Xirrus Boasts Affordable, Integrated Solution Offering More Wi-Fi Bandwidth

A new company called Xirrus Inc. is hawking Wi-Fi products it says will give enterprise customers many times the RF capacity and coverage at a fraction of the cost of competing WLAN solutions.

Current Wi-Fi solutions can’t support the surge in demand for Wi-Fi, says Xirrus CEO Dirk Gates, noting the growing interest in the technology as well as the addition of new traffic types such as voice on these wireless networks. So Gates – who is the former founder, chairman and CEO of WLAN company Xircom, which was acquired by Intel Corp. in 2001 – and some other former Xircom execs got together to form Xirrus.

The company today came out of “stealth mode” and formally unveiled products based on WLAN Array technology. The new group of products includes four- (XS-3500), eight- (XS-3700) and 16-port (XS-3900) saucer-shaped devices, which include multiple, embedded antennas sitting on the periphery of the housing to transmit and receive in all directions.

Each circular device, which can be used individually or in multiples, also includes an embedded array controller featuring a 2gbps switching fabric, controlling the packet flows of the integrated APs and providing spectrum management; and support for 802.11a, b and g.

In the 16-port model, twelve APs support 802.11a, while four APs are a, b or g selectable, and one can be configured as an RF “sniffer,” for detection of rogue APs and other security functions. As new versions of the 802.11 Wi-Fi standard arise, enterprises will be able to pull out and upgrade RF modules.

Because voice is becoming a growing concern on Wi-Fi networks, the Xirrus equipment supports the QoS feature of 802.11e, says Gates. Customers also can opt to use individual SSIDs to support voice traffic, he adds.

Gates says the Xirrus WLAN Array architecture – which he says is unlike MIMO in that it offers extended range without special client requirements – allows the company’s products to deliver capacity of up to 864mbps each and four times more coverage than competing architectures at about a third the cost.

For example, he says, the cost to deploy two Xirrus eight-port arrays delivering a total of 864mbps capacity is $15,398, or $18 per megabit. But, he says, it takes eight of Cisco Systems Inc.’s 1200-Series APs and the Cisco WLSE to offer the same capacity at a deployment cost of $22,087, or $26 per megabit. Meanwhile, Xirrus says that the total deployment cost to install a multiple-piece Airespace solution delivering that same bandwidth is $24,242 or $28 per megabit. For customers wanting even more bandwidth, Gates adds, two Xirrus 16-port arrays would offer total bandwidth of 1728mbps for $25,398. (All figures include both equipment and installation costs.)

Xirrus is offering evaluation units of its equipment now, with volume shipments expected to begin in May.

Xirrus also offers management and remote power systems. The XM-3300 Management Platform is a centralized mechanism for managing configurations in multiple unit and multiple site deployments. This dedicated appliance manages the devices at Layer 3 for discovery, authentication and configuration. The XP-3100 Remote Power system, meanwhile, provides an optional 48-volt DC power source for remotely powering a Xirrus WLAN Array in the event AC power is unavailable or is cost prohibitive to deploy.

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