Industry Solutions

Symbol Dramatically Reduces the Cost of Enterprise Wireless Networking Ownership With First Switched-Wireless Networking Architecture

Mobius Wireless System Designed to Deliver Advanced, Centralized Networking and Security Features for Multiple Wireless Networks

2002-9-9 HOLTSVILLE, N.Y.

Symbol Technologies, Inc. , a global leader in wireless mobile computing, today announced the , the industry's first switched-wireless networking architecture, that dramatically reduces deployment, management and technology upgrade costs associated with enterprise wireless network ownership.

WS 5000 Wireless Switch

The new product is designed to deliver advanced wireless networking services and application-specific security to IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi™), 802.11a, 802.11g and legacy Symbol Spectrum24® ( and ) wireless networks and mobile systems.

In the wireless LAN (local area network) market today, enterprise customers need to buy, integrate and manage separate products for application-specific wireless security, network management and wireless connectivity. Symbol has engineered all these capabilities into the Mobius Axon Wireless Switch, which centrally delivers wireless connectivity and features through low-cost Mobius Axon Access Ports.

In its first commercial deployment, the Mobius Wireless System is supporting more than 1,000 wireless users in public "hot spots" this week at the Georgia World Congress Center for . Symbol is demonstrating the new product in its exhibition area, Booth #421.

The Mobius Wireless System uniquely appeals to all enterprise market segments:

  • The system provides investment protection to existing customers in retail, manufacturing, healthcare, government, transportation and logistics.
  • It dramatically lowers initial investment costs for the emerging healthcare, hospitality, education and general office space markets, where expenditures for laptop PC wireless applications have traditionally been difficult to justify at current system costs.
  • It reduces the technical, deployment and management challenges for Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) rolling-out Wi-Fi wireless "hot-spots."

According to IDC, WLAN revenue will grow more than 20 percent annually during the next four years. "Between 2002 and 2005, companies worldwide will spend over $7 billion on WLAN equipment and over $40 billion on WLAN

related services to provide their workers with wireless mobility," said Jason Smolek, IDC Research Analyst, Enterprise Networks and Wireless LANs. "WLAN vendors who can lower ownership costs by providing more consolidated features and functionality, and effectively address management, security and evolving wireless standards, will help organizations focus on improving work-flow operations with the kind of innovative applications that WLANs are designed to support."
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The Mobius Wireless System is a single wireless networking system that tightly integrates into the wired-enterprise network core and delivers advanced wireless services and connectivity to the network edge. This single system delivers centralized intelligence, management and security at the networking switch layer. The Symbol approach is significantly more economical when compared to enterprise-class 802.11b and 802.11a (or dual mode) WLAN access points and provides an intelligent adoption path for 802.11a and 802.11g.

Through VLAN (virtual LAN) architecting and policy-based networking, the new Symbol system can allocate wireless bandwidth, security and networking services by device, by user, by application and by location, all from a single access port.

AP 100 Access Port

The Mobius Wireless System features two hardware components - the Mobius Axon Wireless Switch and Mobius Axon Access Ports - and a suite of software components, including the Symbol (featuring Symbol KeyGuard™ (enhanced TKIP), , IEEE 802.1x, EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS with RADIUS, Safe Wireless VPN, and planned VPN integration); AirBEAM Manager wireless network management; and the advanced wireless networking services currently available in Symbol Spectrum24 access points.

The Mobius Wireless System enhances mobility performance, quality of service (QoS), security, network (LAN) integration and class of service (CoS). The solution brings traditional networking practices to wireless networking by providing Layer-2, Layer-3 and Layer-4 switching, all controlled and managed by an elegant XML-based (Extensible Markup Language) or CLI (Command Line Interface) user interface. To provide investment protection for legacy Spectrum24 (802.11 Frequency Hopping and 802.11b) access points, Symbol can offer a migration path so that these access points can be adopted as Access Ports by the Mobius Axon Wireless Switch for additional security features and other networking services.

The Mobius Axon Access Port, unlike existing enterprise-class access points, is a low-cost physical end-point for the wireless switch. The Access Port has a high performance, integrated omni-directional antenna (3.5 dBi), support for Power-over-Ethernet (POE) (IEEE 802.3af and available proprietary types), and Plenum-rated (fire retardant approved) plastic housing. The Access Port, with a single plug for Cat5/6-Ethernet cables (POE supported), requires no configuration and can be placed on the desktop, attached to the wall or mounted above or below most office ceiling tiles.

List Pricing and Availability

The Mobius Axon Wireless Switch, which can support up to 30 Mobius Axon Access Ports, ships with a base 6-port capable configuration for $2,895. Expanded port configuration options for the wireless switch include the following: 12-port capable for $3,719; 24-port capable for $5,367; and 30-port capable for $6,191. The Mobius Axon Access Port for IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless is $249 (list price) and is sold separately. The complete system will be orderable in November 2002. Symbol will release an IEEE 802.11a port in early 2003.