Colubris Networks, a leading provider of intelligent, multiservice WLAN systems, announced another industry first today with the public unveiling of its InMotion™ MultiService Controller (MSC) 5000 series Family. The InMotion MultiService Controller 5500 (MSC-5500) is engineered for large campus and enterprise deployments and scales to 200 wireless access points serving thousands of users. The InMotion 5200 MultiService Controller (MSC-5200) is developed for small offices and remote locations with the ability to support up to 25 wireless access points and hundreds of users.
The new InMotion MSCs enable enterprises and service providers to centrally manage and control multiservice wireless networks, eliminating the high costs and technical complexity associated with building and maintaining a separate wireless switch overlay network. They feature the Colubris TriPlane™ architecture, which enables a Colubris Intelligent MultiService System to deliver over a 5x improved scalability of managed wireless access points over conventional WLAN switches. Part of Colubris Unified Services Network vision, the InMotion MSC family unifies the wireless and wired networks into a single, easy to manage and operate network resulting in capital and operations costs savings while improving overall security.
“We switched to Colubris at George Mason University because we wanted capacity in our wireless network rather than simply adding more coverage,” said Derek Kan, manager, Advanced Network Technologies, George Mason University. “Colubris excels in its ability to provide multiple services over a single network in a highly-scaleable architecture.”
Colubris’ InMotion MSCs work with existing local area network (LAN) switches enabling the delivery of multiple services – voice, data and video — over a single wireless infrastructure with distributed intelligence. The InMotion MSC Family is part of the Colubris Intelligent MultiService System (CIMS), a comprehensive open networking solution for deploying wireless network access services based on 802.11 standards. The system includes Colubris InMotion Multiservice Controllers; InReach™ MultiService Access Points (MAP) and the InCharge™ Network Management System (NMS). The CIMS delivers the industry’s broadest range of WLAN services to standard client devices.
“Wireless G is beta testing the MSC-5200 to review its capabilities, such as its voice applications,” said Anton J van Rensburg, logistics executive, Wireless G. “Wireless G provides a multi-channel wholesale network of mobile broadband services for the private and public markets in South Africa. We believe that products like the MSC-5200 can provide us an opportunity to offer new, revenue-generating services to these markets.”
Colubris TriPlane Architecture
Colubris’ TriPlane architecture provides distributed switching with centralized management and control for industry-leading network scale. These capabilities include centralization of quality of service (QoS) for business-critical applications, security, Layer 2 and 3 roaming, auto-discovery and auto-configuration.
Colubris InMotion MSC/3
The InMotion MSC Family includes support for a suite of services, including voice over WLAN, fast roaming, guest/public access and plug-and-play services. More services are scheduled for release in 2005-6.
The InMotion MSC-5200 is a 1U rack-mount system with 10/100 Ethernet ports and integrates into an existing Ethernet backbone infrastructure. Ideal for small-to-medium enterprise deployments or remote campus locations, the MSC-5200 delivers a full suite of services to a network of 25 InReach MAPs.
The InMotion MSC-5500 is a high performance 1U rack-mount system with gigabit Ethernet ports. It is designed to interconnect with an enterprise backbone network. A single InMotion MSC-5500 delivers a full suite of services to a network of 200 InReach MAPs.
The InMotion MultiService Controllers leverage the existing Ethernet network for connectivity with the intelligent InReach MultiService Access Points. This allows the access points to implement seamless roaming, enabling client devices to move transparently between access points while maintaining privacy and network security. The InMotion MultiService Controllers also ensure QoS for voice and other real-time services by prioritizing bandwidth across InReach MultiService Access Points.
Colubris Unified Services Networks
With WLANs rapidly becoming the preferred access medium for network resources and multiservice traffic patterns on the rise, enterprises and service providers are demanding new levels of performance for scalability, security, resiliency and operating cost management. Those benefits cannot be achieved by approaches that segregate an overlay wireless LAN from the wired LAN.
Colubris InMotion MSC/4
Colubris’ Unified Services Network (USN) architecture embraces this requirement for unifying networks. The first phase of USN is the creation of a distributed WLAN/LAN switching architecture with centralized network management and control. The Colubris Intelligent MultiService System lets customers with existing standards-based Ethernet switches upgrade their networks quickly and cost-effectively. As a result, organizations are prepared for seamless unification of the WLAN with the legacy wired LAN that is future-proofed for rapid increases in multiservice traffic and accommodates evolving standards such as 802.11n.
Pricing and Availability
List prices for the InMotion MSC-5500 and MSC-5200 are $15,999 and $4,799 respectively. A full suite of services are included with the InMotion MSC purchase. The InMotion MSC-5200 and MSC-5500 will be available in July 2005.
About Colubris Networks
Colubris Networks is the leading global provider of intelligent multiservice wireless LAN systems for service providers and enterprises. The company’s award-winning products deliver seamless, secure access to broadband services and applications while unifying existing network infrastructures, security and management systems. Colubris Networks’ equipment is deployed by more than 1,000 organizations worldwide. For more information, visit the company at www.colubris.com, or info@colubris.com.
