SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Relay2, Inc., an emerging leader in next-generation, enterprise-class wireless networking solutions, today announced the launch of the Relay2 Enterprise Cloud WLAN System, a next-generation, enterprise-class WLAN infrastructure solution for enterprises, distributed networks, and service providers and their end users. The Relay2 system makes deploying and managing high-performance, enterprise-class WLANs easy and offers a low total cost of ownership, especially for distributed networks.
At the core of the Relay2 Enterprise Cloud WLAN system is the powerful, feature-rich Relay2 Enterprise Cloud WLAN Network Controller, which provides all of the capabilities, performance, and functions of a traditional hardware controller in a Cloud-based SaaS solution. The highly scalable Relay2 system can support thousands of high-performance, enterprise-class Relay2 Smart Access Points featuring Plug-and-Play deployment, and easy, intuitive monitoring and control of the wireless LANs from a browser-based console.
The Relay2 Controller enables organizations and solution providers to centrally manage distributed networks and multiple WLANs around the world from a single location, minimizing the requirement for costly and redundant IT administration resources at each site and offering a low TCO (total cost of ownership). By eliminating the need for hardware controllers, the Relay2 system is a more reliable solution for critical network infrastructures, eliminating the risk of a single point of failure in the network. The Cloud-based Relay2 system saves organizations time and money while ensuring that the system is working at its peak capability by automatically pushing firmware updates to the deployed Relay2 access points and integrating upgrades to the controller seamlessly and without network downtime.
Key Features of the Relay2 Enterprise Cloud WLAN Network Controller
- Highly Scalable: The Relay2 Controller can support thousands of Relay2 Smart APs in one or more networks. The network can be quickly and easily expanded by simply adding additional APs wherever needed.
- Auto RF and Load Balancing: Cloud-based, network-wide auto-optimization can dynamically adapt to changing interference in the environment to fully utilize the available wireless spectrum and maximize client performance and client density in a given environment.
- High Availability: The Relay2 Cloud Service is hosted in multiple data centers around the world, providing a level of availability that is impossible to achieve with traditional hardware controllers. In addition, Relay2’s Cloud architecture provides fault tolerance control to ensure that the network functions and APs continue to operate even if the Internet connection is down.
- Multi-Tenancy: The multi-tenant Relay2 Controller platform provides secure and hierarchical account management for service providers and their customers. The platform provides easy graphical traversal flow for the service provider to manage and monitor its AP customers respectively while allowing the end users to plan and monitor their own WLAN network anytime, anywhere from any web browser.
- Role-Based Access: The Relay2 system allows various account access roles, each associated with a different managerial view and capability to fit the need of the enterprise IT administration requirement.
- Centralized Management: With the Relay2 Controller’s web browser-based interface, users can manage multiple branch offices and buildings from anywhere around the world, without the need for any special software. The Relay2 Wireless Management System offers feature-rich graphical user interfaces, such as an at-a-glance dashboard view for the current status of the deployed APs, and an intuitive provisioning page to help configure RF properties and WLAN characteristics. The system also provides numerous customizable reports to enable IT staffs to track and analyze network performance. The integrated floor map and heat map tools help IT administrators to simulate AP deployment layouts before changing the locations of APs.
- Security: The Relay2 system separates and isolates managerial and monitoring traffic from the customer accounts. Once activated, customer accounts are assigned dedicated virtual machines to operate, and designated traffic ports are established for securing administrative traffic to the Relay2 Cloud. The wireless client traffic is never passed to the Relay2 Controller and is contained within the customer’s local network. The Relay2 Controller detects rogue APs from all the deployed Relay2 APs at customer sites and provides a list to the administrator, allowing them to monitor and remove the rogue APs from the list.
Designed to support demanding business applications like voice and high-definition streaming video, the enterprise-class Relay2 WLAN Smart Access Point (RA-100) are high-performance access points that deliver fast speeds over large areas in high-density environments. The PoE-enabled, dual-band access points, which incorporate an extensive set of enterprise-class features, are pre-configured to enable Plug-and-Play deployment by even small or geographically dispersed organizations that do not have access to teams of IT personnel.
Key Features of the Relay2 Smart Access Point
- High performance: The enterprise-class 3x3 MIMO 802.11n dual-band concurrent access points deliver speeds up to 900 Mbps for up to 250 client devices per AP. Advanced technologies such as transmit beam-forming and enhanced receive sensitivity deliver extraordinary range. Band steering automatically serves 5 GHz-capable client devices with the 5 GHz radio, maximizing capacity in the 2.4 GHz band for older 802.11b/g clients.
- WLAN Client Traffic Control and Optimization: The Relay2 Smart AP includes integrated Layer 3 and 4 packet inspection and client traffic blocking to provide better control of the WLAN. Support for Wireless Multimedia (WMM) ensures a better user experience for voice and video applications on the WLAN.
- Automatic Cloud-Based RF Optimization: Automated RF optimization eliminates the need for dedicated hardware and wireless RF expertise to tune a wireless network. An integrated spectrum analyzer monitors the environment for neighboring WiFi devices and non-802.11 interference, such as microwave transmissions and Bluetooth devices, and automatically tunes the AP’s channel selection, transmit power, and client connection settings for optimal performance, even in harsh RF environments.
- Enterprise Security: The Relay2 AP incorporates AES and WPA2-Enterprise authentication with 802.1X to help protect and enforce enterprise and carrier WLAN access rights. Guest traffic isolation provides secure, Internet-only access for visitors, and integrated rogue AP detection helps secure the WLAN environment against possible attacks or intrusion.
- Self-Configuring, Self-Optimizing: When plugged in, the Relay2 AP automatically discovers and connects to the Relay2 Enterprise Cloud WLAN Network Controller, downloads its configuration, and joins the appropriate network. The AP self-optimizes and determines the ideal channel, transmit power, and client connection parameters. The unique LBS (Location Based Service) technology, together with the integrated map display, can self-determine the AP’s current location to ease the site survey and AP tracking.
“The launch of our next-generation, Cloud-based WLAN solution fundamentally changes the way in which businesses deploy, manage, and control wireless LANs,” explained Perry Ha, CEO of Relay2. “By completely eliminating the need for a hardware controller in the network infrastructure, the Relay2 solution drastically lowers the total cost of ownership without impacting the functionality and performance of the WLAN. In addition, the versatility and scalability of our Cloud Controller provides some attractive opportunities for the solution provider community. Service providers can increase their service offerings with the ability to manage and maintain multiple WLANs and offer their clients a high-performance, wireless infrastructure that supports BYOD initiatives and mission-critical applications such as VoIP and video-on-demand.”
PRICING INFORMATION
The Relay2 WLAN Smart Access Point is available now at a list price of $1,295 USD and the Cloud Controller is available as an annual service at $160 USD per AP. Volume discounts are available for both APs and the Cloud Controller. For more information on Relay2 and its Cloud-controlled network solutions, visit http://www.relay2.com/ or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter.
About Relay2
Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., Relay2 is an emerging leader in next-generation, enterprise-class wireless networking solutions. The company develops and manufactures scalable, high-performance Cloud controller-based WLAN systems that deliver simplified deployment and management of distributed WLANS, offer robust security and industry-leading reliability, and lower the total cost of ownership and operation for SMBs and enterprise environments.
