Meru Networks' New Radio Switch Family Redefines the Enterprise Wireless LAN

Meru Networks' New Radio Switch Family Redefines the Enterprise Wireless LAN

Innovative Architecture Ideal for High-Density Data and VoIP Mobility Applications; Reduces Enterprise WLAN Deployment Costs by 50 Percent

LAS VEGAS, Networld + Interop 2005, May 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Meru Networks, the global leader in Enterprise VoIP mobility infrastructure, today announced the launch of a new category of wireless products purpose-built to serve the requirements of high-density data and VoIP mobility applications and to enable pervasive wireless LAN deployments for the enterprise.

The Meru Radio Switch family, shown this week at Networld + Interop 2005, includes the four-radio RS-4000, the eight-radio RS-8000, the twelve-radio RS-12000 and a patent-pending, built-in omni-directional antenna. The system delivers up to 648 Mbps of WLAN bandwidth utilizing 802.11 standard radios, and is capable of scaling up to 1.2 Gbps of bandwidth across its coverage zone. The Radio Switch accomplishes this breakthrough performance by layering up to 12 channels in a single coverage area. This is only possible with Meru's innovative Cellular WLAN architecture, which enables coordinated, widespread coverage with a single channel, with additional capacity added simply by layering additional channels across the same coverage zone. When deployed with a Meru Controller, multiple Radio Switches coordinate with each other to create virtual cells, blanketing large areas with up to a gigabit of wireless capacity, ideal for heavy usage and seamless roaming.

The Radio Switch family is specifically designed for enterprise customers, including universities and school districts, public institutions and government agencies, convention centers, hotels and large branch offices, that need to support a large number of WLAN users in confined locations. It is also ideal for customers restricted to longer procurement cycles that need to select WLAN systems to meet future anticipated requirements.

"Meru's Radio Switch is ideally suited for delivering high-density, high-performance to a large number of users," said Joel Conover, Principal Analyst at Current Analysis. "When combined with Meru's strong VoIP mobility and quality of service capabilities, the new Radio Switch clearly differentiates Meru from the competition in a WLAN market that is crowded with numerous 'me too' offerings."

The Meru Radio Switch delivers the following industry-first benefits:

-- The industry's first WLAN system future-proofed for 802.11n. The three Radio Switch models are modular, protecting enterprise investments by allowing users to add and upgrade radios as their WLAN requirements grow and evolve. This flexibility enables upgrades to future 802.11n radios, delivering up to 1.2 Gbps in capacity per coverage area. -- A 50 percent reduction in enterprise WLAN total cost of ownership by sharply reducing expensive cable pulls and simplifying deployment. Until Meru's innovation, adding capacity to serve high traffic WLAN zones using conventional WLAN systems required users to shrink cell sizes and add multiple access points, each configured for a different channel. This approach sharply increases deployment costs, with expensive cable pulls per access point, support costs and RF planning requirements. The Meru Radio Switch uniquely addresses these challenges by requiring far less access points to deliver more than 10 times the capacity. -- A highly redundant, reliable system for high-density data and voice support. The Meru Radio Switch is the first system capable of supporting high-density environments with added capacity and 12 channels of redundancy, combined with layered single-channel implementation ideal for VoIP Mobility applications.

"The only detail standing between wireless LANs and their emerging role as the default voice and data vehicle in the enterprise is capacity," said Craig J. Mathias, a Principal with the wireless and mobile advisory firm, Farpoint Group (Ashland, MA). "With the Radio Switch, Meru has extended its innovative architecture to provision the capacity to make this vision a reality."

Meru Patent-Pending Technology Enables Scaled Multi-Channel Capacity

The Radio Switch's industry-first capability of supporting up to 1.2 Gbps of capacity in a single AP coverage area is achieved with Meru's patent-pending Wideband RF Combination/Omni-Directional (WRC/OD) antenna technology, which combines wide-band RF signals from multiple channels into a single omni-directional antenna. The Meru Radio Switch is the only product that allows the customer to multiply capacity with zero incremental RF planning.

"Directional, sectorized, and array antennas have three fundamental limitations in enterprise environments," said noted wireless researcher Dr. Songwu Lu, professor at UCLA. "First, directional antennas do not work well in closed spaces or indoor office environments; second, the RF plan for directional antennas is significantly more complicated than omni antennas; and third, directional antennas are known to have problems working in dense multi-AP areas with co-channel interference. Industry and academic researchers have been struggling for many years to find the solution to increased multi-channel capacity with omni antennas, and Meru's Radio Switch finally puts an end to this quest."

"Not only do enterprise customers want improved performance, better scalability and simpler, less costly deployments, but they also want to future-proof their networks to handle a multitude of voice, video and data services," said Ihab Abu-Hakima, President and Chief Executive Officer at Meru Networks. "The Meru Radio Switches were purpose-built to deliver all of these capabilities. By developing a scalable, wireless architecture that can meet both the current and future needs of enterprises, Meru is driving the evolution of WLANs from LAN extension tools to pervasive networks."

Pricing and Availability

The Meru RS-4000, RS-8000 and RS-12000 will be available in July 2005. Pricing for the four-radio RS-4000 starts at $1,595 and the eight-radio RS-8000 starts at $2,995 U.S. list. Pricing for the RS-12000 will be announced at a later date. The entire Meru Radio Switching solution will be demonstrated for the first time at Networld + Interop 2005 in Las Vegas, Nevada, May 3-6 in Meru's booth, #1166.

About Meru Networks

Meru Networks is the global leader in converged wireless LAN technologies, and makes the only enterprise WLAN infrastructure that delivers the reliability, scalability, and security for voice and data services over a single WLAN infrastructure. Meru's Wireless LAN System is deployed in major Fortune 500 accounts, universities, and healthcare organizations. Meru's unique Air Traffic Control technology provides predictable bandwidth and over-the-air, application-specific QoS to support a wide range of current and future wireless applications. Founded in 2002, Meru is based in Sunnyvale, California. For more information on Meru Networks and its products, visit www.merunetworks.com or call 408-215-5300.

Source: Meru Networks

CONTACT: Sarah Kim of Meru Networks, +1-408-215-5357, or skim@merunetworks.com; or Lori Hultin of LSH Communications, 818-879-4651, or lhultin@sbcglobal.net, for Meru Networks

Web site: http://www.merunetworks.com/

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