Mission-Critical Large Enterprise and Campus Deployments

Aruba's networks are used in the world's largest enterprise, campus, and hospital wireless LAN and FMC deployments. Microsoft, for example, has deployed Aruba user-centric networks at offices in more than 60 countries, while Ohio State University has a campus wireless LAN with roughly 10,000 access points. The reason these customers turned to Aruba for their high density data, voice over IP (VoIP), and streaming video networks is because Aruba's architecture is massively scalable. All three types of applications have different flow, quality of service (QoS), and timing requirements, and Aruba's application-aware design optimizes the network accordingly.

By way of example, high density data applications require automatic load balancing between access points, voice over IP requires flow control to meet QoS requirements and deliver toll-quality MOS scores, and medical video imaging requires more airtime because of the packet sizes. 802.11n will generate traffic bursts that require high performance processing, especially for encrypted traffic. Aruba's user-centric architecture accommodates all of these requirements without compromising network security, and gives users the option of using Secure Enterprise Mesh for installation convenience.

Aruba Offers Solutions for the Largest Deployments

In a large deployment it is common to use one or more slave Mobility Controllers to perform local switching, however, control and policy administration is always centralized for convenience and security purposes. Slave controllers have the advantage of providing readily-accessible chassis for hardware upgrades and resiliency in the event of a larger network outage. The economical design of Aruba's Mobility Controllers requires very low capital investment even in networks with a small number of access points, and is significantly easier to physically protect, service, and maintain than alternatives that combine controller functionality into a physically inaccessible access point.

Centralized management can hinder performance if the design and capabilities of the controller are not sufficient. Generic controllers and repurposed PCs do not have sufficient processing power or throughput to operate in such a role, a situation that will be made even more acute with the introduction of 802.11n networks.

Aruba's purpose-built Mobility Controllers offer up to 80Gbps throughput and high performance processing capabilities, and act like a bump-on-the-wire with respect to the latency they introduce. Wireless LAN radio access time is the primary source of latency in a small network, independent of the 802.11 channel type. As a network grows in complexity, the wired network firewall becomes the gating factor, while in the largest of networks, end-to-end latency limits performance. To address the latency associated with so-called "dirty" air, Aruba implements QoS based on airtime.

Sources of Network Latency

Aruba's user-centric architecture provides the performance, scalability, and inherent resiliency required for even the largest deployment. The client-to-core security features address the needs of multi-branch retailers that require PCI-compliance, healthcare institutions that require HIPAA-compliance, as well as banks, universities, and government institutions that must address a broad range of security and privacy requirements.

Aruba's architecture offers centralized network and policy management, fast handoff roaming, voice QoS, automatic load balancing, application awareness, and automatic RF management for the best user experience and trouble-free operation. Aruba's Secure Enterprise Mesh and redundancy options reach locations in which it is impractical or undesirable to add network wiring, and c an be used as the backbone for an unwired enterprise. The inherent resiliency of an Aruba network, combined with a range of redundancy options, address the needs of the world's most demanding mission-critical applications.