Smart Mobile Suite

Trapeze Networks offers a series of LAN gear, including central switches/controllers (Mobility Exchanges), access points (Mobility Points), and central management software (RingMaster). The gear is all driven by the vendor's Mobility System Software and is based on their "Smart Mobile" technology; which utilizes a combination of centralized and distributed data forwarding methodologies (based on the needs of the underlying application) in an attempt to improve overall traffic latency. In a Smart Mobile infrastructure, the central controllers can offload the policy enforcement (as defined by the administrators) and data forwarding logic to the APs themselves.

Mobility Exchanges serve as the core of the hardware platform, and are offered in flavors suitable for branch office through enterprise deployments. Features in common to the Mobility Exchange line include support for the Ringmaster planning and management application, which allows the controllers to retrieve their configuration either locally or from a remote location; L2 Ethernet switching; LAN-speed per user and per service firewalls; wireless intrusion protection features; 802.1Q trunking and per VLAN spanning tree (PVST+); and wired to wireless QoS. Groups of exchanges can be configured into Mobility Domain clusters, with support for roaming; while groups of geographically dispersed Mobility Domains can be managed as a single Network Domain.

Current Mobility Exchange offerings range from the MXR-2, with 2 10/100 ports (one with PoE) and support for up to 4 Mobility Points; to the MX-400, with 4 GbE ports (GBIC SX/LX, or 1000Base-T UTP ports), a redundant power supply, and support for up to 120 Mobility Points.

The Mobility Points are currently offered in five models, for both indoor and outdoor uses. All but the MP-371 are dual radio offerings supporting encryption, and policy-based data forwarding per user, protocol, or CoS mappings. Choices range from the MP-371, a single radio indoor offering with "dual diversity antennas" operating over both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands (802.11a/b/g); through the MP-372 and MP-422, both dual radio APs (802.11a, 802.11b/g) for indoor use; to the 802.11n enabled MP-432 (dual radios, each with 3 transmit and receive channels; one operating at 2.4 GHz and the other operating at 5 GHz), also an indoor AP; and ending with the MP-620, an outdoor 802.11a / 802.11b/g AP.

Other components of the Smart Mobile platform include:

- The LA-200 location appliance, which can be plugged into a Smart Mobile infrastructure and facilitates the locating and tracking of Wi-Fi assets.

- RingMaster client/server software, for the centralized planning and management of Smart Mobile infrastructures. RingMaster includes both ongoing management capabilities, as well as RF planning, client and rogue location, monitoring, and reporting of the Wi-Fi network.

New to the vendor's product line is a hardened appliance version of RingMaster, the RingMaster-200. RingMaster-200 is a rack-mountable, Linux-based appliance with dual RAID-1 protected 250 GB drives and support for the management of up to 5,000 access points or 1,000 controllers.

The Trapeze Networks product line is available now. The new RingMaster-200 is priced at $18,995.

Visit the Trapeze Networks Web site for further information.

product submission by DPW Staff

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