The Perfect Union: Ruckus Rolls Out Wired and Wireless Solution for 802.11ac Wave 2 Wi-Fi

Wave 2 - the New Standard

What do big spaces that hold crowds of people have in common? Think urban convention centers or hotel conference centers, lecture halls and large classrooms, sprawling sports stadiums and arenas, and even midsize to large enterprises. Answer: They all need high-density Wi-Fi to support high traffic flow. The newly certified 802.11ac Wave 2 standard is opening the door to gigabit Wi-Fi, which has some significant advantages for these environments—like allowing one access point to transmit multiple data streams to more than one connected device simultaneously, better overall performance with the ability to transmit larger files, more bandwidth and flexibility, and greater interoperability options. 802.11ac Wave 2 has gained ground quickly, as it provides wireless speeds as fast as or even faster than wired networks. Many businesses are already using Wi-Fi as the primary way to connect to the local area network (LAN)—and they are rapidly migrating to 802.11ac Wave 2 to take advantage of its performance and capabilities. With the traffic bottleneck for the network edge now shifting away from the connection between the Wi-Fi client and access point to the connection between the access point and switching fabric, today’s one gigabit solutions are beginning to prove inadequate for many applications—particularly large campuses or heavy traffic sites. Currently, most access points have dual one gigabit Ethernet ports, but would require two switch ports with running cables to deliver optimal performance. While it’s true that some network vendors have started delivering 5 GbE or 10 GbE multi-gigabit technology, these options provide much more capacity than 802.11ac Wave 2 access points can generate and are only available on expensive, premium switches. For 802.11ac Wave 2 applications, this is way more than most organizations need. Imagine purchasing a Ferrari for a city commute in a 30-mile-per-hour zone.

Wave 2 Benefits

With one of the largest portfolios of Wave 2 solutions in the industry, Ruckus is rolling out its new well-matched, fully integrated pair: 802.11ac Wave 2 wireless access point with 2.5 GbE ports and network switch with 2.5 GbE multi-gigabit connectivity, dual hot-swappable power supplies and industry-leading PoE budget and more uplinks (enabling higher overall throughput) to deliver a quality user experience at an affordable price. Here some of the key benefits of the streamlined wired/wireless solution:

• Users connect faster, especially in high density, uncontrollable environments, where thousands of active wireless clients may be connecting simultaneously. This is made possible with the Ruckus R720 AP with 4x4:4 and 160Mhz radio for higher performance and greater Wi-Fi client density, 2.5GbE port and the Ruckus ICX 7150 Z-Series, 48-port switch with 16 2.5GbE ports.

• Users experience optimized wireless performance with better, more extensive coverage and greater overall throughput.

• All of these premium services are available in a cost-effective entry-level switch. Ruckus multigigabit ports are estimated to cost 40% to 60% less than competing products currently on the market. Dual, hot-swappable power supplies provide increased Power over Ethernet (PoE) and high availability. With 8x10GbE uplinks, there is no potential for performance slow-downs resulting from over-subscription, when there’s more data transmitted by users than the switch can handle.

We innovate across wireless and wired technologies to meet industry-specific needs. Ruckus offers the best connectivity performance for today latest Wi-Fi standards— without a high price tag. Our high-performance, high-density 802.11ac Wave 2 Wi-Fi solution is purpose-built for demanding environments. The Ruckus wireless access point and well-matched, cost-effective network switch together deliver optimized performance.

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