LAN management vendor Colubris Networks last week announced plans for a new generation of systems to help firms unify control of their wired and wireless networks.
“People are telling us that Wi-Fi is mature enough for the enterprise, but that they don’t want duplication of wired and wireless information. They’re saying, ‘We want one set of user policies,'” said Pierre Trudeau, chief technology officer and co-founder of Colubris.
Currently, most organisations manage their WLANs through a centralised management and control architecture, using browser-based consoles. These consoles run through what Colubris calls a “first-generation” WLAN switch – basically overlaying the wireless network on top of the wired infrastructure.
“Overlay approaches were fine when wireless LAN was still in the experimental stage, but the enterprise needs the benefits of unification for WLAN to effectively and efficiently enter the mainstream,” argued Barry Fougere, president and chief executive of Colubris.
Colubris will launch its MultiServiceController this summer, which, like earlier WLAN switches, centralises control. The difference in this hardware is that WLAN quality of service (QoS), security, voice over WLAN support and roaming capabilities will also be centralised in the controller, which will have 10 times the scalability of current WLAN switches, said Colubris.
Then, in the first half of next year, Colubris will launch a new WLAN/LAN access switch, which will unify management of LAN and WLAN infrastructures.
