Xirrus Asserts the Demise of the Thin AP and Centralized Wi-Fi Controller

Business Wire, Sept 22, 2008

Switching and Intelligence at the Edge Improves Performance and Scales to 802.11n

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- Xirrus, Inc., the Wi-Fi "Power-Play" that delivers the most coverage, bandwidth, and throughput in the industry on a per device and system basis, asserts the demise of thin access points and the centralized Wi-Fi controller. The thin AP controller architecture - common in Wi-Fi networks over the last few years - is nearing its end of life as high performance Wi-Fi technologies and applications continue to emerge.

The network model of thin access points and centralized controllers was designed with the following assumptions:

* Basic Wi-Fi coverage of an area would be sufficient

* Wi-Fi networks would be utilized by a relatively few number of users

* Wi-Fi traffic would be relatively low in volume

* Wi-Fi would be a "nice to have" for most users - not mission critical

* Voice and video over IP were not key business driving applications

These assumptions were fine in years past; however more recent advances in the wireless market have turned these assumptions on their head. The number of Wi-Fi users and applications is growing dramatically, taking wireless usage from a niche application to a mainstream corporate need.

In addition, high performance 802.11n Wi-Fi is now being deployed with 5X more data traffic than 802.11a/g, significantly increasing the traffic load across the wireless and wired network. The advent of higher performance applications enabled by 802.11n is rapidly making central controller architectures impractical since they require large amounts of data to be backhauled deep into the network and introduce significant latency and congestion.

"Legacy Wi-Fi architectures did not plan for the success of Wi-Fi," said Dirk Gates Founder and CEO of Xirrus and Xircom. "As one of our competitors admitted this week, 'bandwidth is king in an all-wireless workplace - the more channels you have available, the greater the potential capacity of your network.' Our Wi-Fi Array was designed to deliver precisely that - a high density radio architecture that uses more channels per device - delivering more bandwidth on a per device or system basis than anything else in the industry today."

"The Wi-Fi Array is implemented in the same manner as enterprise edge switches, putting the bandwidth and intelligence closer to the user to avoid the bottlenecks inherent in AP controller networks", added Dirk Gates.

The Xirrus Wi-Fi Array was designed from its inception to support high bandwidth applications, large numbers of users, and the migration to 802.11n.

To deliver these capabilities, Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays offers the following:

* 4, 8, 12, 16 and soon 24 radios in a single Array

* Embedded Wi-Fi controller and multi-Gigabit switch

* Full line-rate encryption engine for all users

* Directional antenna system for large coverage area

* Modular, upgradeable architecture

Combining these functions with intelligence at the network entry point results in greater performance, control, and flexibility than other legacy Wi-Fi architectures.

About Xirrus

Xirrus, the only Wi-Fi "Power-Play," manufactures the Wi-Fi Array[R] architecture that displaces both overlay Wi-Fi offerings and switched Ethernet to the desktop. The Wi-Fi Array integrates 4, 8, 12, 16, or 24 802.11abg n radios coupled to a high-gain directional antenna system into a single device along with an onboard multi-gigabit switch, Wi-Fi controller, firewall, dedicated Wi-Fi threat sensor, and an embedded spectrum analyzer. The Wi-Fi Array provides more than enough bandwidth, security, and control to replace switched Ethernet to the desktop as the primary network connection. The Xirrus Wi-Fi Array delivers the most coverage, bandwidth, throughput, and support for more users on a per device and per system basis than anything else available on the market today - resulting in a solution that uses 75% fewer devices, cabling, switch ports, power, space, and installation time compared with any other offering.

Xirrus is a privately-held company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. For more information, please visit www.xirrus.com.

Xirrus - Switching Without Wires[TM]

Xirrus - High Performance Wi-Fi[TM]

Xirrus - The Air is the Network[TM]

Xirrus - Wi-Fi Array[R]