The companies said the hook-up would give enterprises a distributed wireless LAN architecture that has numerous stand-alone thick access points, without having to upgrade their wireless infrastructure.
The combined system also means enterprise could migrate to the so-called Mobile Edge, a centralized WLAN architecture the enables mobile across the LAN, WAN and Internet.
Sunnyvale, California-based Aruba said the deal would result in the industry’s first non-disruptive upgrade path to a centralized WLAN. Rival centrally managed wireless systems require either software upgrades on existing equipment or new thin access points.
Other vendors, notably Cisco, also offer products that convert older access points. But Aruba and San Mateo, California-based AirWave pushed the vendor-neutral component of their offering. AirWave’s software supports WiFi products from Aruba, Cisco, System and 3Com, among others.
This enables customers to manage even a heterogeneous network with both thick stand-alone access points and next-generation Aruba hardware from a single management console, said the companies, in a statement. As a result, enterprises that have been interested in moving to a centralized WLAN architecture, but may have been reluctant to take on the burden of managing two separate WLANs, can now do so easily.
Aruba senior director of product marketing said more than 5 million thick access points have been deployed.
Customers install the AirWave Management Platform software on a server in the network operations center, and use the AirWave console to discover, monitor and manage their wireless infrastructure. AirWave’s software gives onscreen monitoring views so administrators can see real-time information on each user connected to the network, as well as historical usage reports for the past year or more.
The Aruba access points and controllers gather RF data and send it back to the Management Platform, which then generates location information and RF heatmaps.
AirWave and Aruba also plan to work together on marketing the joint package.
