in high availability of WiFi traffic.
Lightweight and designed with flexible wall or pole mounting options, the bridge system provides precision aiming through LED-based aiming software, and the appliance is IP-67 rated and ruggedized for harsh outdoor environments.
The bridge system operates at temperatures from below 40 degrees up to 149 degrees Fahrenheit, and integrates a specially designed 5 GHz, dual-polarized directional antenna system that provides up to 14dBi (the forward gain of an antenna) of antenna gain.
Available worldwide, the bridge system comes as a single unit and is listed at $1,195, or as pre-provisioned pairs with a price of $2,395. The system can be purchased through authorized Ruckus Big Dog resellers.
“Given that WiFi uses an unlicensed spectrum that is free, WiFi bridging is perfect for lowering the cost and speeding the deployment of wide area broadband connectivity to locations where it can be challenging or simply cost-prohibitive,” Callisch said. “Looking forward, the real challenge is how to obtain gigabit speed WiFi connections in non-line of sight environments.”
