Ubiquiti Networks said today that it has introduced UniFi 3.0—reportedly the industry’s first Wi-Fi platform to deliver 802.11ac access points and management software to support the increased needs of under networked businesses, hotel chains, restaurants, hospitals, schools, and others.
To support these claims, Gartner Research, in its Market Share: Enterprise WLAN Equipment, Worldwide, 4Q12 and 2012 report published last week listed Ubiquiti as a vendor of coordinated wireless access points with a year-over-year worldwide unit shipment growth rate in 2012 of 205 percent. The company shipped its 10 millionth device (across all product lines) in December.
802.11ac (aka Gigabit Wi-Fi) is the newest Wi-Fi protocol for the 802.11 wireless networking standard. It can deliver more than three times the data transfer speeds of the current 802.11n protocol in addition to improved network robustness, reliability and RF bandwidth utilization efficiency for demanding applications such as HD video, video conferencing, streaming media, VOIP and more.
The UniFi 3.0 software from Ubiquiti offers “Zero Hand-Off Roaming” technology that enables mobile users to roam anywhere and seamlessly maintain their connection as they switch to the nearest AP. Currently, existing roaming solutions require negotiation with the client device and may cause latency and/or interoperability problems; Ubiquiti’s Zero Hand-Off Roaming makes multiple APs appear as a single AP, so it can work with any client and require no interaction from the client device.
One of the big challenges for all organizations are access points,” David Hsieh, Ubiquiti’s VP of Marketing, told SMB Nation. “With Zero Hand-Off Roaming it can offload any negotiation and authentication, allowing allows access point to pass a live connection from one access point to the other. For instance, when you walk across a campus, the access points will “talk” to one another to easily give you a new wireless connection.”
UniFi 3.0 builds on previous UniFi releases, which offer comprehensive hotspot management and a flexibly deployed software controller. The controller can run on-premises, in a private cloud or public cloud.
According to a press release issued this morning by Ubiquiti, new features of the UniFi 3.0 software include:
· Multi-site management capabilities, enabling a single controller to manage distributed deployments and multi-tenancy for managed service providers.
· Detailed analytics, which can be used for managing large user populations and for faster troubleshooting.
· WLAN Groups for flexible configuration of large deployments.
· Wireless mesh capabilities so that APs do not require a wired uplink.
Hsieh added that the 802.11ac access points are priced at an affordable point of $299, due in part to Ubiquiti’s business model of being able to combine technology with affordable prices. In addition, the company does not employ an internal sales force; all sales are made through Ubiquit’s distributor and reseller networks, he said. “Because of our biz model, we are roughly 20 percent of the cost of any of our competitors, and we are growing quickly,” Hsieh said, “especially within places like retail and hospitality, and more specifically restaurants, where they are struggling with having the right kind of adequate wireless connections and coverage.
UniFi 802.11ac access points are priced at $299. Initial customer shipments are expected to begin in April with volume shipments in May.
UniFi 3.0 management software can be downloaded for free beginning April 15 at www.ubnt.com.
