Polycom, Aruba now lead the Cloud Video Conferencing technology

Aruba Networks and Polycom announced on August 26, 2010 that they are teaming up to deliver video features to users via cloud computing. Aruba will provide its Virtual Branch Networking (VBN) solution to its users -- typically through its cloud-based offerings -- who can then utilize Polycom's telepresence, videoconferencing and voice communications solutions.

Aruba said the joint solution will reduce the time, cost and network engineering needed to deliver the unified communications products to remote users working at home, in branch offices or on the road. Aruba said the cost involved in joint Aruba-Polycom remote access points can be as low as USD 99 per site. Aruba noted that its Virtual Intranet Client can deliver remote access points for virtually no cost to PC users while delivering security service economically to branches.

I believe, that the Aruba-Polycom technology definitely much better than Cisco-Tandberg partnership solutions. The International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) will be first end user in Asia Pacific to attain the advantage from this collaboration. IIUM has deployed its campus wide wireless infrastructure based on Aruba Network technology since 2008, which centrally managed all together 6 branch campuses. Early of this year, they have engaged with Polycom video conferencing solution as part of their digital education infrastructure.

According to IIUM technical expert; Mr. Jaiz Anuar and Mr. Hairulnizam (from IT Division), IIUM now aiming to provide a future infrastructure for virtual lecture which can be accessed by students via wireless network cloud. Both of them agreed that, the teaching methodology have to change parallel with the technology advancement. Since the Aruba-Polycom partnership focused on proliferating new collaborative communications solutions, it will help the university to realize its intention in establishing mobility campus by providing holistic ICT services for the achievement and continuation of excellence in IIUM. The experts say, many new initiative can be done in the future on Video over WLAN.

Mobile Education is the Future. In other words, the whole ecosystem of learning and communication will undergo a rather serious upheaval — much the same way campuses did when laptop computing became the standard. This will present challenges both in terms of infrastructure and pedagogy, but it will also provide rich opportunities for reinventing the academy and for rediscovering learning.

Communication preferences will also continue to evolve. Just as we have moved from letter writing to e-mail to texting, we will move next into video chat and voice texting. The Pew Foundation’s most recent study shows that “Almost a fifth of American adults – 19% – have tried video calling either online or via their cell phones. These figures translate into 23% of internet users and 7% of cell phone owners who have participated in video calls, chats, or teleconferences. Video calling has become increasingly available as camcorders have spread through the online environment, cameras have been built into smart phones, and as video-chat services like Skype, Google Talk, and Apple iChat have become a feature of the online and smart phone environment. Teleconferencing is also becoming more embedded in the business environment.”

In addition, we will see a fairly rapid evolution of software solutions for both tablets and smart phones that makes it unnecessary to have a large-form computer for all essentially learning tasks. This include better productivity apps and improved multitasking. We will also see a proliferation of integrated and add-on input peripheral devices. More important, cloud-based services like Google Docs will eliminate most of the need for standard productivity software downloaded to devices.

Microsoft dumps Cisco wireless for Aruba

Microsoft has ditched Cisco in favour of WLAN start-up Aruba, as it upgrades one of the world's largest wireless LAN (WLAN) installations from old-fashioned fat access points.

Microsoft is taking out around 5,000 Cisco Aironet access points, and upgrading to an Aruba wireless switch system which will use five thousand thin access points to support 25,000 simultaneous WLAN users, in 277 buildings round the world.

The announcement will be a disappointment to Cisco, as its purchase of Aruba's rival Airespace was supposed to offer an upgrade path for customers like Microsoft who needed a centrally-managed wireless LAN system.


"This will surprise many spectators - including myself," said Richard Webb, wireless anayst at Infonetics Research. "People said that WLAN was a done deal, and large customers would automatically go to Cisco. They'll have to view Aruba in a new light, and some people will be raising eyebrows at the money Cisco paid for Airespace."

In fact, Cisco's efforts to integrate Airespace and provide an upgrade path have been lacklustre, while Aruba and its other main rival, Trapeze, have continued to innovate.

Although Aruba probably offered a very competitive price (no price has been revealed for the deal), Webb said that the deal must have been based on technical merits. "Microsoft isn't buying on price," he said. "The company is not short of money, so if Aruba weren't on the table in terms of technology, no amount of discount would have got the deal."

Security features such as Aruba's firewall and IDS may have been big factors, he said. Indeed, as we reported here a year ago, Microsoft has already been using Aruba for security. Aruba and Microsoft are also stressing support for voice on Wi-Fi, as well as guest networks that lets the office WLAN double as a hotspot for visitors.

Microsoft had extensive tests carried out by wireless test house Iometrix, and the University of New Hampshire's inter-operability lab, which covered security, scalability and performance - the results of which Aruba has promised to put on its site.

Microsoft plans to make some offices "wireless only", and will integrate the WLAN with its Network Access Protection Architecture that protects the network from infected clients. The WLAN will also support a guest access system which will allow visitors to Microsoft buildings to use the Internet.

Aruba is also keen to suggest that, as a result of this contract, it will have close links into Microsoft's future products. "Aruba plans to work with Microsoft to develop and test future software products to ensure they operate simply and easily over wireless networks," says its release. "Consequently, Aruba customers can be assured the best possible interaction and unprecedented interoperability between Microsoft products and Aruba mobility systems."

Original Source: Techworld.Com

Review on Aruba RAP-2WG Remote Access Poin

The Aruba RAP-2WG is a single radio 802.11b/g, enterprise-class indoor remote access point, capable of supporting multiple functions including wired and wireless access and air monitoring/wireless intrusion detection and prevention across the 2.4-2.5 GHz spectrum.

The RAP-2WG remote access point delivers secure user-centric network services and applications in remote branch offices as well as for home office workers and telecommuters. Centrally managed from an Aruba Controller, the RAP-2WG provides the network administrator with unparalleled control over services and security. The RAP-2WG supports authenticated wired and wireless access, as well as policy based forwarding mechanisms to allow access to centralized and local resources.

The latest product Aruba's Virtual Branch Network (VBN) solution dramatically simplifies the complexity and cost of deploying a remote solution at branches with one to many users. Complex configuration, management, software updates authentication, intrusion detection, and remote site connectivity tasks are handled by powerful data center-based Aruba controllers running new Aruba software. Centralizing these services in the controllers enables the branch office equipment to be greatly simplified and cost reduced. The virtualized functions are transport-independent, so any wide-area network - including 3G cellular and DSL - can be used to connect the branches offices.

I think this a great product for educational institution that always have a meeting a way from their campus escially when researcher need to conduct a research collabaration meeting with other research group and they also need to have their own local network for linking back to the local server at the university.

With this kind of features, remote office can be enable anywhere at anytime in the world.

802.11n throughput testing for Aruba AP 125

This morning we did some testing with a high-throughput wlan (see profile at the bottom of the page) using the Aruba 125. We setup the VennLab HT SSID for testing locally using 802.11n on the 5Ghz channels exclusively. We also enabled the 40Mhz wide channel in order to maximize throughput. Our testing yielded very good results as you can see below.

Our test setup consists of two MacBook Pro’s each running the iperf network utility (via MacPorts) with manually configured IP addresses. To establish a baseline, we first connected to RLAB, a network that is already established on our Aruba infrastructure. This is an 802.11g only isolated wlan that also allows client to client connectivity.


Connected to "RLAB" to get a baseline, the airport sees an RSSI of –49 which is typical of a very good connection and shows a transmit rate of 54 as would be expected. Here are the iperf stats using the default settings:

Macintosh-214:~ donwright$ iperf -s
------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 256 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
Tested first with RLAB (802.11g standard wlan)

[ 4] local 10.10.10.4 port 5001 connected with 10.10.10.3 port 49335
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.0-10.1 sec 8.45 MBytes 7.04 Mbits/sec

This seems low, but maybe that’s an iperf thing, which is kind of confusing since they use the capital M for megabits. If I take this at face value and move on, the increase with 802.11n does show up.

Connecting to my 802.11n "VennLab" shows a similar RSSI of 50, but with a Transmit Rate of 300, a 6X increase. This increase seems to be validated in the iperf tests below which average about a 6X jump to 50 Mbits/sec.

[ 4] local 10.10.10.4 port 5001 connected with 10.10.10.3 port 49336
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.0-10.0 sec 57.5 MBytes 48.2 Mbits/sec
[ 4] local 10.10.10.4 port 5001 connected with 10.10.10.3 port 49337
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.0-10.0 sec 56.1 MBytes 47.0 Mbits/sec
[ 4] local 10.10.10.4 port 5001 connected with 10.10.10.3 port 49338
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.0-10.0 sec 64.4 MBytes 53.9 Mbits/sec
[ 4] local 10.10.10.4 port 5001 connected with 10.10.10.3 port 49339
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth

Click to enlarge: Benchmarking of Aruba throughput 802.11n 

Previously, when we did the same test with equivalent Cisco AP. We didn't get that good reading. Cisco wireless still far behind Aruba technology. For me, Aruba Network still the best in wireless infrastructure. That is why, they conquer the world wide campus solutions for wireless networking. The security features offered by Aruba complied with US Military requirement.. (implemented for US Air Force).  Major telco companies also choose Aruba solution. There are still the best in the market.

Aruba offers quite secure WEP authentication

Even though we know that WEP is already broken, but still better than deploying wireless without encryption at all. Deploying an Aruba network significantly reduces an attacker’s ability to crack WEP. 

Cuurently, the WEP cracking tools such as (Airsnort, WEPcrack) rely on packets with weak initialization vectors (IVs) in order to conduct analysis. Aruba controllers will not generate packets with weak IVs – thus all downstream packets will be unusable for cracking purposes

Some other cases, clients will still generate weak IVs – small percentage of client traffic will contain packets with weak IVs. A determined attacker will eventually crack the WEP key – though it may take weeks using client traffic alone. - Wireless Zone

For more secure authentication, you have an option to use 802.1x type of authentication and enhance with WPA2 encryption offered by Aruba Controller.

Aruba secures endpoints with NAC interop and product.

Frank Bulk wrote

By Frank Bulk

Aruba Networks most recent announcement regarding NAC interoperability verification and a product announcement repeat a common anthem of this vendor's emphasis on security.

The three major NAC groups are Cisco, Microsoft NAP, and the Trusted Computing Group (TCG); the first two are clearly vendor driven, while the last is standards-based and enjoys broader industry support. Unable to drive a standard of its own, Aruba has not hitched itself to any single group, but has verified NAC interoperability with three technology industry heavyweights: Cisco, Juniper, and Microsoft. Working with network equipment market share leader Cisco is almost a de facto requirement, and Microsoft is Aruba's largest customer, if not most significant. This shouldn't be considered Aruba's first fore into NAC: they have partnerships with Bradford, FireEye, Fortinet, InfoExpress, Snort, and as well as Symantec (via Sygate, though this is end-of-sale).

In addition to their partnerships, Aruba has also announced a new appliance for "targeted industries". To date Aruba has built most of the products it sells, preferring to partner where necessary. Ash Chowdappa, director of mobility management system, stated in a briefing, that Aruba will wait until the NAC market shakes out before considering to develop something internally. This time around Aruba OEMed their Aruba Endpoint Compliance System (ECS) appliance from a vendor that has significant success in the higher education market.

According to Chowdappa, higher education is Aruba's number one vertical, and they expect ECS to gain traction in healthcare and hospitality, markets where there are significant numbers of guest users. Aruba makes the point that many NAC vendors are targeted toward managed devices such as desktops and laptops, while ECS is able to deal with unmanaged and transient devices such as Vo-Fi phones, and the occasional Sony Wii, that may not be able to run an agent. For devices in this latter group Aruba's ECS can work in tandem with their mobility controller to implement more restrictive traffic policies leveraging Aruba's stateful firewall. And this appliance isn't restricted to just wireless products, as the appliance can take trunked wired traffic, such as guest VLANs, and enforce policy on those, too.

Aruba is making the right moves in offering its customers multiple NAC options resulting in great stickiness for their core wireless LAN products. One of the challenges that Aruba faces is that organizations may look first to their wired networking equipment vendor for a NAC product, giving Cisco a natural leg up. Aruba appears to have chosen to OEM a mature product that integrates with systems in both mediums, and with eventual implementation of 802.11n, may take a larger and larger portion of IT's mindshare and networking budget.

ARUBA NETWORKS POSITIONED IN THE LEADERS QUADRANT IN NEW WIRELESS LAN INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT

Positioning Based on Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision

Sunnyvale, CA, January 7, 2008 - Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARUN), a global leader in user-centric networks and secure mobility solutions, today announced that it has been positioned in the “Leaders” quadrant in Gartner's “Magic Quadrant for Wireless LAN Infrastructure, 2007” report.

“We are very gratified to have reached this prestigious position, capping as it does a year of tremendous technical innovation and market growth by the company,” said Dominic Orr, Aruba’s president and CEO. “In my opinion, being positioned in the Leaders quadrant requires excellence in execution and technical vision, and represents a significant achievement for the company. We designed our user-centric networks to be the most robust, secure, and innovative unified mobility solutions on the market, and we believe this positioning validates both our direction and achievements.”

Aruba’s user-centric networks securely deliver the enterprise network to users by integrating adaptive wireless LANs, identity-based security, and application continuity services into a cohesive, high-performance system. Adaptive wireless LANs deliver follow-me connectivity to roaming users, support standard Wi-Fi clients -such as Apple Macintosh and Intel Centrino - and deliver toll-quality WPA2 encrypted voice and streaming video. Aruba’s identity-based security associates policies with users instead of ports, delivering follow-me security that provides expanded mobility for users without compromising security. Remote access and enterprise fixed mobile convergence solutions deliver follow-me applications to users wherever they roam.

Magic Quadrants depict markets using a two-dimensional matrix that evaluates vendors based on the completeness of their vision and ability to execute. Ability to execute includes factors such as the vendor's product or services, overall viability, sales execution and pricing, market responsiveness and track record. Completeness of vision includes market understanding, market strategy, sales strategy, and offering strategy. According to the report, "A leader will have demonstrated an ability to fulfill a broad variety of customer requirements, provide an end-to-end infrastructure-based solution and have financial viability to continue that support beyond the single installation. Leaders should have demonstrated an ability to shape the market, maintain strong relationships with their channels and customers, and have no obvious gaps within the portfolio."

The Gartner report, "Magic Quadrant for Wireless LAN Infrastructure, 2007," was published on 20 December 2007. For a copy of the Gartner report, compliments of Aruba Networks, visit http://www.arubanetworks.com/gartner1.

About the Magic Quadrant

The Gartner Magic Quadrant is copyrighted December 2007 by Gartner, Inc., and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Aruba Networks, Inc.

Aruba securely delivers the enterprise network to users, wherever they work or roam, with usercentric networks that significantly expand the reach of traditional port-centric networks. Usercentric networks integrate adaptive WLANs, identity-based security, and application continuity services into a cohesive, high-performance system that can be easily deployed as an overlay on top of existing network infrastructure. Adaptive WLANs deliver high-performance, follow-me connectivity so users are always within reach of mission-critical information. Identity-based security associates access policies with users, not ports, to enable follow-me security that is enforced regardless of access method or location. Application continuity services enable followme applications that can be seamlessly accessed across WLAN and cellular networks. The cost, convenience, and security benefits of user-centric networks are fundamentally changing how and where we work. Listed on the NASDAQ and Russell 2000® Index, Aruba is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific regions. To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com.

© 2007 Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. Aruba Networks, BlueScanner and RFprotect are trademarks of Aruba Networks, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders. All rights reserved. Specifications are subject to change without notice.

ARUBA GAINS MARKET SHARE AND SOLIDIFIES POSITION AS THE WORLD’S SECOND LARGEST ENTERPRISE WIRELESS LAN SUPPLIER

Sunnyvale, CA, September 10, 2007 - Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARUN), a global leader in user-centric networks and secure mobility solutions, today announced that its share of the enterprise wireless LAN market has risen to greater than 10% in the second quarter of 2007 from roughly 5% in the same period of 2005. The market data are based on a newly published report by Dell’Oro Group, and include sales of Aruba products by Alcatel-Lucent. During the same period Motorola’s Symbol unit lost market share, and Aruba displaced Motorola as the world’s second largest enterprise wireless LAN supplier.

Aruba’s user-centric networks integrate adaptive wireless LANs, identity-based security, and application continuity services into a cohesive, high-performance system that securely delivers the enterprise network to users, wherever they work or roam. By extending the enterprise to reach all users without compromising security or convenience, Aruba has redefined mobility with respect to where and how people work.

“Aruba has been a leading innovator in the wireless LAN market, and we have been rewarded with strong growth in our customer base, revenue, and market share,” said Keerti Melkote, Aruba’s co-founder and head of products and partnerships. “It is clear that the enterprise wireless LAN market is becoming a two horse race as we continue to gain market share at the expense of incumbents and struggling small suppliers.”

With regard to the lawsuit filed by Motorola on the eve of Aruba’s end-of-quarter results, during which the company announced a significant increase in revenue, Melkote stated, “We do not believe that we infringe Motorola’s patents, and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves against the claims when we have our day in court. We also look forward to continuing to compete successfully against Motorola in the market.”

Aruba is a member of a coalition including Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, eBay, and Symantec, among others, supporting The Patent Reform Act of 2007, which passed the House on September 7 by a vote of 220-175. The Act aims to overhaul the U.S. patent system, which the coalition believes is overburdened with applications for trivial inventions and patent litigation intended to prevent competition and reap windfall profits.

About Aruba Networks
Aruba securely delivers the enterprise network to users, wherever they work or roam, with user-centric networks that significantly expand the reach of traditional port-centric networks. User-centric networks integrate adaptive WLANs, identity-based security, and application continuity services into a cohesive, high-performance system that can be easily deployed as an overlay on top of existing network infrastructure. Adaptive WLANs deliver high-performance, follow-me connectivity so users are always within reach of mission-critical information. Identity-based security associates access policies with users, not ports, to enable follow-me security that is enforced regardless of access method or location. Application continuity services enable follow-me applications that can be seamlessly accessed across WLAN and cellular networks. The cost, convenience, and security benefits of user-centric networks are fundamentally changing how and where we work. Listed on the NASDAQ and Russell 2000® Index, Aruba is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific regions. To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com.

This press release may contain statements relating to future plans, events or performance. Such statements may involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with uncertainties pertaining to obtaining approvals for and satisfying conditions to the consummation of Aruba Network’s acquisition of Network Chemistry's assets, the actual impact of the acquisition on operating results, including the purchase price allocations for assets and liabilities, the amount of IPR&D and other intangible assets, and the time period in which intangible assets will be amortized, the successful integration and support of Network Chemistry's technology and employees into Aruba, Aruba’s ability to incorporate the Network Chemistry technology into Aruba’s mobility solutions in a timely and cost-effective manner, market acceptance of the RFprotect and BlueScanner products, the ability of the RFprotect and BlueScanner products to function as designed, the ability of Aruba to support RFprotect and BlueScanner products, the timing and level of customer orders, demand for products and services, the development of markets for Aruba’s products and services, and other risks identified in Aruba’s SEC filings. Actual results, effect on earnings, events and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Aruba undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Aruba adds NAC policy server

By Tim Greene, Network World, 08/15/07

Sponsored by:
Aruba Networks can now supply all the network access control gear needed to support devices accessing corporate networks regardless of whether they connect via wired, wireless or remote access.

Through an OEM relationship with NAC vendor Bradford Networks, the company now offers a NAC policy server of its own that establishes what policies need to be enforced based on endpoint assessment, connection method and behavior of the device.

Previously, Aruba’s Mobility Controller gear could enforce policies dictated by other vendor’s NAC servers, but Aruba didn’t sell a policy server.

The relabeled Bradford gear, called Aruba Endpoint Compliance System (ECS), comes in three models to support varying numbers of users. The E-50 supports up to 1,000 users, the E-100 supports up to 6,000 users and the Network Security Manager can manage groups of E-100 devices to support tens of thousands of users, Aruba says.

ECS can manage identities of individuals by associating them with media access control addresses, the users' roles in the company, IP addresses, how the device is attached to the network and time of day.

Stateful Layer 3 firewalls within Aruba Mobility Controllers enforce policies based on data they gather from endpoints and other security devices such as intrusion-prevention systems.

The Controller can also push enforcement to Aruba wireless access points, and using a feature called Remote AP, this can extend NAC to remote access users. If the remote user accesses the Internet via an Aruba access point, the access point will grant access as dictated by the NAC policy server.

As the status of a user and the user’s machine changes, the policy being enforced can also change. So if a student logged into the college network from the library moves into a classroom, that change of location can trigger a policy change that blocks peer-to-peer and Internet traffic, Aruba says.

Aruba is also announcing that its gear supports both Cisco’s and Microsoft’s NAC architectures and has issued application notes to help customers configure the gear to work together. Aruba also recently joined Trusted Computing Group, which is working on standards for interoperability of NAC gear. The company hasn’t issued application notes for TCG compliance.

Pricing for Aruba’s E-50 starts at $10,500 and for E-100 at $21,000. A Network Security Manger costs $17,500.

Aruba Plans November 11n AP Launch

WLAN infrastructure vendor Aruba Networks says it doesnt feel the need to wait for 100% ratification of the putative 802.11n standard for higher-performance wireless networking, hoping it to be near enough that an AP launch should be possible in the November timeframe. The Sunnyvale, California-based vendor held back from launching an AP during the recent flurry of activity that coincided with the Interop show.

Companies like Trapeze, Meru and Colubris all launched 11n APs, albeit in pre-standard form, of course, and a new kid on the block, Aerohive, emerged from stealth mode with a controller-less architecture that it touted as being more 11n-friendly than everything else out there. Ratification pushed back Mike Tennefoss, head of strategic marketing for Aruba, pooh-poohed these moves, however, arguing that with final ratification of the standard by the IEEE having recently been pushed back till mid-to-late 2008, its irresponsible to push something today.

He argued that the devices unveiled in recent months were all designed to make a splash for press purposes, but may actually be counterproductive for the vendors who have launched them. These smaller guys are attention-seeking, he began, but they may also be making themselves hostages to fortune, in that there is the potential for confusion in their own sales teams between pushing 11n or the b/g APs. He inferred that the two major players who have not so far pronounced on 11n, i.e. Cisco and Aruba, are adopting a more responsible attitude.

Furthermore, he added, while 11n holds the promise of a lower density of APs in a given network being able to cover the same area and number of users, customers deploying these new APs into existing b/g environments wont be benefiting from this saving, since theyll have to continue with their existing b/g density. Only once the standard is firmed up enough, his argument went, will it make sense to launch an AP that will enable a complete network refresh of a customers infrastructure, when they will be able to take advantage of the lower AP density.

Another issue he raised was that of the different power requirements of the higher-performance next-gen WLAN technology. 11n needs a new PoE injector so as to provide PoE Plus [802.3af], because it has greater power requirements, he began. This also means GbE cabling, because Cat5 100BaseT doesnt support it. It must be at least 1000BaseT. Aruba already offers GbE ports on its high-end controller, the 6000. While it's still too early for an 11n launch from Aruba, Tennefoss said "we don't need to wait for 100% ratification." Instead, he went on, "we hope it'll be near enough ratified around November."

Aruba vs. Meru and Aerohive Referring specifically to Meru, whose 11n offering entailed a change to its architecture, with the introduction of a third-tier of sub-controllers between the central box and the APs, Tennefoss said this was making a virtue of necessity. 11n is a challenge for Meru because their controller cant handle it, since its an off-the-shelf PC in a rack-mount box, which means lack of throughput and processor power, By contrast, he went on, we do purpose-built boards and processors, which means that the latency in our controllers is virtually nil.

He added that, for large campus deployments, Aruba can also deploy slave controllers for local handling of traffic while a central switch is doing all the management. Meru also doesnt do central encryption or network management, he went on. As for Aerohive, he argued that its technology is a solution in search of a problem, referring to it as a very expensive system architecture squeezed by Ruckus and Netgear from below and us from above.

As for its more serious competitor, i.e. Cisco, Tennefoss argued that Aruba has distinct advantages in terms of security. They take a port-centric view, whereby the user comes through a particular port to access the network, rather like a VPN, whereas we assign credentials to the user and follow them, he went on. Ciscos view limits flexibility, and all the features require another box per feature. Even our fixed-mobile convergence offering doesnt require large infrastructure investments, unlike theirs. Thin, ma non troppo Tennefoss revealed that the 11n AP now being developed by Aruba includes hardware acceleration, with a stateful firewall and mobile routing for split tunnelling in the device.

In other words, while Aruba made its name in WLAN switching, i.e. the generation of infrastructure that relied on an centrally switched overlay network and thin APs, apps such as firewalling and routing are actually running in the AP. Indeed, Tennefoss went on, while Aruba shuns the idea of encryption and decryption in the AP, we can perform these functions in our mesh nodes to enable P2P networking with them, though we dont like the idea of security keys sitting on a node out in the car park.

Our View Tennefoss comments about those of Arubas competitors who launched 11n APs in May respond to their claims that his company isnt offering 11n yet because its centralized architecture, and in particular its execution of encryption and decryption in the controller, impede it. There has certainly been a lot of what Marxists used to call revisionism underway in the switched WLAN camp of late, with first Trapeze, then Meru moving intelligence back out towards the edge of their networks, whether onto the APs themselves or to a local sub-controller halfway between the central switch and the thin AP. Colubris, meanwhile, has been talking up this tri-plane arrangement for well over a year.

The drivers for those architectural changes have been VoWiFi, which is more latency-intolerant that the average data app, and no 11n, with its promise of greater bandwidth, concomitant with higher performance demands on the network infrastructure. Aruba insists that its architecture requires no fundamental changes for the coming storm, however, and the proof of the pudding will have to be in the eating. Lets also see how Cisco, which is market leader in terms of APs deployed in the field, will address the perceived challenges of voice on WLAN and the new high-performance 11n technology.

By Rik Turner
Computer Business Online

Aruba proposes alternative to using IPSec for remote access security

For years, there have been two traditional methods for secure remote access: IPSec and SSL VPNs. Both have been discussed in this newsletter over the years, and each has its definite strengths and weaknesses. Now, wireless LAN provider Aruba has proposed an alternative to using IPSec on the client computer that we find innovative.

Aruba proposes that telecommuters and road warriors consider deploying Aruba’s special remote-access point (RAP) software on the company’s APs and using the Aruba APs from home or hotel rooms. The APs — rather than your client device - communicate with Aruba’s centralized controller in your data center over an IPSec tunnel. This precludes the user from having to mess with passwords, PINs and IPSec key fobs.

The only requirement is that the remote AP has wired Internet connectivity.

This approach certainly seems to us to have some appeal. But we also turned to our colleague, Joanie Wexler, author of Network World’s Wireless in the Enterprise newsletter, for her take. Joanie said, “This could be easier for home users who have to log in to the VPN repeatedly every day and for road warriors who would like to use multiple wireless devices from a single hotel-room Internet connection.”

If you would like to take a closer look at this solution, a white paper with an extensive explanation is available here. And while you’re at the Webtorials site, you might also want to take a look at a paper on next-generation access, the Kubernan State-of-the-Market report on Mobile WiMAX.

We’d like to hear your thoughts on the Aruba approach. Let us hear from you, and we’ll be happy to share the feedback.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. For more detailed information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter, connect to Webtorials, the premier site for Web-based educational presentations, white papers, and market research. Taylor can be reached at taylor@webtorials.com

Jim Metzler is the Vice President of Ashton, Metzler & Associates, a consulting organization that focuses on leveraging technology for business success. Jim assists vendors to refine product strategies, service providers to deploy technologies and services, and enterprises evolve their network infrastructure.

AirMagnet Enterprise Analyzer for Aruba

The AirMagnet Enterprise Analyzer for Aruba is a software-only Wi-Fi troubleshooting and help-desk solution designed specifically for Aruba's Mobile Edge Architecture. The Enterprise Analyzer software works with existing Aruba controllers and access points to collect Wi-Fi data for expert analysis. AirMagnet's signature AirWISE engine automatically pinpoints more than 130 types of wireless factors that can impact network performance, then generates alarms with detailed explanations of events and advice on corrective actions. Network managers can also remotely troubleshoot wireless problems in real-time without having to travel on-site. The result is a much faster and cost-effective way to solve wireless issues while making the most efficient use of WLAN hardware resources.

Communicates with Existing Aruba Access Points
The AirMagnet Enterprise Analyzer enables Aruba Networks' customers to remotely troubleshoot devices and other sources of Wi-Fi performance issues from one central location without the need for any new hardware. AirMagnet's Enterprise Analyzer software performs wireless monitoring and troubleshooting by collecting data from Aruba's access points (APs), thus maximizing your infrastructure investment.

Provides Intelligent Scanning of all Channels
The AirMagnet analyzer can be used to troubleshoot the Aruba network using data feeds from the Aruba APs in both the standard AP Mode and AirMonitor Mode. In the AP mode, the analyzer receives a real-time data feed directly from the Aruba AP, which allows for complete monitoring and troubleshooting on a single Wi-Fi channel without interrupting any end-user sessions. The AirMonitor Mode gives the AirMagnet analyzer real-time control over individual access points, so you can perform complete interactive channel, throughput and device analysis.

Detects over 130 WLAN Performance Issues with AirWISE
The AirMagnet Enterprise Analyzer is equipped with AirWISE® engine, which identifies and explains over 130 WLAN issues including traffic problems, configuration conflicts, overloaded resources, QoS issues and much more. AirWISE® is your encyclopedia source for understanding the threats and performance issues at work in your Wi-Fi environment. All system alarms are explained for you in detail, including why they are important and what steps you should take to resolve issues. You can investigate any device or channel in detail, including utilization, throughput, CRC error rates, a complete frame level view of all traffic and more.

McCarran Airport Takes Off To Aruba with Nation’s Largest Free Wi-Fi Deployment

When the IT department of the Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, the seventh largest destination airport in the United States, decided to provide the largest free public and private airport-wide wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) service in the country, the security, scalability and control of the network were paramount concerns.

The scope and importance of the wireless network applications to be used by both the public and airport personnel were immense. The network would have to provide service from anywhere in the airport to the over 36 million travelers passing through McCarran each year -- and growing monthly by double digits.

But more important, McCarran viewed their Wi-Fi network as a strategic tool to help increase the efficiency of the airport, improve the experience of travelers within the airport and ultimately help to lower travel rates. Considered on of the most technologically sophisticated airports in the country, McCarran’s plans includes supporting a wide range of innovative new applications, such wireless dispatching of wheel chairs, wireless fastrack boarding, wireless-enabled flight information display systems and wireless reservation kiosks. In addition, the new wireless network would have to support airport productivity and operational applications. And finally, the airport also plans to offer airline carriers customized wireless services tailored to their specific needs.

The airport had already installed first generation wireless LAN (WLAN) access points (APs) in some of their conference rooms. But the IT department quickly realized that as a distributed solution it would scale poorly and would be costly. Numerous and expensive fat access points and switches for each wiring closet would be required. Because McCarran will have diverse public as well as private users and applications, there will also be greater contention, interference and security issues that the system would need to solve.

As a result of the size and potential complexity of the deployment, McCarran then focused on three main requirements for choosing an airport-wide wireless system:

1. Centralized security and management
2. Fast and easy scalability
3. Affordability, in terms of total cost of ownership and value

After carefully considering all the issues and requirements, the airport chose the centralized WLAN switching and security system from Aruba Wireless Networks. By using Aruba’s centralized system, McCarran realizes greater economies of scale because the system:


1. centralizes all security and RF controls,
2. provides the most advanced wireless security available today, and
3. requires less equipment and configuration time than alternative solutions.
“Aruba’s centralized system is an order of magnitude better solution than alternatives in terms of their advanced security, ease of management and scalability, and overall value,” said Gerard Hughes, IT director at McCarran International Airport.

“The system lets us easily and securely partition our RF environment so we can provide each carrier or vendor with their own virtual wireless network along with the requisite services and security they desire. Other airports have service providers that charge people to get online. We don’t because our system gives us the flexibility and controls to realize ROI in other ways such as providing service to companies doing business within the airport.”

Hughes also added that, unlike other airports, McCarran is able to provide free service because it owns and operates its own airport-wide telecommunications infrastructure.

“As for contention, Aruba provides an elegant solution. For instance, Aruba’s APs automatically search for channels with less interference. If they find one, they alter the central controller and make the change. And because the APs are low-cost thin APs, I can deploy lots of them everywhere, so a smaller number of users are contending for access to any given AP,” said Hughes.

McCarran has deployed both single and dual radio Aruba 802.11a/b/g access points (APs) throughout the airport. The network is centrally managed by an Aruba 5000 modular wireless LAN switching system in the main terminal along with the Aruba 2400 switch for distributed management. Both switches are equipped with Aruba’s ArubaOS VPN and intrusion prevention software modules. These modules provide McCarran with a statefull policy engine that can be used to enforce strict security and access controls for each user and the ability to automatically detect and eliminate rogue APs, wireless interference sources, ad-hoc networks and to block a variety of wireless intrusions and attacks.

Dartmouth Goes to Aruba to Build Nation’s Largest University Wi-Fi Network

With hundreds of Cisco 350 802.11b access points (APs) installed throughout its campus, Dartmouth College was struggling to keep up. Managing and upgrading these APs had become unbearable. Meanwhile voice, video, 802.11a and 802.1X were all on the Wi-Fi horizon. But Dartmouth had no way to easily get to where it wanted to go. Enter Aruba Networks.

Dartmouth’s legacy wireless network has provided open 802.11b access across 1.8 square miles of campus populated by over 200 buildings. It must support over 6,000 students and 2,500 faculty. All entering freshman receive a preconfigured, standard-issue laptop enabled for 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi. Approximately 70 percent of Dartmouth’s users are Windows based. The remaining 30 percent use Macintosh clients.


Among Dartmouth’s biggest concerns with its legacy Wi-Fi network were management, scalability and performance. The college is currently migrating to dual-band 802.11a+b/g infrastructure, adding another 1,000 access points to deliver video and handle a large number of concurrent VoIP calls. Dartmouth is also implementing a unified wired and wireless security model system wide.

With over 550 Cisco 350 802.11b APs, Dartmouth was overwhelmed with operational management issues. “Each AP had to be individually configured with user names, passwords, firmware updates, etc.,” said David Bourque, network engineer at Dartmouth College. “WLSE helped by automating some of these processes, but wasn’t an easy interface to use. We were getting lots of false positives and negatives.”

According to Bourque, after configuring APs using Cisco’s WLSE, acknowledgements were sent to confirm AP configurations. But Dartmouth found many of the acknowledged AP configurations weren’t correct. This caused concerns about migrating to a new security scheme using the existing infrastructure, especially when the college was tripling the number of APs. “Cisco’s WLSE along with the new WLSM could solve some of these problems, but it was still too expensive to implement on a large scale, was disjointed and lacked all the features we found in the Aruba system.”

To deliver superior performance, scalability and coverage, Dartmouth constructed a wireless network densely populated with Aruba APs. A single Aruba 5000 wireless LAN (WLAN) switch supports hundreds of APs, thousands of users and gigabits of encrypted throughput.

“We wanted small cell sizes for higher data rates so users’ wireless experience matched the wire,” said Bourque. “Aruba’s system is built for this ’cellular-like’ model where the WLAN switch actually controls the transmit power, channel assignment and personality of each AP based on what service we need to provide. Cisco focused on larger cells and extending the RF signal around campus.”

Dartmouth is examining and implementing a variety of security options, from Webbased authentication to 802.1X and VPNs to PKI. Their requirements are for a system that can support all authentication methods simultaneously without having to deploy and distribute equipment throughout its network. “The Aruba system gives us complete flexibility to implement 802.1X, for example, for any and every port on the network from a central point,” said Bourque. “We can now virtualize 802.1X for the entire network and deliver universal authentication on any port without having to touch each closet switch or disrupting current network operations.”


Automated radio management was another key issue because Dartmouth’s existing wireless environment didn’t support RF management, and therefore required a discrete system of sensors or manual RF fingerprinting. “No amount of human planning could account for the real RF environment and the constantly changing propagation of RF signals in our buildings,” said Bourque. Aruba’s automated radio management (ARM) technology is used to optimize channel assignments, avoid interference and ensure pervasive Wi-Fi coverage.

Dartmouth is using the wireless network for voice and video applications as well as data. For voice, Dartmouth is deploying 75 Cisco 7920 VoIP phones for faculty and staff, 800 Cisco IP Communicator soft phones and 125 Vocera badges. About 4,000 to 7,000 phone lines have been converted to VoIP. Faculty and staff use the Vocera badges to quickly locate colleagues on campus, as well as to help others outside Dartmouth locate them. When calling a Vocera phone number, voice recognition is used by the system to pinpoint the target badge in order to route the call over 802.11b to the right Vocera IP badge. The Aruba system uniquely identifies, classifies and prioritizes voice traffic, such as SIP or H.323, over data traffic. Dartmouth broadcasts separate SSIDs for each traffic type, using Aruba’s integrated stateful firewall to apply security policies for each.

For video distribution, Video Furnace servers are used to convert cable TV channels into MPEG video streams that can be multicast to laptops using client software agents. When a student signs up for access to a channel, the user is added to an IGMP multicast group for that channel. Because each computer needs 400K to 2Mbps to screen video content, efficient use of bandwidth is essential. Any given Aruba AP (802.11a) supports four or more simultaneous MPEG data streams. “Dense deployment of Aruba APs gives us the performance, coverage and scale that make this project even possible.”

The Aruba system gives us complete flexibility to implement 802.1X, for
example, for any and every port on the network from a central point without
having to upgrade the entire wired network.

David Bourque: Network Engineering, Dartmouth College

Aruba Networks Teams with Juniper Networks to Deliver Secure Enterprise Mobility Solutions

McCarran International Airport Selects Aruba and Juniper to Secure its Mobile Network

Aruba Networks, the Mobile Edge Company, today announced it has joined the Juniper Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: JNPR) J-Partner Solutions Alliances program, enabling joint customers to extend their investment in Juniper's security products across their mobile workforces. The joint collaboration ensures that Aruba mobility controllers are pre-tested for interoperability with Juniper's firewall/VPN devices and AAA/802.1X solutions to save enterprises the operational costs of integrating multiple systems. The two companies have already signed their first customer, McCarran International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas.

"Given the growing complexity of today's enterprise networks, infrastructure vendors not only need to deliver functionality, but the integration that enables IT to bring together the best possible products to fulfill their unique objectives," said Dave Passmore, research director for leading industry analyst firm Burton Group. "Closed single-vendor systems can promise integration, but leave the enterprise with too much dependence on a single infrastructure vendor."

McCarran ranks as the fifth busiest airport in the United States, based on passenger traffic. In 2005, it decided to provide free, open Wi-Fi access throughout the airport, and needed to ensure its solution would provide network protection from the thousands of guest users who would be logging on every day. McCarran selected the Aruba and Juniper solution to provide a secure WLAN infrastructure for its mobile workforce and guest users.

"Network security was paramount and we're pleased to see the solutions from Aruba and Juniper interoperate seamlessly and securely out of the box," said Gerard Hughes, technical services manager for the Clark County Department of Aviation, which manages network and telecommunications at McCarran. "To have best-of-breed security and WLAN solutions that don't require complex configuration is an important contrast to the proprietary security solutions being touted by many vendors and a testament to how standards-based interoperability can be made to work well."

The key beneficiaries of the joint effort are:

Mobile Enterprises that require secure, standards-based access to networks and resources: With 802.11i now established as the proven security standard for a wireless LAN deployment, Aruba and Juniper deliver a secure standards-based enterprise WLAN solution. Aruba mobility controllers interoperate with Juniper Steel-Belted Radius Server and with Odyssey 802.1X Access Clients to create the joint solution.

Distributed Enterprises that have mission-critical wireless networks in branches: Wireless is quickly becoming the primary connectivity method for enterprise branch offices where multiple mission-critical applications including data, voice, barcode scanning, inventory management, active RFID and asset tracking need to be supported. The Aruba 200 series mobility controller is purpose-built for such deployments and controls up to six access points and can be deployed as the sole network services device for a retail outlet by setting up a secure IPSEC VPN tunnel to any Juniper firewall/VPN device.

Government Organizations: The Department of Defense's directive 8100.2 requires Layer 2 encryption for wireless deployments and Aruba and Juniper can deliver a complete FIPS 140-2 validated 802.11i solution today. Additionally, xSec, a FIPS 140-2 validated security protocol provides 802.1X and AES encryption as an interim step to enable 802.11i class security for wired and legacy wireless clients.

Healthcare and Educational Institutions that need to provide open access (i.e., no encryption) for unmanaged wireless clients: Enterprises can protect information assets and defend against malware, worms or viruses entering the open access wireless infrastructure by ensuring that all unsecured traffic passes through Juniper's deep packet inspection firewall capabilities.

Aruba's collaboration with Juniper is another example of how Aruba's Mobile Edge architecture and open standards extend the capabilities of its secure mobility systems, facilitating interoperability with open solutions throughout the enterprise network.

The joint solution from Aruba and Juniper Networks is available now.