N@N

Aruba Networks, Inc.: Raytown C-2 School District Overcomes Nagging Wi-Fi Problems by Switching to Aruba Networks' 802.11N Wi-F

^{Published on 2009-03-09 23:02:58, Last Modified on 2009-11-04 08:03:05 - Market Wire}
 

SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwire - March 10, 2009) - Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: [ ARUN ]), a global leader in wireless LANs and secure mobility solutions, today announced that the Raytown C-2 School District in Missouri has deployed Aruba's 802.11n Wi-Fi network across its 22 elementary, middle, high, vocational school campuses and support buildings. The Aruba network supports more than 1,500 laptop computers housed on rolling computer carts that are wheeled into classrooms as needed. Many of the schools are located in proximity to nearby Wi-Fi and high power radio networks that were causing Raytown's legacy single channel network to fail. The new system, supplied by Aruba partner CDW Government, Inc. (CDW-G), was selected following a successful side-by-side performance comparison with the single channel network.

"Our legacy wireless solution was not meeting expectations to the point that certain areas of buildings were not reliable in a best case scenario, and completely unusable in the worst," said Justin Watermann, the district's technology coordinator. "One of our buildings is directly illuminated by a 25 foot parabolic radio antenna that caused tremendous instability in the single channel system. Those problems ended when we switched to an Aruba wireless LAN. Aruba's Adaptive Radio Management (ARM) was able to adjust channels and power levels to mitigate the interference, and we've had trouble-free RF operation ever since. The Aruba network has exceeded my best expectations in every regard, and everyone from the students up to the principal can now work without constant network interruptions and disconnections."

Aruba's ARM technology lowers Wi-Fi deployment and maintenance costs by automating site surveys and using infrastructure-based controls to optimize the performance of Wi-Fi clients in real-time. Acting on their own, Wi-Fi clients do not always work cooperatively with other clients, or select the optimal band, channel, and access point. These issues are exacerbated in settings with densely packed users such as computer labs and libraries. ARM uses a variety of techniques to control how Wi-Fi clients interact, helping to ensure that data, voice, and video applications have sufficient network resources to operate properly. The result is that users enjoy a better wireless experience.

ARM and adaptive 802.11n are standards-based solutions to radio interference problems faced in real-world deployments. "The fact that ARM quickly mitigated issues that the single channel network could not is a tribute to its efficacy," said Robert Fenstermacher, Aruba's head of education marketing. "Besides interference mitigation, ARM can also improve network performance. Tests conducted at the University of Washington showed that in one instance ARM increased 802.11n throughput by more than 200%, while in another it enabled more than 100 laptops to reliably display multi-media lectures delivered from a single access point. And it did so without new software or infrastructure changes. Think of ARM as a turbocharger for 802.11n networks."

To simplify the migration to 802.11n, and avoid the cost of an immediate upgrade, Aruba offers a line of 802.11a/b/g access points that can be upgraded after installation. "Only Aruba offers an 802.11a/b/g access point that can be upgraded over the network to 802.11n Draft 2.0 operation," continued Watermann. "We were not originally planning to upgrade to 802.11n until next year. However, the success of our 802.11b/g deployment, coupled with a desire to leverage the high throughput on our new 802.11n-enabled laptops, caused us to reconsider. Upgrading was as simple as entering a license key and checking a box."

Additional information on Aruba's line of 802.11n access points can be found on-line at [ http://www.arubanetworks.com/products/access-points/ap-120family.php ]. A free Farpoint Group white paper on ARM titled Advances In Wireless Infrastructure Control can be downloaded from Aruba's Web site at [ www.arubanetworks.com/arm2.0 ].

About Aruba Networks

People move. Networks must follow. Aruba securely delivers networks to users, wherever they work or roam. Our mobility solutions enable the Follow-Me Enterprise that moves in lock-step with users:

 -- Adaptive 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi networks optimize themselves to ensure that users are always within reach of mission-critical information; -- Identity-based security assigns access policies to users, enforcing those policies whenever and wherever a network is accessed; -- Remote networking solutions ensure uninterrupted access to applications as users move; -- Multi-vendor network management provides a single point of control while managing both legacy and new wireless networks from Aruba and its competitors. 

The cost, convenience, and security benefits of our secure mobility solutions are fundamentally changing how and where we work. Listed on the NASDAQ and Russell 2000® Index, Aruba is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific regions. To learn more, visit Aruba at [ http://www.arubanetworks.com ].

© 2009 Aruba Networks, Inc. AirWave®, Aruba Networks®, Aruba Mobility Management System®, Bluescanner, For Wireless That Works®, Mobile Edge Architecture, People Move. Networks Must Follow., RFProtect, Green Island, and The Mobile Edge Company® are trademarks of Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.