t Thick,intelligent,or thin access points? t WLAN switch or no WLAN switch? t WLAN appliance with 3rd party APs?

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1 IRONPOINT-FES IronPoin-FES Wireless Soluion IronPoin Benefis Mos Flexible WiFi Archiecure Leading Sandards-based Securiy Enerprise-class Mobiliy Advanced AP Funcionaliy Cenralized Managemen (wired & wireless) Inegraed RF Monioring & Managemen The Modern Wireless Nework Enerprise-class Wireless LANs (WLAN) have arrived and hey re giving IT managers he abiliy o provide anywhere, anyime conneciviy o heir users. Wireless LANs provide many benefis including: Mobile compuing Increased produciviy Rapid seup and deploymen of nework conneciviy Lower long erm capial neworking coss Solves radiional cable plan issues However, wih he many differen soluions available in oday s rapid growing WLAN marke, he decision of which WLAN soluion is bes for your company may be a difficul choice.there are many quesions o be answered. Thick,inelligen,or hin access poins? WLAN swich or no WLAN swich? WLAN appliance wih 3rd pary APs? Where should he auhenicaion be? Where should he encrypion be? Can he soluion scale o fill fuure needs? Is he soluion upgradeable o fuure sandards? As enerprise-class wireless echnology maures and changes, he WLAN soluion you selec oday may no scale o mee your wireless needs of omorrow.and ha can be a serious problem in oday s cos conscious business models.the answer for many companies is no easy and here are many benefis and drawbacks o each approach. Foundry IronPoin wireless soluions provide he answers by allowing flexible opology configuraion wih sofware upgradeable funcionaliy. IronPoin APs can adap o any wireless opology archiecure by simply changing heir sofware modules from Full-Feaured AP o Inelligen AP o Real-ime RF Monioring Sensor. IronPoin wireless soluions are fully backed wih enerprise-class cenral provisioning, managemen and reporing feaures. 1

2 The Topology Debae The rapid growh of WiFi has spawned several differen approaches for adding wireless echnology o your exising enerprise wired neworks.there is he age old debae of Full- Feaured Thick APs verses Thin or Dumb APs. There are soluions requiring he implemenaion of dedicaed WLAN appliances. Some soluions allow he use of any 3rd pary AP offering plug & play capabiliies, bu lile or no managemen of he APs. Muliple vendors new o neworking have cenralized criical securiy funcions back ino he WLAN swich o creae a new piece of neworking equipmen he dedicaed WLAN Swich. Truh be old, he WLAN opology debae is new and no well undersood by many IT professionals. There are benefis and drawbacks o each of hese opology models and he opology he cusomer selecs will depend on heir company s curren and fuure WLAN requiremens. The Full-Feaured Thick AP Full-Feaured Thick APs provide he following benefis: Simple rapid deploymen using exising nework archiecure Lower cos wih no WLAN Swich or dedicaed WLAN Appliance o purchase Self conained APs wih radios,auhenicaion,securiy,poe, and managemen Beer daa encrypion scalabiliy Wih cenral managemen and provisioning,hey can scale o mee large deploymen needs The radiional drawbacks of Full-Feaured Thick APs have been: SoHo-class APs don offer he srong radio suppor and securiy required by enerprise cusomers Wihou cenral managemen and provisioning,hey are good for small WLAN deploymens and remoe branch offices wih a small number of employees Many SoHo and Small o Medium Business (SMB) soluions do no provide srong cenralized managemen wih enerprise-class reporing capabiliies Foundry recognized he benefis of deploying Full-Feaured access poins and he needs hey help fulfill.the IronPoin 200 APs are creaed wih srong enerprise-class radio, securiy, and managemen feaures o overcome he radiional shor falls of Thick APs. Coupled wih Foundry s IronView Nework Manager (INM), cusomers can deploy wireless LANs ranging from a jus a few APs o housands of APs grealy simplifying deploymen,provisioning,managemen,reporing and lowering Toal Cos of Ownership (TCO). For deailed informaion on Foundry s IronPoin 200 AP,see he Foundry IronPoin 200 Daa Shee locaed on Foundry Neworks WEB sie: hp:// LAN C LAN A Corporae Nework INM Manager LAN B Figure 1: Harnessing he Power of IP200 APs Wih IronView Nework Manager The Thin AP Thin APs working wih a dedicaed WLAN Swich or WLAN Appliance can provide he following benefis: Beer scalabiliy wih cenralized managemen Cenralizaion of securiy and radio managemen Sophisicaed feaures such as Layer 3 roaming,user access conrol policies,power-over-eherne,and locaion-based services Opional securiy feaures such as WEB-based auhenicaion, VPN erminaion,or VPN Pass-Through Bu here are drawbacks o his opology as well. There has been no sandardizaion of which funcions should be performed by he access poin and which should be performed by he WLAN swich. Lack of sandards have creaed proprieary approaches in he indusry and have led o incompaible soluions amongs vendors. Depending on where each major WiFi funcion is performed,ap or WLAN swich, he benefis and drawbacks differ beween vendor soluions. WLAN swich and appliance soluions ha perform auhenicaion and encrypion funcions in he dedicaed WLAN componen may no scale as well when more hroughpu is required. As addiional APs are added o he cenral WLAN swich and he demand for more bandwidh increases, he abiliy o perform he auhenicaion, encrypion, and policy managemen may degrade sacrificing performance and hroughpu for srong securiy. 2

3 Remoe Office Remoely Managed APs WiFi users loose wireless services wih downed WAN link due o cenralized services on WLAN swich Downed WAN Link LAN C Corporae Nework LAN B LAN A Cenral WLAN Swich Performing Criical Services for Remoe APs (eg. auhenicaion, encrypion, ec) Figure 2: Cenralizaion of Criical Services May Cause Downime Cerain cenralized WLAN swich soluions offer he abiliy o add Remoe Thin APs o allow remoe offices o share a cenralized WLAN swich managemen sysem. By cenralizing auhenicaion on awlan swich or appliance far away from he Remoe Thin AP, higher risks for downime become a realiy. Any ouages o he wide area nework or backbone connecions ha link he WLAN swich and Remoe Thin AP ogeher will likely cause ouages a he remoe sie for all wireless users as auhenicaion and encrypion o hewlan swich or appliance is no longer possible. Cusomers need o fully undersand heir curren and fuure wireless LAN and opology requiremens before designing and selecing heir wireless LAN vendor. Foundry s IronPoin Wireless Soluions Foundry Neworks IronPoin Wireless Soluions are ruly revoluionary and provide all he feaures ha enerprises are demanding in a leading edge,enerprise-class wireless nework. Srong Securiy Seamless Mobiliy Enhanced User Policies Cenralized Managemen RF Monioring & Managemen Leading Sandards-based Soluions Seamless Inegraion Wih Wired Neworks Flexible Topology Configuraion Srong Invesmen Proecion Ease-of-Use Backed By An Indusry Leading Profiable Neworking Company Foundry Neworks is he firs nework soluions provider o eliminae he confusion of wireless opologies and offer cusomers an indusry firs, bes-in-class approach for boh Thick and Thin WLAN archiecures. By allowing cusomers o load differen sofware images ono boh he FasIron Edge Swich and he IP200 AP, he WLAN nework can be quickly re-formulaed o sui heir needs as requiremens change. All equipmen is reusable and adapable o archiecural changes o gain he benefis of Thick and Inelligen APs where hey are needed. The Foundry IronPoin-FES Foundry IronPoin Wireless Soluions are buil upon Foundry s legacy of performance and bes-of-breed price/performance value. Wih he inroducion is laes wireless componen, he IronPoin-FES, Foundry expands he capabiliies of is IronPoin 200 Access Poins and moves he enerprise closer o a ruly inegraed wired and wireless nework. IronPoin-FES is a sofware upgrade for Foundry s award winning and feaurerich Layer 2 FasIron Edge Swich (FES) plaform. IronPoin-FES offers all of he wire-speed swiching and securiy benefis ha comes wih he FasIron Edge Swich plus he inegral pars of wireless echnology. Through por-based WiFi Enablemen, he FES swich seamlessly inegraes Inelligen IronPoin 200 APs ino he wired infrasrucure. 3

4 Figure 3: Flexible Cenral Managemen wih Thick and Inelligen Archiecure IronPoin-FES allows he cusomer o fully cusomize every swich por o is fulles capabiliies o creae a fas and secure nework for boh wired and wireless cliens. For deailed informaion on Foundry s FES swich, see he Foundry FES Daa Shee locaed a Foundry Neworks WEB sie: hp:// on/fiedge.hml Inegraed IronPoin Flexibiliy Cusomers conrol which pors are WiFi Enabled. When swich pors are programmed as a WiFi Enabled pors, he FES swich auomaically urns on he necessary wireless feaures needed o fully inegrae he IronPoin 200 APs. All oher non-wifi Enabled pors ha are no supporing IronPoin APs can be used for wired worksaion,file server,or uplink suppor. Non-WiFi Enabled pors can even provide conneciviy for any oher 3rd pary hick AP and be fully managed hrough is WEB inerface wih IronView Nework Manager s Elemen Manager. Foundry s IronPoin soluion removes he need for dedicaed WLAN swiches and appliances hrough opology flexibiliy. Remoe offices or small wireless LANs can be deployed wih he cenrally managed IP200 APs while larger campus environmens requiring enhanced enerprise-class feaures can deploy he IronPoin-FES soluion. For enerprises wih remoe offices or campus buildings supporing a lower number of users, he savings of no having o deploy dedicaed WLAN swiches or appliances in each locaion may be subsanial. There is no longer he need o purchase expensive dedicaed WLAN swiches or appliances o add wireless capabiliies o your enerprise nework. Cusomers can now ake advanage of Foundry s class-leading FES swich o perform boh wired and wireless neworking and lower iniial capial invesmen and obain he indusries bes Toal Cos of Ownership (TCO). Bes of all, Foundry s IronPoin-FES capabiliies are offered hrough a simple sofware upgrade o boh he FasIron Edge Swich (POE and non-poe) and he IronPoin 200 access poins. For cusomers who already own FES swiches, his is a grea leap forward in lowering of TCO and cenralizaion of managemen.the abiliy o gain he feaures and benefis of an inegraed WLAN swich archiecure wihou he cos of dedicaed WLAN swiches or appliances is ruly an indusry firs wih Foundry s IronPoin-FES wireless soluion. Enerprise-class Nework Managemen Wih Foundry s IronView Nework Manager (INM), managemen of all wireless and/or wired componens is jus as flexible. INM allow cusomers o compleely cenralize managemen or creae disribued deparmenal managemen wih iered managemen levels and funcional privileges. INM gives cusomers full conrol of AP and swich deploymen, provisioning, device managemen, change managemen, real ime and hisoric reporing, RF managemen, and roubleshooing funcions. Cusomers who already own Foundry swiches and rouers can now leverage INM s abiliy o manage boh he wired and wireless infrasrucure aking conrol of heir enire nework 4

5 and managing i as one single eniy. By managing boh he wired and wireless nework seamlessly,cusomers can reduce he coss associaed wih learning and managing separae dissimilar neworking componens and isolae fauls and securiy flaws much faser. IronPoin Wireless Soluions managed wih IronView Nework Manager offer cusomers he mos flexible cenrally managed wireless archiecure in he indusry. For deailed informaion on Foundry s IronView Nework Manager, see he Foundry INM-IP Daa Shee locaed on Foundry Neworks WEB sie: hp:// Maximizing Performance Disribued Model By leveraging he same principles used in high performance disribued compuing models, Foundry has creaed an exremely scalable wireless LAN archiecure. IronPoin-FES Wireless Soluions use powerful inelligen APs o perform criical funcions o allow he enire nework o scale linearly as each access poin is added o he wireless infrasrucure. By no moving all of he criical auhenicaion and securiy funcions o he backend WLAN swich or appliance, nework performance,scalabiliy,and resiliency are enhanced.unlike hin APs,he Foundry IP200 AP is designed wih powerful CPUs and # of APs Toal AP Mbps Figure 4: IP200 Linear Scaling Wih Srong Encrypion ample memory allowing i o perform many of he srong securiy and hroughpu demands. By leveraging all CPUs in boh he APs and he FES swich, wire-speed performance is reained and heavy processing of daa encrypion is disribued jus like he modern super compuing plaforms. The advanages of Foundry s disribued IronPoin wireless echnology include: Disribued Auhenicaion By allowing each IronPoin 200 AP o be seup wih a primary and secondary auhenicaion server,saellie offices can auhenicae locally or o a remoe cenral auhenicaion server.this flexibiliy helps eliminae he service ouages ha can be caused by backbone or WAN link ouages. Disribuing Daa Encrypion Cenralized daa encrypion wih a single WLAN device is usually associaed wih performance bolenecks or expensive encrypion co-processors.by no cenralizing CPU inensive daa encrypion proocols such as TKIP/MIC, AES,or IPSEC ino he IronPoin-FES,performance bolenecks are removed from he nework and linear scaling of encrypion performance is achieved wih each new IP200 AP added. Buil-in Resiliency Wih each IronPoin 200 AP performing auhenicaion and daa encrypion,no only are performance bolenecks removed,bu redundancy and nework resiliency is naurally buil in.failure of one inelligen AP will no affec he remainder of he nework.wih cenralized WLAN soluions providing auhenicaion and daa encrypion in a single device, failure of eiher he auhenicaion or daa encrypion modules will affec all APs and users aached o he device causing wider ouages. Lowes High-Performance TCO Leveraging each AP s powerful CPU and memory archiecure eliminaes expensive WLAN swiches or appliances required o perform high-speed daa encrypion.ip200 APs perform TKIP and AES encrypion in hardware wihou he cos of dedicaed encrypion boards inside each IronPoin-FES.Single poins of failure for daa encrypion are removed. Maximizes Capial Invesmen IronPoin-FES funcionaliy is achieved hrough a simple sofware upgrade o exising POE or non-poe FasIron Edge Swiches.This helps o lower he cos of each WLAN enabled por and allows all non-ap pors o be fully uilized by oher wired hoss.apply wireless where your enerprise needs i wihou deploying dedicaed expensive WLAN swiches or appliances. Unparalleled Flexibiliy Hybrid design capabiliies combining boh Full-Feaured IP200 APs and IronPoin-FES Inelligen APs offer cusomers he greaes flexibiliy when designing heir wireless nework.wih INM,flexible managemen of he enire nework is made possible for boh wired and wireless Foundry componens. IT Professionals Now Have a Choice Wih Foundry s IronPoin Wireless Soluions, cusomers now have he freedom o design and implemen heir wireless LANs o fully suie heir business requiremens.if requiremens change, IronPoin s flexible adapive echnology allows he wireless hardware o change eliminaing he unnecessary cos of new hardware. Combining leading edge indusry-sandard wireless echnology wih an award winning FES swiching archiecure gives cusomers he bes-of-breed wireless and wired soluions hey are demanding oday. Srong securiy, seamless mobiliy, cenralized managemen, flexible opology, ease-of-use, and srong invesmen proecion all backed by a maure and profiable neworking company ha knows how o inegrae wired and wireless. 5

6 Foundry IronPoin Wireless Soluions. The Power of Flexibiliy and Performance! Nework wih confidence. Sar by calling your Foundry sales represenaive oday o learn more abou Foundry s leading edge wireless and wired soluions. IronPoin-FES Feaure Highlighs IronPoin-FES wireless soluions offer all he benefis and feaures of Foundry s Full-Feaured IronPoin 200 AP plus a hos of enerprise-class feaures required o creae advanced highperformance wireless neworking environmens. Enhanced Securiy Feaures VPN Pass-Through Auhenicaion Inrusion Deecion & Lockou Auomaic Por Disablemen AP Auhenicaion Managemen VLAN Rogue AP,Ad-Hoc User Deecion * AAA Accouning * Enhanced Securiy Trap & MIB Capabiliies Neworking & Mobiliy Feaures Layer 3 Mobiliy AP Plug & Play Foundry Discovery Proocol Managed POE Link Aggregaion 802.3ad Virual Access Poin * Reporing Feaures Real-ime AP Repors AP Uilizaion & Trending Repors User Session Tracking & Reporing Full RF Monioring & Managemen High Availabiliy Feaures Redundan Power Supplies FES Cenralized Configuraion Managemen INM Auomaed Backup * Available for boh Full-Feaured IP200 APs and IronPoin-FES wireless soluions Addiional IronPoin Informaion For more informaion on he IronPoin componens,please visi he following Foundry WEB sies. IP200 AP: hp:// INM-IP: hp:// FasIron Edge Swich: hp:// Foundry Neworks, Inc. Corporae Headquarers 2100 Gold Sree P.O. Box San Jose,CA U.S.and Canada Toll-free: TURBOLAN ( ) Tel: Fax: info@foundryne.com Alhough Foundry has aemped o provide accurae informaion in hese maerials, Foundry assumes no legal responsibiliy for he accuracy or compleeness of he informaion.more specific informaion is available on reques from Foundry.Please noe ha Foundry s produc informaion does no consiue or conain any guaranee,warrany or legal binding represenaion,unless expressly idenified as such in duly signed wriing Foundry Neworks,Inc.All Righs Reserved.Foundry Neworks,BigIron,FasIron,NeIron,ServerIron,IronPoin, Terahon,JeCore,EdgeIron,IronView,JeScope,IronShield,MeroLink,IronWare,TrafficWorks,Power of Performance and he Iron family of marks are rademarks or regisered rademarks of Foundry Neworks,Inc.in he Unied Saes and oher counries.all ohers are rademarks of heir respecive owners. DS-025/Rev1/