MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA /Marketwire/ -- AirTight Networks, a leading provider of wireless intrusion-prevention systems (WIPS) and wireless vulnerability management, announced that it has been awarded another U.S. patent, number 7,406,320, by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The patent covers robust location-tracking technology for applications such as WIPS and asset tracking for Wi-Fi networks. AirTight now has a total of seven U.S. patents and one Australian patent. It has more than 25 U.S. and international patents pending, many of which are undergoing active examination at patent offices of various countries and are expected to be granted this year.
AirTight's location-tracking technology is based on a predictive approach and takes into account the intrinsic uncertainties of a wireless environment, arising out of factors such as incomplete specification of RF space, variability of device RF characteristics, and the dynamic nature of a wireless environment while performing location computations. It provides robust location tracking with high accuracy even in light of the above factors. The technology requires minimal deployment overhead as it does not require extensive calibration or site-surveys to achieve desired location-tracking performance.
"While the theory of location tracking using triangulation has been around for a few years, making it work in real-life, indoor environments for critical applications such as security and asset tracking has remained a challenge," said Dr. Hemant Chaskar, Director of Technology at AirTight. "AirTight has overcome this challenge through research and innovations to deliver powerful and cost-effective location-tracking technology for Wi-Fi applications."
Good location tracking requires certain density of received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurement points. Because AirTight provides for integration of its WIPS with Cisco's Wireless LAN Controller, the signal strength measurements of Cisco APs can be used along with those of AirTight's sensors for location tracking. The combined RSSI measurements are processed in AirTight's location-tracking engine. In this way, infrastructure AP hardware can be used to complement WIPS sensors to achieve the required density of RSSI measurement points. At the same time, customers obtain the benefits of AirTight's robust location-tracking engine.
Products
The AirTight SpectraGuard solution family has achieved industry leadership based on patented technology that blocks wireless threats immediately and automatically, locates wireless devices and events with pinpoint precision, and eliminates the false alarms that plague busy network operations and IT professionals.
Both its onsite WIPS product, SpectraGuard Enterprise, and its recently introduced SaaS vulnerability-management service, SpectraGuard Online, are lean back solutions, providing easy deployment and automated scanning and reporting with little human intervention.
AirTight is the "only WIPS vendor to receive a second consecutive positive rating by Gartner in its recent MarketScope, and its products have consistently outperformed its competitors in other head-to-head, in-depth evaluations (including Tolly and Information Security)." Recent magazine reviews have awarded five stars to SpectraGuard Enterprise and praised it as "a wireless security solution that's easy to deploy, elegantly simple, and frighteningly effective" and "a unique wireless security solution that can automatically classify and control access points and wireless clients."
Patent Portfolio
AirTight invented and delivered the "first comprehensive WIPS in the industry and pioneered autoclassification," which eliminates the need for manual methods of base-lining wireless security that is expensive, error prone, hard to sustain, and not scalable. AirTight received a patent on its WIPS invention in the United States, the 7,002,943 patent. Last year, the USPTO Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences ruled in favor of AirTight Networks and its U.S. Patent No. 7,002,943 in an interference action provoked by competitor, AirDefense.
Complete information about AirTight's IP portfolio can be found on the company's Web site.
About AirTight
AirTight Networks, an industry standard for wireless vulnerability management, is the "only company that offers customers a flexible, end-to-end solution that gives them visibility into their wireless security posture and a choice in how to manage it." AirTight provides full WIPS and the "world's first on-demand wireless vulnerability-management service." AirTight's patented technology delivers the key elements of an effective WIPS to eliminate false alarms, block wireless threats immediately and automatically, and locate wireless devices and events with pinpoint precision. AirTight's customers include global retail, financial services, corporate, education, and government organizations. AirTight Networks is a privately held company based in Mountain View, CA.
AirTight Networks and the AirTight Networks logo are trademarks; AirTight and SpectraGuard are registered trademarks of AirTight Networks Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.