In the current economy, businesses and organizations may be reluctant to upgrade their wireless LANs with the latest technology, 802.11n. Cisco thinks it has an answer to help, though.
Cisco announced its new 802.11n product, the Aironet 1140 series, along with technology it calls M-Drive to encourage businesses and organizations to make the move. The products already are in use by some of Cisco’s customers.
802.11n, also called Wireless-N, is in the Wi-Fi family of technologies but provides data rates of around 300 Mbps or even higher. It is backwards compatible with earlier Wi-Fi technologies. Cisco itself has shipped more than 175,000 Wireless-N access points with its earlier Aironet1250 series.
Cisco’s research has shown some resistance to upgrading WLANs because of concern over the total cost of ownership, because businesses think their IT employees lack the skills to make the upgrade, and because they’re not sure their Ethernet network is ready.
Chris Kozup, Cisco’s senior manager for mobility solutions, said the new Aironet 1140 series and M-Drive bring down the total costs, make it simpler for IT departments to manage their networks, and fit into the current infrastructure. M-Drive also improves the performance of existing 802.11a/g equipment, he said, with tests showing an increase of throughput for 11a/g devices up to 65%.
Cisco also backs up the promise with training and certification programs, migration services, financing and leasing through Cisco Capital, and trade-in credits for legacy equipment.
Filed Under: Infrastructure
