Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Proxim Enters Wireless Switch Business

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2003 00:23:49 -0500

February 3, 2003
Proxim Enters Wireless Switch Business
By  Carmen Nobel

Wireless LAN equipment maker Proxim Corp. on Monday announced its entry into the wireless
switch business.
The Sunnyvale, Calif., company later this year will start shipping Maestro, a platform
that centralizes the intelligence of a wireless LAN into an edge switch, rather than
keeping it in the access points.
It will work with existing access points from Proxim as well as those from any other
vendors that adhere to IEEE WLAN standards, officials said.

Key features included in the switch include a variety of security protocols, network
management (using technology from Proxim's existing Harmony line of management products),
voice-over-WLAN, and power-over-Ethernet services. The system adjusts bandwidth allocation
and access control dynamically, officials said.
"If you integrate access control, mobility services, an edge switch and a power hub, you
have the basics of what we're talking
about," said Georganne Benesch, vice president of product management for Proxim's LAN
division. "It's designed to add new functionality to current WLAN products in order to
support broader deployments."

Maestro also will be a core part of the joint venture by Proxim, Motorola Inc. and Avaya
Inc. to collaborate on technology that can roam between cell phone networks and wireless
LANs without interruption, officials said.
Centralizing wireless LAN management into an edge switch has become an industry trend.
Silicon Valley startups Aruba Wireless Netoworks Inc., Black Storm Networks Inc. and
Trapeze Networks Inc. are taking similar steps, as is veteran Symbol Technologies Inc.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,857505,00.asp?kc=EWAV102049TX1K0100487

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