Cisco beefs up Lan offering

Cisco is releasing its Aironet 350 series of wireless local area network products this month as an upgrade to the Aironet 340.

Cisco is releasing its Aironet 350 series of wireless local area network (Lan) products this month as an upgrade to the Aironet 340.

The new products include access points, bridges and client adapters and are based on the 802.11b Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) industry standard for wireless Lans. This allows data to travel at 11Mbps and in the 2.4Ghz band.

Paul Cunningham, marketing director at distributor Comstor, said: "There is a huge demand for these products in the education, health care and manufacturing sectors where there is a desire to avoid cabling."

Michael Francini, director of marketing at Cisco's wireless networking business unit, claimed the product's emphasis was on security.

"The products are based on the IEEEx Extensible Authentication Protocol, and are built around Radius servers, using single-session, single-user encryption keys," he said.

Cunningham warned resellers to ensure appropriate product placement.

"For implementation to be successful it is very important to carry out on-site surveys, because the technology can be affected by ambient factors such as the distribution of people and the thickness of walls," he said.