Aruba: Time to cut the cable

Adding to the heat in the wireless VoIP sector, Aruba today announces what it is calling its Unified Mobile network and declaring the all-wireless workplace is now finally a reality. Central to Aruba's claim that businesses can now cut their cables, is the release of their new 802.11n platform, built around a new range of super controllers, capable of scaling up to 80 gbps.
 
Aruba had warned against the first generation chip set for 802.11n, but now believes these power problems are resolved with the new chip sets and Aruba executives now claim the 802.11n platform finally offers the performance which business users require for their applications.

At the heart of the promise to offer seamless WiFi and cellular use both in the workplace and at home, is a new 80 gbps multi-service mobility controller capable of handing up to 2000 access points and 30,000 users. The controller is one box with Aruba executives only too happy to show pictures of the racks of hardware arch competitor Cisco need to match Aruba's new single box controller.

Security is associated with the user rather than their port of entry which potentially ends much of the frustrations of using VPN tunnels. Because the new access points  have built in firewalls  they can be used  for  traveling executives and at home workers.

Also being promised is a big improvement in battery life for the WiFi mode with the Aruba client said to offer 8-10 times better battery life. Short battery life has been a problem for early WiFi work phones. Lots of other smart technologies which Aruba hopes will make WiFi LANS now an acceptable alternative for those sectors such as finance and government, which have traditionally balked at wireless because of security and performance issues.

For More:
- Aruba Announcement [1]
- The rise of Wireless 2.0 Blog [2]

Related Articles:
Motorola sues Aruba over patent Report [3]
Aruba counter sues Motorola over WLAN patents Report [4]