Cisco Delivers Fastest Wireless Network to Tackle World’s Growing Mobility Expectations

New Cisco Aironet 3600 Series Access Point sets industry firsts, improving wireless experience by increasing performance up to 30 percent for any wireless device at an extended range

CISCO LIVE! – LONDON, UK – January 31, 2012 – Mounting expectations of fast network performance, seamless access to cloud services, consistent connectivity and high-quality experiences on any wireless device coupled with the growing number of mobile devices are placing huge demands on wireless network infrastructures.

To support these demands, Cisco is introducing the Cisco Aironet® 3600 Series Access Point (AP), delivering the fastest, most reliable wireless network and best wireless experience in the market today. As the industry’s first three spatial stream 802.11n access point with a fourth antenna (4×4:3), the Cisco Aironet 3600 Series AP is designed to enable people to be seamlessly connected from any wireless device, even those with weak wireless signals, at a greater distance from the access point with up to 30 percent faster performance than any other access point.

With the Cisco® Visual Networking Index forecasting that there will be more than 7.1 billion mobile devices globally by 2015, the Cisco Aironet 3600 Series AP offers customers a path to ensuring their wireless network infrastructures are able to cope with growing demand.

Highlights:

• Fastest Performance: With 30 percent faster performance, the Cisco Aironet 3600 Series 802.11n AP is designed to allow people to take advantage of cloud-based services, run virtual desktops with less lag time, or have smooth video calls, all resulting in better user experience.
• Higher Speed at a Greater Distance: The fourth antenna on the Cisco Aironet 3600 Series AP allows for greater mobile flexibility as more people can be wirelessly connected from more devices spread further from the access point while maintaining a fast and reliable wireless connection.
• High-Quality Experience with Any Device Client: The Cisco Aironet 3600 Series AP includes the new ClientLink 2.0, which can boost performance for 100 percent of wireless client devices connected to the access point, regardless of the device’s wireless signal strength and spatial stream category.
  • ClientLink 2.0 can improve performance for all mobile devices in 802.11a/g and now 802.11n across one, two and three spatial streams – from high-end laptops, smartphones and tablets to industry-specific devices to older wireless devices. It addresses the challenge of reliably connecting slower devices with weaker wireless signals, such as tablets.
• Investment Protection with Flexible Design: The access point’s flexible, modular design allows businesses to customize it depending on their needs with add-on modules that provide additional functionality. The access point also provides greater capacity to support additional devices as a business’ needs and user base grow.
• Performance Protection: The Cisco Aironet 3600 Series AP includes Cisco CleanAir™ technology to help protect performance, increase reliability, and deliver unprecedented radio frequency (RF) spectrum troubleshooting, resulting in the best, highly secure experience.
  • Cisco is also announcing a new, optional RF monitoring module with Cisco CleanAir. The new module can provide full visibility into the complete Wi-Fi spectrum – all 23 channels rather than just the traffic-serving channel. By proactively and simultaneously scanning the entire Wi-Fi spectrum for interference and security threats, the monitoring module can intelligently and automatically choose the best channel to serve traffic, delivering the best user experience and fast, reliable performance.
• Driving Innovation Through Standards with Support for 802.11r and 802.11u: Cisco continues to drive industry leadership and innovation by being the first to support standards-based fast roaming with IEEE 802.11r on the new Cisco Aironet 3600 Series AP. Fast roaming with 802.11r can allow clients to move between access points without breaking a session, a critical requirement for many applications. Cisco led the effort to evolve Cisco Centralized Key Management into the 802.11r standard and is now leading again by being the first to support this standard. Additionally, Cisco is also first to support 802.11u on the Cisco Aironet 3600 Series AP, which will drive richer and simpler mobile experiences by allowing the network to communicate available network services to mobile devices.
• Simplified Manageability and Security: The Cisco Aironet 3600 Series AP is supported by Cisco Prime Network Control System (NCS) and Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), creating a unique ability to address the “Bring Your Own Device” challenge. Unified policy and access control in Cisco ISE and converged wired/wireless management in Cisco Prime NCS, together with Cisco wireless LAN infrastructure, simplify and help secure the mobile experience.

Product Availability and Pricing:

• The Cisco Aironet 3600 Series AP is available globally. With external antennas, the Cisco Aironet 3600 Series AP is listed at $1,595 USD; with internal antennas, the access point is listed at $1,495 USD.
• The dedicated RF monitoring add-on module is scheduled to be available by the end of calendar year 2012.

Supporting Quotes:

• Sujai Hajela, vice president and general manager, Wireless Networking Business Unit, Cisco

“People are expecting more from their mobile devices: faster performance and constant, highly secure connectivity for any device to make the most of any service, whether it be from the cloud or datacenter. The new Cisco Aironet 3600 Series Access Point delivers just that at an even greater range, to help deliver the best experience for all wireless devices.”

• Sam Clements, manager, Mobility Practice, Presidio

“Our customers are increasingly investing in next-generation wireless networks to support their business’ growth and the influx of consumer devices, especially tablets, coming onto their networks. With the speed, performance and intelligence of the Cisco Aironet 3600 Series Access Point, we can confidently build next-generation wireless networks that ensure greater performance for all mobile client devices and compensate for wireless interference, maximizing and protecting our customers’ investments.”

• Thomas Vogel, Local Area Network manager, TU Darmstadt

“As a university serving 25,000 students, we need a fast, reliable wireless network to keep up with the thousands of mobile devices students are using on campus. We also need a wireless network that can deliver optimal performance and consistent connectivity in critical areas. With the Cisco Aironet 3600 Series Access Point, we were able to build a high-performing, intelligent wireless network that can grow with us and support flexible, collaborative learning across our campus.”

• Joe Rogers, senior network engineer, University of South Florida

“The Cisco Aironet 3600 Series Access Point helps the University of South Florida provide a dynamic academic environment by keeping our faculty and students wirelessly connected to each other, university resources and the world at large. On a given day, we support 40,000 wireless users with 11,000 of them accessing the network simultaneously from a variety of personal mobile devices, so providing a continuous, fast, reliable wireless network with the Cisco Aironet 3600 Series AP is critical. The new access point will also allow us to easily scale and be ready for the newest three-spatial-stream mobile devices.”

Supporting Resources:

• For more information about the Cisco Aironet 3600 Series AP, please visit: http://www.cisco.com/go/ap3600
• Cisco Aironet 3600 Series Access Point Data Sheet
• Cisco Aironet 3600 Access Point 4×4 design and ClientLink 2.0 Whitepaper
• Fundamentals of Spatial Stream Video
• About ClientLink 2.0 AAG
• About Cisco Identity Services Engine
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Tags / Keywords

BYOD, Wireless access point, wireless, access point, Wi-Fi, WiFi, Cisco Aironet 3600 Series Access Point, Cisco Aironet Series, Aironet, ClientLink 2.0, CleanAir, RF monitor, RF monitoring, Cisco Mobility, Cisco Enterprise Mobility, Cisco Wireless, Cisco Wireless Networking Business Unit, Sujai Hajela

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

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