Symbol Rounds Out WLAN Line

Symbol's WS 2000 Wireless Switch has the same centralized packet switching architecture as Symbol's enterprise WLAN switch, the WS 5000, said Gary Singh, senior director of marketing for the wireless infrastructure division at Symbol, Holtsville, N.Y. But the switch is designed to lower deployment costs and simplify management for branch offices and small businesses, he said.

"The needs are not really that big for the SMB market," Singh said. "But we can consolidate the right components of the technology into a centralized architecture, and that's really what the WS 2000 is."

The WS 2000 is expected to become available by the end of March at a list price $1,099 for a single-bay station solution, depending upon the specific configuration and radio requirements.

Shawn Winter, director of wireless data solutions at Bell Canada, a Toronto-based Symbol partner, called the WS 2000 a great, small, scalable solution that leaves room for customers to grow without having to rip out their existing technology investments.

"And its support for the network services we offer allows us to bundle it together, for example, with our DSL offering," Winter said. "So, for us, it makes a nice, tight offering, and it's something that's very simple."

Features include mobile application storage and delivery, stateful-inspection firewall security; network-access translation server with multiple application- level gateways capable of supporting 40 applications; support for Kerberos, 802.1X/EAP, WPA and the pending IEEE 802.1i security standards, according to Symbol.

The WS 2000 supports 802.11 a/b/g and legacy Symbol 4131 and 4142 access points, as well as lower-cost Symbol AP 100 and AP 200 access points. It includes a CompactFlash slot for additional memory and the ability to load new security, mobility and management features.