As we all know, the trend towards mobile communications among workers, students, and guests has pressed for the rapid migration from Wi-Fi hot spots for a handful of casual users to Wi-Fi networks for high performance users.  When selecting the Wi-Fi solution for your organization, you need to make certain the architecture is powerful and intelligent enough to not only cover large areas, but also provide the needed user density and bandwidth for mobile computing voice, video, and data – an architecture that can replace wired Ethernet to the desktop.

Several years ago, Xirrus’ founder and CEO Dirk Gates foresaw the proliferation in exciting new Wi-Fi devices and applications, but noted that no one was planning for the success of the Wi-Fi revolution.  Several companies like Airespace and Aruba were building architectures based on thin access points wired to a closet controllers — though these architectures provided better central network management, they failed to provide  the bandwidth and user density needed to replace wired networking to the desktop.

Xirrus’ focus on RF innovation (specifically RF isolation, management, and shaping) has enabled us to develop the Wi-Fi Array based architecture that delivers more coverage, bandwidth, throughput, and user density on a per device and per system basis that is far and above any other offering.

Unlike a centralized network with many individual parts, the Xirrus Wi-Fi Array architecture integrates 4, 8, 12, 16 or 24 802.11abgn radios and a high-gain directional antenna system into a single device coupled with an onboard multi-gigabit switch, Wi-Fi controller, firewall, dedicated Wi-Fi threat sensor, and an embedded spectrum analyzer.

Rolling out a high performance Wi-Fi network has never been easier than with Xirrus…

Why do we claim the Xirrus Wi-Fi Array platform obsoletes all other Wi-Fi overlay networks and is the only Wi-Fi device capable of replacing Ethernet switching to the desktop?  Simple…our devices offer the greatest coverage, bandwidth, user density, intelligence, and security with 75% fewer devices.

Coverage Boost

With multiple radios co-located in a circular configuration, the Wi-Fi Array creates a radio “Array” that provides significant range, capacity, and RF management advantages.  Each Integrated Access Point (IAP) uses a high gain, directional Antenna System to deliver increased transmit gain and receive sensitivity in all directions, resulting in up to 4x the coverage area of traditional AP/Wi-Fi controller architectures.

The Xirrus 802.11n Array uses 3×3 MIMO technology to support data-connect rates up to 300 Mbps per radio. The Array has three built in antennas per IAP integrating up to 60 antennas into a single device. The Array’s unique architecture provides an easy to install, aesthetically pleasing solution with no need for external cables or antennas.

Xirrus provides the most powerful Wi-Fi solution in the industry with the performance to replace switched Ethernet to the desktop-ideal for offices, cubicles, conference rooms, auditoriums, campuses, warehouses, remote users, emergency response, etc.

The Wi-Fi Array’s design of integrated components, security, and intelligence results in a solution that requires 75% fewer devices, cabling, switch ports, space, energy, and installation time compared with any other offering.

Bandwidth Boost

Bandwidth becomes increasingly more important as the success of Wi-Fi grows-as the number of Wi-Fi users and applications grow, so does the need for more radios across more channels. The problem is that traditional Wi-Fi architectures, such as thin access points with centralized closet controllers, backhaul all data to a central point before re-distributing back out, creating unsecure bottlenecks and decreasing the overall performance of the network.

Xirrus has several 802.11n Wi-Fi Arrays to fit your wireless need with 1.2Gbps to 7.8Gbps of bandwidth per device.

Intelligence at the Edge

A quarter century of research and testing by the switching industry has concluded that data switching decisions belong at the network edge.  As a result, all wired switches are engineered with distributed intelligence to perform security, QoS, VLAN tagging, etc. when packets first access the network.

Wi-Fi is no different – when deploying Wi-Fi as the primary network access it’s critical to distribute the switching intelligence to the edge rather than centralize it like a hub or router.  Distributed architectures, like Xirrus, encrypts data at the edge while Central architectures encrypt at the control, leaving the data unprotected from the access point to the controller.

Unlike other vendors, our Wi-Fi Arrays can replace Ethernet workgroup switches at the edge with things like:

• Traffic Switching Decisions
• QoS and VLAN Tagging
• Voice Detection/Classification
• Security (encryption processing, Firewall/ACL policies, traffic filtering, and threat monitoring and mitigation)

Cost Savings

Xirrus not only saves you money due to the less devices, switch ports, and cabling involved with our simplified solution, but we also don’t charge for services like site surveys, security scans, installation and configurations, training, or signal strength guarantees.  Compare us to the competition…

By learning valuable lessons from the Cellular and Ethernet industries the Xirrus architecture delivers 2X more range, 4X more coverage, 8X more bandwidth, 4X more throughput-using 75% fewer devices, cables, and switch ports over any other offering.

Don’t take my word for it…listen to what the customers are saying, like Kevin Halgren, Assistant Director of Systems and Services at Washburn University, “Xirrus’ 802.11n Wi-Fi Arrays are drastically different from traditional access points, which are chained to distant closet controllers.  The Xirrus 802.11n Arrays put the power and intelligence where it should be – at the edge of the network.  By integrating 4, 8, 12, 16, and 24 radios with a multi-Gigabit switch into a single device, the Xirrus Arrays allow us to efficiently deploy more radios to cover more users than access points from other vendors. For example, we recently installed nine Xirrus 802.11n Wi-Fi Arrays covering all five floors of the Living Learning Center, delivering over 16Gbps of high speed Wi-Fi bandwidth for 400 students – that’s 56 radios with only seven cable drops – impressive.”

This is a Guest Post for IP Leaders by John Merrill Director, Marketing at  Xirrus