Meru Networks positioned in visionaries quadrant in 2008 Magic Quadrant for Wireless LAN Infrastructure

Evaluation based on completeness of vision and ability to execute

London, UK – 5th January 2009 - Meru Networks has been positioned in the "visionaries" quadrant in the 2008 Gartner report, "Magic Quadrant for Wireless LAN Infrastructure" (1), published in November.  Vendors were evaluated based on their ability to execute and their completeness of vision.

According to the report, "A vendor in the visionaries quadrant demonstrates an ability to increase features in its offering to provide a unique and differentiated approach to the market.  A visionary will have innovated in one or more of the key areas of WLAN technologies (convergence, security, management or operational efficiency)."

The report said that "Wireless LANs have established themselves as core enterprise components for access layer communications, with few questions remaining about the security, reliability and usefulness of these networks."

"We are pleased to be in the visionaries quadrant of the 2008 Magic Quadrant," said Meru CEO Ihab Abu-Halima.  "With our unique architecture-based differentiation, Meru is recognised as an innovator in the networking industry.  In 2003 we pioneered the concept of 'virtual cells,' which make WLANs more efficient by allowing all access points to share a common RF resource.  In 2008 we extended the concept of virtualisation by enabling every user device to have its own dedicated virtual port, giving enterprises an unprecedented degree of control over their network resources, costs and user behaviour. 
We consider our positioning in the visionaries quadrant by Gartner confirmation of Meru's decision to depart from typical hub-based WLAN approaches, and take the road less travelled, providing a wireless solution with levels of performance, reliability, security and cost-effectiveness previously found only in wired networking environments."

In Meru's virtualised WLAN architecture, a single channel is selected for use by all access points, creating an enterprise-wide "virtual cell," and a dedicated "virtual port" is assigned to each client device.  This allows an optimisation of RF resources that raises WLAN performance and reliability to wireline levels while reducing the cost of wireless to a fraction of its wired equivalent.  In contrast, conventional WLAN systems use a "micro cell" approach, which forces the assignment of different radio channels to adjacent APs, requiring precise and time-consuming channel planning and AP power adjustments and limiting future expansion.

(1) Gartner Research "Magic Quadrant for Wireless LAN Infrastructure" by Michael J. King, Tim Zimmerman, November 26, 2008.