Clearing WLAN Interference
Startup AirFlow Networks Inc. will introduce a WLAN platform with features designed to ease configuration and set the technology apart from a burgeoning list of similar offerings, officials said. Like its competitors, AirFlow's platform centralizes management into the switch, but it also solves interference problems without the need for site surveys, officials said.
The AirFlow architecture includes a wireless controller in the form of a server or switch acting as a central AP (access point). Traditional access points in the AirFlow system are replaced by AirHub 100 packet antennas, which are like Ethernet hubs in that they do no more than connect users to the switch and require no configuration.
"You plug it in, and it operates," said Robert Machlin, president and CEO of AirFlow, in Sunnyvale, Calif. There is no security risk inherent in the simplicity, Machlin said, because all the platform's security features lie in the controller.
