Whether at work or at home — or in many places between the two, these days — you’re likely to be in range of a WiFi (News - Alert) network. Somewhere between the land of convenience (not to be mistaken for Genesis’ Land of Confusion) and the promise of productivity, mobility, including the deployment of business, residential, and community WiFi networks, is growing.

 

Part of this growth is due to a natural tendency to make life easier (e.g., enable connectivity anywhere), while another is the counter-tendency to make things more complicated (i.e., deliver more bandwidth intensive applications and services to more areas).

 

In response to the growth of WiFi use, and its need to deliver not only data, but also voice and video communications, without sacrificing quality, new standards are constantly being developed – 802.11n, of course, being the latest IEEE (News - Alert) standard for WiFi.  The 802.11n standard not only extends the range and throughput of wireless networks, enhancing the user experience, but it also serves to lower costs, cutting the number of required APs and/or increasing the number of concurrent users on the network.

 

Ruckus’ ZoneFlex technology, which was originally developed to eliminate the need for wired networking in the SMB space, has now expanded its product line to incorporate 802.11n technology to deliver high quality connectivity to thousands of concurrent users — ideal for even large enterprise deployments.

 

The enhanced connectivity enabled by the Ruckus’ ZoneFlex Enterprise family is driven by the ZoneFlex 7962, and enterprise-grade, dual band access point that offers the combination of ranges, reliability, performance, and cost to meet the needs of today’s businesses.

 

The 7962 AP includes Ruckus’ internal dynamic beamforming antenna that consistently delivers the high levels of performance required for voice and video services. They also help reduce external interference using Ruckus’ Automatic Interference Mitigation technology, further enhancing the user experience.  Rounding out the features IT departments are looking for as the deploy wireless technology are mesh networking technology and PoE capabilities, allowing for quick, easy installation, wherever the APs are more effective, whether electrical power is available or not.

 

The ZoneFlex 7962 can be deployed as a standalone access point, or in conjunction with Ruckus’ ZoneDirector 3500 WLAN controller, which can manage up to 500 Ruckus WiFi APs, lowering TCO and increasing ROI — and also maximizing deployment flexibility. 

 

Rounding out the solution are the Ruckus Smart/OS — a free upgrade to version 8 is now available — and Enhanced FlexMaster, which simplify WLAN set-up and management, including allowing remote management. 

 

Ruckus says its enterprise solution allows a 5000-user enterprise to deliver consistent 10 Mbps service for less than $60 per user — while also increasing the range and overall performance thanks to the combination of hardware and management software.