Wireless Vendors Tout Security, VoIP At Interop

Wireless vendors at Interop Las Vegas 2006 this week are pushing new products to expand enterprise wireless LAN rollouts and are spotlighting the VoIP and security features of their latest wares.

Meru Networks is targeting enterprise wireless deployments with its Wireless Backbone System and announcing its latest round of funding, while Trapeze Networks is launching new network access control features and demonstrating new Wi-Fi/cellular convergence.

Aruba Networks, meanwhile, is teaming with AirMagnet to incorporate troubleshooting tools into its WLAN platform, and wireless telephony vendor SpectraLink is demonstrating interoperability between its handsets and WLAN products from Meru and the Asterisk open-source VoIP platform.

Meru is unveiling its Wireless Backbone System, a portfolio of products designed to eliminate wiring from the network core out to the client device, a paradigm that Meru is touting as the All-Wireless Enterprise.

“For the channel, it’s not a sale of a small number of access points and controllers but [it] becomes an opportunity to provide an end-to-end wireless infrastructure,” said Ihab Abu-Hakima, president and CEO of Meru, Sunnyvale, Calif.

To set it up, solution providers deploy a Meru Controller and Radio Switch in the network core. The Radio Switch attached to the core switch then communicate wirelessly to other Radio Switches on the network, which in turn connect wirelessly to Meru Access Points. From there, every user in the enterprise can run voice and data over the WLAN, he said.

Meru’s Wireless Backbone System includes the new AP150-WB entry-level access point, new “WB” versions of its AP208 Access Point and RS-4000 Radio Switch, and Wireless Backbone Software for its line of MC Controllers. The Wireless Backbone System is slated to ship this summer.

The company this week also is disclosing that it has secured its fourth round of funding, with a $25 million investment led by Lehman Brothers Venture Partners. Nissho Electronics, Meru’s Japanese channel and distribution partner, also participated, as did several previous investors. Founded in 2002, Meru has now received total funding of about $68 million.

Meru plans to use the investment to expand its sales coverage in the field and bolster its marketing efforts to create leads for its channel partners, Abu-Hakima said.

At Interop, Trapeze plans to unveil two new security features incorporated into the latest version of its Mobility System Software.