Enterasys Delivers The Industry's First 54M Wireless Access Point
New RoamAbout R2 Will Support 54 Mbps Performance for Advanced Applications; Offers Wired-Like Features for Wireless Networks
Contact:
Drew Miale
Enterasys Networks
(603) 684-1201
dmiale@enterasys.com
Datasheet ROCHESTER, NH-- April 30, 2001--Enterasys Networks today unveiled a new era in wireless local area networks (WLANs) by announcing the next generation of its award-winning RoamAboutTM products— the RoamAbout R2 wireless access platform. The R2 is the first wireless access platform in the industry that will offer 54 Megabits per second (Mbps) performance, a breakthrough that will actually exceed the speed of most wired networks. The R2 will enable high-bandwidth applications, such as live video, voice and multimedia, to run over wireless networks.
The 54 Mbps performance of the R2 will offer a significant increase from the current 11 Mbps IEEE 802.11b wireless standard, without forcing customers through a full-scale upgrade of their existing 11 Mbps products. Additionally, it combines the mobility of wireless with outstanding performance and a full set of “wired-like” features for security, management and policy enforcement. This unique set of features is highly important for command and control of wireless LAN traffic as more advanced applications move to wireless networks. This means that corporations, schools, government agencies and other organizations can deliver high-end applications via wireless networks — anytime, anywhere — with confidence. “The wireless LAN market is growing rapidly, particularly the IEEE 802.11b products,” said Gemma Paulo, Industry Analyst at Cahners In-Stat. “But greater speed and network services from wireless products are already in demand. The new RoamAbout R2 delivers on these requirements, and offers a smooth and cost-effective road to IEEE 802.11a migration.”
The R2 is unique because while it will initially support 11 Mbps speeds, it will ultimately support both 11 Mbps and 54 Mbps users simultaneously from one device. This design provides customers with investment protection in current 11 Mbps technology and an easy migration to higher speed wireless LANs. With the rapid growth of wireless LAN deployments in several vertical markets, this upgrade path and investment protection will give organizations the flexibility to upgrade at their own pace as well as provide a superior product life cycle and a lower total cost of ownership.
“The RoamAbout R2 will break performance barriers and open wireless networks to a whole new world of applications that were previously only thought of for high-speed wired networks,” said Peter Beardmore, Enterasys Networks’ general manager of wireless products. “And, as the industry’s first wireless LAN platform to deliver policy-based, user personalized networking and a full set of advanced features, the R2 is a landmark development for wireless networks and for the RoamAbout product line.”
The R2’s advanced features bring “wired like” Layer 3-4 capabilities to wireless LANs, delivering multi-layer Quality of Service (QoS) to prioritize network traffic across wireless or hybrid wired/wireless enterprise networks. In addition, R2 also offers the RoamAbout family’s remote power feature, which reduces customer costs by eliminating the need to wire electricity to each access point. In addition, the R2 offers a 10/100 Fast Ethernet uplink for connectivity to wired networks, a significant improvement from previous 10 Mbps uplinks.
The R2 also provides expanded point-to-multipoint wireless capabilities. This allows “1 to 100” point to multipoint wireless connections between access points to create multiple wireless “paths” throughout a network or among buildings in a campus environment, yielding increased redundancy for high availability wireless networks. This feature offers great benefits for environments such as college campuses or industrial parks that are looking to do “one to many” outdoor wireless connectivity between buildings.
Enterasys Networks
Enterasys Networks is a new type of company that combines a single market focus with a strong technology heritage to provide communications infrastructures for enterprise-class customers. Enterasys' networking hardware and software offerings deliver the innovative security, availability and mobility solutions required by Global 2000 organizations coupled with the industry's strongest service and support. Based in Rochester, New Hampshire, Enterasys is backed by Silver Lake Partners and Cabletron Systems (NYSE: CS), and was named a "Company to Watch in 2001" by CIO Magazine. For more information, visit enterasys.com.
