Review: Aruba Virtual Branch Network (VBN) RAPs

Highly-distributed businesses have long faced a choice of evils: ship skilled staff out to install pricey enterprise APs or let small branch and home office workers install their own consumer plug-n-play APs. For organizations with hundreds of storefronts or thousands of teleworkers, the former is prohibitively expensive. But for secure multimedia WLANs, the latter is unthinkable.

According to Aruba Networks, Virtual Branch Networks (VBNs) are a more palatable solution. Interop LV09 judges were impressed, awarding Best of Show in the Wireless/Mobile category to VBN. During our own test drive, we found VBN extremely promising—but we spotted a few rough edges that could use bit more honing.

Virtualizing remote WLANs

Aruba's VBN is an architecture that enables centralized control over a large number of small remote office WLANs, up to 100 clients apiece. In the VBN architecture, every Remote Access Point (RAP) operates as a remotely-managed VPN gateway, enforcing role-based access policies and tunneling only permitted traffic back to the corporate network.

Sure, branch office VPNs can be built using many enterprise wireless routers. What differentiates Aruba's VBNis entry-level gear with "zero-touch" provisioning. Aruba can drop-ship factory-default $99 RAPs to hundreds of destinations on your behalf. On first power-up, each RAP tunnels over the Internet to a user-designated Aruba controller. When the controller hears from a whitelisted RAP, it installs and activates IT-defined firmware and policies over a secure boot-strap tunnel. The end result: a business-grade WLAN, provisioned in less than ten minutes, with almost no end-user or IT assistance.

Eliminating advance or on-site IT provisioning from an otherwise lengthy, error-prone process speeds new site activation and reduces per-site investment. And, because RAPs are managed over that tunnel throughout their life, IT can remotely assert relatively sophisticated, dynamic role-based access controls. While RAPs are ultimately constrained by inexpensive hardware, the policies they can enforce are far from consumer-grade.

Putting VBN into action

This architecture can be implemented using any combination of the following new VBN RAPs.

• The RAP-2WG is a fist-sized single-radio 802.11b/g AP with two 10/100 Ethernet ports, targeted for use by "fixed telecommuters" and home offices with up to five users. (Pictured above.)

• The RAP-5WN is a desktop/wall-mount dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n AP with five 10/100 Ethernet ports, slated for small branch offices with up to 256 users. (Picture below.)

• The RAP-5 is a wired-only RAP-5WN, to incorporate small branches that require authenticated, secure Ethernet, but not wireless VBN access.

Older (non-VBN) Aruba RAPs can be added to the same network manually—for example, the dual-radio AP-125 for a branch requiring simultaneous dual-band operation. However, the zero-touch feature that appealed to us is only available in new VBN RAPs. To road-test VBN, we therefore installed an RAP-2WG and an RAP-5WN in over a dozen home and small office networks.

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.