Next generation in evolution of WLAN architectures

Maximum uptime and security with minimal management, together with true seamless and dependable mobility for users, are among the most crucial of requirements for today's corporate networks - particularly in the fast-paced worlds of retail, hospitality, transportation and logistics.

This is the view of Paul Stuttard, a director of Duxbury Networking, the South African distributor of Extreme networking solutions. He highlights the recently released Extreme Wireless WiNG 5 operating system, which he says is designed to take performance, reliability, security, scalability and manageability to new heights.

"It is the next generation in the evolution of wireless LAN [WLAN] architectures, being designed to scale efficiently from the smallest networks to large, geographically dispersed deployments," he says.

A key feature of the WiNG 5 architecture is the resiliency of a standalone access point network without the vulnerability of a centralised controller.

Stuttard explains that the co-operative, distributed control plane innovation in the WiNG 5 architecture offers a software-defined networking (SDN)-ready operating system that can distribute controller functionality to every access point in the corporate network.

"As a result, every access point is network-aware, providing the intelligence required to optimise routing and ensure transmissions over the most efficient path. The access points' self-healing functions also help ensure a superior quality of experience for business-critical applications.

"As the need to route all traffic through a controller is eliminated - along with the resulting congestion and latency - higher throughput and superior network performance are achieved."

He says the Extreme WiNG 5 operating system enables the creation of highly reliable networks with several levels of redundancy and failover mechanisms to ensure continuous network service in case of outages.

Stuttard adds large networks can support as many as 10 000 nodes without impacting throughput or manageability, providing unprecedented levels of scalability.