Wireless Approved by the US Military. Not good enough for you?
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Wireless Approved by the US Military. Not good enough for you?
Meru Networks has introduced a security gateway appliance designed to meet the exacting demands of FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) 140-2 Level 3 security for U.S. and Canadian government agencies.
The Meru SG1000 Security Gateway has been formally recommended for validation at FIPS 140-2 Level 3, the highest security level thus far sought by any WLAN vendor.
Unlike Level 2, which provides evidence of a breach only long after one has occurred and requires constant on-premises crypto-officer supervision, Level 3 provides physical tamper-proof security mechanisms, including a hard epoxy enclosure, as well as strong identity-based authentication.
Upon certification, Meru's enterprise customers will be able to ensure full FIPS 140-2 compliance of their wireless networks simply by adding an SG1000 to an existing deployment.
While most WLAN vendors implement FIPS security in their controller software, Meru's FIPS security resides in a distinct network appliance. This gives Meru customers the flexibility to upgrade their controller-based System Director software whenever a new version becomes available, so they can quickly gain access to new features and functionality without having to wait for revalidation of the controller.
A client is too small to take control
The 802.11 specification was designed for standalone access points, providing best-efforts communications. When two access points are put together, it produces co-channel interference.
Legacy Wi-Fi controllers solved this by putting each access point on a different channel. Meru's founders came out of the cellular space, and that seems inefficient to them, as the most precious resource is spectrum.
A client has not enough power to take control. So Meru decided to incorporate control where it should be: in the infrastructure.
Meru's product controls wireless access points centrally, to support wireless LAN access throughout a building, but the company has championed a different approach from rivals Aruba, Cisco and Trapeze. Its virtual cell architecture puts all the access points on the same channel and uses one shared BSSID (equivalent of a MAC address) over the entire SSID (network name).
In legacy Wi-Fi, the client has control of its connection to access points, but in cell-phone networks, the infrastructure has control. All the base stations are on the same channel and managed centrally.
It has to be that way, to deliver quality of service and mobility for every user. This is what Meru brings as an extra to the wireless space: control and QoS.
Virtual Ethernet Port
The company has now added the ability to partition the network so each client gets the equivalent of a wired network port.
Access points have essentially been shared hubs. Now Meru has made the wireless LAN into a switched infrastructure, isolating each device and each user from each other.
Only it's more than that, because it turns the cable into a fabric, and the user gets the same port anywhere in the building or on the campus with the same priority and the same access rules. Every user is put virtually into a 'bubble' that travels over the entire network, both on L2 and L3 networks.
We really believe this will change enterprise networking. Combined with the fast 802.11n standard, it can deliver all the advantages and benefits of wired networks, plus full mobility, at around one-fifth of the cost of a wired port.
Conclusion: Meru made Wireless as reliable as Ethernet and more secure than any other Wi-Fi solution