Aruba touts latest Wi-Fi standard

WIRELESS NETWORKING

Aruba Network has reaffirmed the 802.11n, the latest standard of wireless networking or Wi-Fi , will have tremendous growth and beat the existing standard by 2010.

The 802.11n standard uses some new technology and tweaks existing technologies to give Wi-Fi more speed and range.

Citing Dell'Oro market forecast, Prakun Laohakittikul, Aruba Network's territory manager, Thailand, said the present Wi-Fi technology (802.11a,b,g) in the worldwide market is likely to drop out of the market by 2012, while the .11n technology inflection point in the year 2010 provides Aruba with a unique opportunity to shift the market.

According to the research report by the Burton Group, the growth of Ethernet switching market will begin to slow due to WLAN substitution. Ethernet-switching vendors which rely on a wireless original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partner for WLAN systems are vulnerable to losing their partner through acquisition.

Prakun noted that two mega trends that accelerate the network revolution are that the number of mobile device users is growing, and virtual workforce, which is a geographically dispersed workforce, and increasingly heterogeneous organisation. "Balancing mobility and security is a must," he said.

The manager added that Aruba focuses on large deployment where security and performance are concerned. Every single vertical market is the target for Aruba products including government, education, healthcare, hospitality industry, and so on.

"In the past, security was a key factor that made the financial and banking sector hesitate in deploying access points, but today wireless has become the main access for them," he said, adding that the 802.11n deployment in Thailand this year will be more than 50 percent and eventually all networks will transform to .11n technology.

According to Mark Verbloot, systems engineering director, Aruba Network Asia Pacific, 802.11n is primed to be primary edge access due to its benefits in fast growing client base, high performance with high reliability, as well as more security than wired networks.

He pointed out that 50 percent of Wi-Fi chipsets sold in last year of which 90 percent expected in 2013. The throughput of .11n is faster than 100Base Ethernet.