Commhub Teams With Trapeze Networks To Offer Multi-Tenant Wired and Wireless Access In Commercial Office Buildings
PLEASANTON, Calif. – January 6, 2004 – Commhub Solutions, a Norwalk, Conn. managed communications service provider that offers high-quality wired and wireless data and voice services to commercial enterprise tenants, with over 10 million square feet of commercial buildings under contract, has deployed the Trapeze Networksâ„? wireless LAN (WLAN) Mobility Systemâ„? to accommodate the wireless needs of its high-end, multi-tenant offices.
Commhub, a division of Spot On Networks, evaluated a number of different WLAN systems before installing the Trapeze Networks WLAN Mobility System in the Lock Building, an architectural gem originally built in 1856 as a lock factory.
The Lock Building consists of 10,000 square feet of studio, gallery, office, retail and restaurant space. Commhub first equipped the common courtyard and caf?ith wireless hot spots, so workers in the building could see the benefit of a wireless system and gain access to their corporate resources over coffee and lunch.
Once a company rents office space in the Lock building, it has the option to use Commhub to receive enterprise-grade wired and wireless data and voice services for a fraction of the cost of doing it themselves. For property owners, offering managed WLAN data services creates an amenity for the building which in turn makes it more commercially desirable. With wireless, property owners eliminate the cost of rewiring to accommodate new tenant build-outs. Also, managed-wireless services maintain a property’s desirability by minimizing the radio frequency (RF) interference and security holes which occur when tenants set up their own discrete WLANs.
“Our key concerns were security and ease of deployment,” said Dominick Arcuri, chief technical officer at Commhub. “When we first evaluated WLAN products, every vendor was full of promises. Trapeze was the only vendor to deliver all of the features it promised and provided us with outstanding service and support.”
To design and install the WLAN, Commhub used the Trapeze RingMasterâ„? software tool suite, which enables IT managers to perform RF coverage verification, RF topology mapping, capacity planning, virtual site surveys and automatic configuration and deployment systemwide.
“RingMaster made installation incredibly quick and easy,” Arcuri added.
With Identity-Based Networking, Trapeze enabled Commhub to provide private wireless VLANs for each tenant, while ensuring enterprise-class security, performance and scalability. The Trapeze Mobility System relies on a user’s identity, instead of a device’s MAC address or wireless SSID, to apply permissions and deliver services. Trapeze simplifies the enforcement of each user’s access rights, VLAN and subnet membership, authentications, roaming restrictions, bandwidth usage and other policies continuously wherever they roam.
Traffic isolation among different functional groups within a corporation may be important, but for a multi-tenant building, it is absolutely critical. With the Trapeze Mobility System, isolating wireless traffic is ensured among VLANs, making each one a private network on the same shared wireless infrastructure.
“Our primary offering is a managed service where we have different groups of tenants,” Arcuri noted. “We must be able to set up wireless user groups quickly and have the ability to control and monitor the WLAN equipment remotely.”
In order to take advantage of its services, Commhub requires all user laptops and mobile devices to use IEEE 802.1X authentication for access control and dynamic WEP with rotating broadcast/multicast keys for wireless encryption. With Trapeze’s ability to support multiple types of encryption, including TKIP and AES, Commhub can simply dial-up stronger authentication per user to meet tenant companies’ needs.
“Designing, installing and managing enterprise WLAN deployments can be cost prohibitive, especially for small businesses,” Arcuri said. “By deploying secure and reliable enterprise-grade WLAN systems throughout leased facilities, Commhub is able to provide commercial tenants with services they could not have cost-effectively provided for themselves.”
About Commhub Solutions
At Commhub Solutions we know Telecom, Internet and Technology. We offer voice, data, and Internet solutions both wired and wireless for companies of all sizes. Our highly skilled technicians consistently monitor industry trends and technological advances to integrate emerging technologies into our product and service offerings. We also offer extremely cost-effective service bundles and a single-source of contact for your company’s service, billing, and technical support needs. One bill, one contact, one clear solution. Commhub resolves the telecommunications challenges that can impede the success of your business. Our ability to offer complete security and real time 7X24 monitoring of the networks, in addition to fully integrated telecommunications systems and services, supplies the network capability to provide reliable, consistent uptime for your voice and data communications. We believe so strongly in our product and service solutions that we offer you Our Guarantee. We guarantee your satisfaction, a risk for some companies, but not for Commhub Solutions.
About Trapeze Networks
Trapeze Networks delivers the power of business applications and services to the mobile enterprise workforce. The company’s wireless LAN Mobility System enhances productivity, introduces new efficiencies and accelerates business response time by delivering secure mobility to users, pre and post deployment planning and management tools to IT, and seamless integration between wired and wireless. In the first four months of shipping its WLAN Mobility System, Trapeze has been the recipient of five industry awards in recognition of its product and technology strength. Founded in March 2002, Trapeze raised $50 million in venture funding to date and is headquartered in Pleasanton, Calif., U.S.A. For more information, please visit www.trapezenetworks.com.