Wireless LAN kit vendor Colubris Networks Inc. has bought early-stage startup Kiwi Networks for its radio know-how (see Colubris Acquires Kiwi Networks).
Anticipating ever more prevalent interference problems in both carrier and enterprise wireless LAN networks over the coming years, the firm says it will use Kiwi’s “advanced cellular WiFi technologies and automated radio frequency (RF) planning and control products” to combat these issues.
“For us this was an opportunity to really make a jump in sophistication in the wireless LAN industry,” Barry Fougere, president and CEO at Colubris, tells Unstrung.
Kiwi’s technology involves maximizing throughput and minimizing interference on WLAN radio transmissions, Fougere says. “They’ve been looking at how you enable unlicensed spectrum to behave more deterministically… more like licensed spectrum,” he says.
Colubris wants to apply this technology in both carrier and enterprise markets. Fougere says it will eventually enable Colubris’s equipment users to do things like guarantee service level agreements.
Of course, Colubris isn’t the only firm looking at interference problems. AutoCell Laboratories Inc. has self-healing software designed to dodge the interference bullet, and firms like Meru Networks Inc. and Xirrus Inc. have built similar capabilities into their enterprise offerings.
Colubris isn’t disclosing the cost of the acquisition, but the firm just received another $15 million in VC capital recently, so we doubt it cut into its wad too much (see Colubris Cashes Up).
