Wireless Products for Best-in-Class Voice and Data Mobility and Security

LAS VEGAS /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Foundry Networks, Inc., a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, introduced two new offerings to its IronPoint family of wireless LAN solutions. The IronPoint Mobility Series is a new family of wireless controllers and access points that apply advanced RF management, Quality of Service (QoS), security, and call-admission-control techniques to deliver secure, high-quality mobile converged voice and data services in high-density wireless LAN deployments. To enable network managers to have tighter control and better surveillance and management of their wireless LAN users and assets, Foundry is introducing the IronPoint Wireless Location Manager (WLM) management application. IronPoint WLM adds an advanced layer of network security that can detect, locate, and isolate rogue and unauthorized access points and wireless clients. Additionally, IronPoint WLM provides a location-based inventory of all wireless LAN assets, facilitating the tracking and accounting of all wireless resources in the network.

"Foundry's family of IronPoint 200 access points and wireless LAN switches has met the challenges and needs of over 800 enterprise customers today," said Bob Schiff, vice president and general manager of the enterprise business unit at Foundry Networks. "The IronPoint 200 product family provides a scalable wireless solution for organizations in which data is the predominant wireless application. We also have a growing number of customers whose business operations depend on a mobile workforce and require a scalable, high- performance solution for voice and data convergence over the air. In these environments, there is a compelling need for wireless systems designed for high-density wireless voice and data convergence. Additionally, wireless LANs add new security challenges and require applications specifically designed to address the threats and management needs unique to the wireless environment. Our new wireless products address these evolving needs, providing solutions optimized for high-density and secure wireless deployment enabling seamless, high-quality voice and data mobility throughout the enterprise."

The IronPoint Mobility Series provides unmatched scalability for converged wireless networks with support for over 100 active users per IronPoint Mobility Access Point, the highest client density supported in the industry. Additionally, IronPoint Mobility controllers and access points achieve the highest voice-over-IP (VoIP) capacity in the industry, with support for up to 30 simultaneous calls per access point, a five-fold improvement over other access-point products. Advanced QoS handling for popular voice over wireless equipment and technologies, including SIP, H.323, Vocera and Spectralink, and automatic call prioritization ensure high-quality voice performance even in heavily used and congested networks. Furthermore, zero-packet loss and zero-delay handoffs between access points provide seamless networkwide data and VoIP roaming. The IronPoint Mobility Controller can manage up to 150 IronPoint Mobility Access Points. Dynamic and automatic RF coordination eliminates co-channel interference to ensure the highest possible throughput for every wireless client. Multiple IronPoint Mobility Controllers can be daisy-chained together to support large enterprise deployments, providing a scalable solution to meet the most demanding wireless environments and client densities.

Foundry's IronPoint Wireless Location Manager (WLM) management application provides the capability to simultaneously track the physical location of thousands of IEEE 802.11–based wireless devices, including laptops, PDAs, wireless VoIP handsets, 802.11-based RFID tags, rogue access points, and rogue clients in real time using Foundry's IronPoint 200 Access Points and RF Sensors. IronPoint WLM is a next-generation RF-security solution that delivers a new level of visibility and manageability of the RF infrastructure and adds an advanced layer of security that can detect, alert, and pinpoint the location of rogue access points and unauthorized wireless clients in the wireless infrastructure. IronPoint WLM also takes snapshots of the airwaves to accurately display the current RF statistics, such as access point coverage and channel interference. When integrated with Foundry's IronView Network Manager, the IronPoint WLM Virtual Shield provides location-based admission control. Using Virtual Shield, the network operator can control by physical location which wireless users and equipment can access the wireless network.

Availability and Pricing
The IronPoint Mobility Series will be available for order in July 2006. U.S. list prices for the IronPoint Mobility Controllers start at $2,795. U.S. list prices for the IronPoint Mobility Access Point start at $695.

The IronPoint Wireless Location Manager will be available for order in July 2006. U.S. list price for the IronPoint WLM is $7,995.

The IronPoint Mobility Series can be seen at booth 1024 located at the Interop Las Vegas tradeshow, which opens at Mandalay Bay Convention Center May 2. In addition, a live demonstration of the IronPoint Wireless Location Manager will also be shown.

About Foundry Networks
Foundry Networks, Inc., is a leading provider of high-performance enterprise and service-provider switching, routing, security, and Web traffic management solutions, including Layer 2/3 LAN switches, Layer 3 Backbone switches, Layer 4/ 7 application switches, wireless LAN and access points, access routers, and metro routers. Foundry's 9,700 customers include the world's premier ISPs, metro-service providers, and enterprises, including e-commerce sites, universities, entertainment, health and wellness, government, financial, and manufacturing companies. For more information about the company and its products, call 1.888.TURBOLAN or visit the company's Web site.

Contact: North America, Pavel Pradda of Foundry Networks, +1-408-207-1332, or [email protected]; or Europe, Tom Herbst of Kaizo, +0207-580-8852, or [email protected]; or Asia/Pacific, Jenny Liu of Foundry Networks Hong Kong, +852-2273-5993, or [email protected]; or investors, Jason Golz of Financial Dynamics, +1-415-439-4532, or [email protected].

Source: Foundry Networks, Inc.