Meru Takes Its WLAN Downmarket
As users want more from Wi-Fi, Meru is using a lower-cost access point to take its wares into new markets
Wireless LAN maker Meru has announced a new access point designed to take its distinctive network technology into a wider set of markets.
Meru’s wireless LANs use different technology from other WLAN vendors, and have traditionally been more expensive. The company, whyich floated on the NY stock exchange earlier this year, has brought out a lower cost access point designed to give it a better crack at selling into hotels, schools and offices.
Single-channel versus micro-cell
In Meru’s wireless LANs, every access point is on the same wireless channel, so devices can move between one access point and another without having to “roam”.
Since 2002, Meru has gone against the trend in wireless LANs, which are dominated by vendors like Aruba, Cisco and Trapeze/Belden who sell networks built from access points tuned to different frequencies. Despite the success of these vendors in replacing wired LAN access, Meru says their “microcell” architectures, are not so good as its tech, which it currently describes as “virtualised WLAN”.
Emphasising its reliability, Meru has offered a Service Assurance Module (which we reviewd here), and claims strengths in demanding environments such as healthcare.
The new AP1000 is a lower spec version of its AP300 access point. By reducing from three to two antennas per radio, so it can only manage 2×2 MIMO (two simultaneous channel), Meru has brought the price down from the AP300’s price of $1000 or $1395 (£618 or £862) for single or dual radio versions. The AP1000 costs $395 or $695 (£244 or £429 – though these sterling figures are just an indication of exchange rate, as there is no UK list price yet).
When wireless is mission critical and throughput intensive, the AP300 will be the way to go,” said Meru’s senior vice president of marketing Ram Appalaraju. The AP1000 will fit in where the demand for wireless is intermittent, but the organisation wants a connection that is reliable and does not want to have support issues.
These areas could include hotels, who want to offer Wi-Fi to guests, as well as branch offices of organisations, said Appalaraju.
Microcell architectures can have trouble with changing RF environments and large numbers of clients, he said,. It is an argument which has gone on for eight years now, and shows no sign of abating, at a time when the increased use of mobile devices seems likely to make the issue become massively more important.
