Cisco Releases 802.11n Wireless Access Point

Aims to ensure reliability, ease of deployment and performance

Yesterday, Cisco announced the launch of an innovative wireless access point that combined the full performance of 802.11n with deployment simplicity, thus allowing businesses to support the growing trend and diversity of mobile devices and software, while still obtaining financial profit.

The company releases the new product Cisco Aironet 1140 Series Access Point at a time when businesses are becoming more mobile and collaborative. This is why the Wi-Fi Certified 802.11n Draft 2.0 access point has been designed to meet all the requirements for integrating high-quality video, voice, and media across wireless networks with greater performance than the prior 802.11a/g-based networks.

Cisco already delivered the first Wi-Fi Certified 802.11n Draft 2.0 platform for enterprises in 2007, and it now develops 802.11n mainstream with new solutions that ensure reliability, ease of deployment, and performance. The 802.11n performance is further enhanced through the Cisco M-Drive Technology, a set of features meant to optimize device connections, to improve wireless coverage and capacity, as well as to simplify wireless management.

“Cisco's M-Drive Technology simplifies the adoption of 802.11n by delivering high-performance and a stable wireless environment,” John Yrigoyen, director of Wireless Solutions at NEC Unified Solutions, said. “As a user benefit, expect improved wireless coverage, optimized device connections, and simplified management.”

Cisco Aironet 1140 Series Access Point is offering 802.11n performance and security while using PoE (Power over Ethernet). The new product features a sleek design and power efficiency, aimed at simplifying deployment in office environments. Furthermore, the introduction of Cisco M-Drive Technology extends Cisco's history in developing enterprise-class networks to the wireless network. This set of features has been designed to deliver a consistent and reliable radio frequency platform that allows for easier wireless adoption, and enhances 802.11n performance.

“Cisco leads the industry with more 802.11n deployments than any other vendor, a result of our expertise in addressing the next generation of mobility solutions that enterprises need to enhance and simplify their business,” Maciej Kranz, vice president of product marketing for the Cisco Wireless Networking Business Unit, added.

“To support the increasing wave of mobile devices, media-rich collaborative applications, and mobile user expectations, businesses need a proven 802.11n wireless solution, and the easy-to-deploy 1140 Series Access Point is designed to do just that.”

Cisco M-Drive Technology comes with ClientLink, a feature capable of extending the life cycle of existing 802.11a/g devices, while also leveraging the performance of new products. It uses beam forming as a way of improving the throughput for existing 802.11a/g devices, reducing wireless coverage holes for legacy devices, and also increasing overall wireless channel capacity. ClientLink is reported to be able to deliver up to 65 percent throughput improvement for an existing 802.11a/g device connected to a Cisco 802.11n network. Moreover, it can increase the total available channel capacity by around 27 percent.

“We increased employee efficiency and improved patient satisfaction by mobilizing applications, including bedside and surgical charting, patient throughput management and voice over IP,” Scott Lapham, network engineer at Southeast Alabama Medical Center, explained. “With the Cisco Aironet 1140 Series Access Point, we significantly enhanced the performance of our wireless network; and this will support more mobile devices, as well as the next wave of mobility applications, like asset tracking and mobilizing our picture archiving and communications system (PACS) software to view large radiology images where needed.”

Cisco Unified Wireless Network customers can benefit from the software upgrade represented by Cisco M-Drive Technology. The innovative ClientLink feature will become available to users in the first half of 2009, as part of the customers' Cisco SMARTnet support agreements. The Cisco Aironet 1140 Series Access Point is already up for grabs with a price tag of $1,299, whereas the 10-unit Eco Pack for the Access Point can be purchased for $12,990.