Aruba introduces new secure, AI-powered mobility innovations for the experience edge

Aruba released a new family of 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) IoT-ready wireless access points and complementary access switches, along with innovations in security, intelligent power management, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered automation and service assurance, to deliver the performance, simplicity and reliability that organizations need to give users exceptional digital experiences.

The new wireless access points support the latest Wi-Fi standard and are to be Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) certified for the new WPA3 and Enhanced Open security standards to provide encryption and IoT security configuration. Aruba is also the Wi-Fi vendor to integrate Bluetooth 5 into its APs combined with an integrated Zigbee capabilities. These new capabilities enable IoT use cases, such as smart door locks and electronic shelf labels, while Bluetooth 5 also delivers user-aware indoor location allowing IT to create personalized experiences.

In addition, Aruba is delivering power management innovations allowing customers to preserve their existing PoE switch investments while reducing access point power consumption during off hours. These features include Intelligent Power Monitoring, a capability delivered by Aruba Operating System (AOS) 8, and NetInsight Green AP, part of Aruba’s AI-powered analytics and assurance solution.

Enabling the experience edge

Organizations are expecting IT professionals to deliver IoT-enabled innovation that will allow them to create digital experiences for their employees, customers and guests. New types of experiences such as location-aware mobile engagement, digitally-assisted patient care, and user-aware meeting rooms can give organizations a competitive advantage. According to Gartner, “Enterprises preparing for the future of work must offer engaging, consumer-like experiences and deliver technologies that enable, rather than hinder, streamlined work execution.”

The network at the edge is what connects people and IoT to this digital world. It is the platform for building these digital experiences and it must be secure, intelligent and always on. However, a solid network foundation is not enough. To enable these new experiences, IT must be able to deliver improved and consistent service levels to address growing business demands and heightened user expectations. This requires not only a network, but also the ability for IT to anticipate issues in an ever-changing environment before they impact users and the business.

To address these challenges, Aruba is introducing the following new products and innovations:

• The Aruba 510 Series APs, a new series of 802.11ax, IoT-ready APs, with security, AI-powered RF optimization, intelligent power monitoring, and integrated Zigbee and Bluetooth 5 capabilities.
• The Aruba 2930M access switches, with support for the 802.3bt standard to provide power PoE (up to 60 watts per port), a requirement for some 802.11ax access points.
• Support for Wi-Fi Alliance WPA3 and Enhanced Open Security Standards to deliver device security. Aruba is the first vendor in the industry to receive WFA certification for these new standards.
• Green AP, a new feature of NetInsight, Aruba’s AI-powered analytics and assurance solution, that powers down APs when user devices are not present, offsetting the increased power requirements associated with select 11ax APs.

Leveraging Aruba’s heritage to bring intelligence to the network

An AI solution requires domain expertise, a historical pool of clean data to feed the algorithms that deliver precise and trusted network automation and assurance, and real-world experiences to validate the solution. Aruba has advantage over many competitors, including 16 years of Wi-Fi expertise, with learnings and practices built into the AI algorithms from the largest edge networks in the world and from millions of installed APs to deliver secure, autonomous network operations.

The new 510 Series APs work in concert with Aruba NetInsight to monitor and troubleshoot the network, generating insights and recommendations based on peer comparisons and benchmarks, and applying these recommendations to the network autonomously. This allows businesses to deliver the kind of performance and efficiency needed for today’s mobile and IoT-centric environments, while continually adapting to changing requirements and improving experiences for their users and customers.

Built for IoT with Zigbee and Bluetooth 5 integration

The Aruba 510 series is the set of 802.11ax APs with integrated support for Zigbee and Bluetooth 5, enabling Aruba customers to support 74% of IoT devices. Having all three wireless technologies available in a single access point gives customers powerful, extensive connectivity. In addition, customers can reduce both their capital and operational expenditures since the Aruba infrastructure with Zigbee integration eliminates the need to deploy and operate a separate Zigbee network.

Smart Energy Management with Green AP and Intelligent Power Monitoring

As higher performance 802.11ax APs will handle a number of devices and traffic, they will also consume more power. In addition, network architects generally design AP configurations for the highest capacity scenarios, and these combined factors mean that many organizations are confronted with rising power costs.

Green AP, a new feature of NetInsight and a new innovation for the networking industry, allows IT to manage APs to reduce power consumption by up to 72% lowering costs, while supporting social responsibility. Using Green AP, APs can be automatically turned on or off based on utilization, resulting in energy costs savings and an environmentally-friendly network.

Additionally, Aruba’s Intelligent Power Monitoring (IPM), a feature in AOS 8, measures the power utilization of an AP and adapts to the available power resources. IT organizations can define and prioritize which capabilities to disable when an AP is operating over its power budget. IPM will begin taking power reduction steps autonomously as defined by the priority definition until the AP is operating within the power budget.

Security with WPA3 and Enhanced Open

Aruba released products that have received WPA3 and Enhanced Open certifications from the Wi-Fi Alliance. With support for WPA3 and Enhanced Open, Aruba’s new suite of 11ax APs can deliver the security enterprises need as more users, devices and things join their networks.

WPA3 adds new features to simplify Wi-Fi security, enable authentication, and deliver cryptographic strength for sensitive data markets, such as government or finance. Wi-Fi Enhanced Open complements the security protection WPA3 delivers by improving data privacy while maintaining ease-of-use in open public networks where user authentication is not used, such as local coffee shops, airports and stadiums.

The Aruba 510 Series APs are available now. The new version of NetInsight with Green AP will be available in the first quarter of 2019.

Home to the Carolina Panthers, Bank of America Stadium is located in Charlotte, North Carolina and supports more than 75,000 fans.

“Our fans expect an outstanding connected stadium experience,” said James Hammond, Director of Information Technology for the Carolina Panthers. “In order to continue to deliver that experience, we need to prepare for the future demands on our network which is why we’re evaluating Aruba’s .11ax APs to support new applications and greater IoT and mobile device density requirements.”

The University of Minnesota has 48,000 students, 18,000 faculty and staff, and connects over 120,000 devices on its network daily.

“As we prepare for the introduction of 802.11ax devices on campus, we need to understand the impact of the additional traffic and device density to the infrastructure and IT staff,” said Louis Hammond, service owner for data and voice network services for the University of Minnesota. “Testing Aruba’s 802.11ax APs will help determine how to best integrate ax with our current system while improving the user experience, and look at ways to leverage Aruba’s NetInsight Green AP capabilities to potentially reduce energy usage and costs.”

CSPi is a Florida-based solutions provider helping customers meet the performance, availability and security requirements of their network, applications and services.

“The real value in the Aruba 802.11ax solution is that the infrastructure is leveraged with automation and IoT in mind,” said Peter Kaufman, Vice President, Advanced Technologies, CSPi. “By using NetInsight and new IoT protocols like Zigbee, our customers will be able to create the autonomous experiences they want while delivering performance-stringent applications and securely connecting IoT devices over Wi-Fi with ease.”

Zunesis is a Colorado-based IT Solution Provider and Value Added Reseller (VAR) that delivers end-to-end infrastructure solutions, IT business solutions, and IT professional and consulting services in the Western United States.

“Our customers are seeing a major increase in IoT use cases resulting in additional requirements for the network and IT,” said Steve Shaffer, Founder and CEO, Zunesis. “A significant benefit of the Aruba 802.11ax solution is that it’s built with integrated IoT connectivity capabilities. Having one hardware platform with Aruba that supports Zigbee and Bluetooth 5 will help eliminate the need for separate IoT networks, allowing organizations to get more out of their infrastructure investment while reducing IT overhead.”