ADTRAN gives wireless network control back to the enterprise

DynamicSteering technology and new 802.11ac Wave 2 access points ease IT management burden as wireless devices proliferate via BYOD and IoT

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 8, 2016-- ADTRAN^® , Inc., (NASDAQ:ADTN), a leading provider of next-generation open networking solutions, today announced it is enabling the IT department to regain control of the Wi-Fi network with the launch of the Bluesocket 3040 series 802.11ac Wave 2 access points (APs) and DynamicSteering technology. The latest additions to ADTRAN’s cloud-managed Bluesocket vWLAN suite enable IT staff to intelligently manage the proliferation of devices accessing the enterprise network. ADTRAN provides the enterprise with intelligent management capabilities that help enhance network efficiency, as well as provide an exceptional mobile end user experience.

“Almost two out of three devices will be mobile, which illustrates just how central mobility, and by extension wireless networks, have become in network planning. Wearables are growing 53% by 2017, tablets by 50%, VoWLAN handsets by 29%, laptops and handheld/rugged computers by 26% and smartphones by 22%,” cited Matthias Machowinski, research director at IHS Markit, in a survey titled “ Wireless LAN Strategies and Vendor Leadership. ” The growth that IHS predicts will only continue, further driving the need for better Wi-Fi network management.

Today, each mobile device has its own connectivity and roaming decision-making behaviors, which creates a huge challenge for IT staff when it comes to managing wireless network efficiency, performance and end user experience. Traditional band steering approaches only consider the vantage point of the Wi-Fi infrastructure, don’t coordinate steering events with clients and often result in oversaturated 5 GHz spectrum and slow initial association/connections times or no connection at all. Proprietary antenna beamforming approaches increase signal-to-noise ratio, causing sticky clients and only provide downlink enhancements. With more applications moving to the cloud, a better approach is required.

ADTRAN’s DynamicSteering solves these challenges with intelligent monitoring and automatically matches clients to the appropriate radio on the appropriate AP, delivering a more consistent, predictable performance and finally eliminating sticky clients. It is a standards-based, load balancing and sticky-client prevention technology that opens a new dialogue between the Wi-Fi infrastructure and client devices, taking the burden off of the IT staff and utilizing the network to make intelligent decisions without human intervention.

ADTRAN also offers a dedicated scanning/security radio for an enhanced customer experience and Multi-Gigabit Ethernet ports on its new Bluesocket 3040 series 802.11ac Wave 2 APs. This allows enterprises to leverage existing wired infrastructure today and provide support for Multi-Gigabit throughput in the future, a key requirement for realizing the full potential of Wave 2 compliant Wi-Fi devices.

“ADTRAN enables enterprises to keep pace with trends like BYOD, IoT and augmented reality by streamlining efficient operations across the network. We are opening a new dialogue between their Wi-Fi infrastructure and end user devices, alleviating the burden from the IT staff and allowing the Wi-Fi infrastructure to make informed, coordinated connectivity and roaming decisions,” said Kenneth Fernandes, product manager, wireless solutions, ADTRAN. “This capability enables better network performance and end user experience, but the true value lies in the time savings for network management and help desk resources.”