Cloud-hosted Wi-Fi is slowly gaining foothold in the wireless market. Many service providers and resellers either have added it to their portfolio or have plans to do so.
However, service providers and resellers could face few network challenges, such as disruptions in cloud connectivity; increased complexity while monitoring and managing multiple Wi-Fi networks; traditional approaches to network issue resolution that can overturn customers; et all.
Catering to these concerns and to provide a more feasible solution, ADTRAN, Inc., a provider of networking and communications equipment, has announced a key upgrade to its virtual wireless LAN (vWLAN) solution, which will facilitate MSPs (managed service providers) and resellers to launch, manage and optimize cloud-managed Wi-Fi.
ADTRAN’s vWLAN is a wireless network solution designed to solve the challenges associated with hardware-based controllers. It features unique distributed, out-of-band, controller-less architecture. It centralizes management and control in the data center (on a hypervisor) or in the cloud (public or private), and distributes data with intelligent APs that enforce policies at the edge of the network.
The company said that the new features of the vLAN plaform, such as increased availability, a prevailing GUI (graphical user interface) and customizable reporting dashboards, would facilitate MSPs and resellers to expand their service portfolios and increase revenue opportunities.
Unlike traditional WLAN solutions that only provide historical data, ADTRAN’s vWLAN adds real-time status dashboards through customizable reporting dashboards. This feature facilitates cloud Wi-Fi providers to monitor the health of their subscribes’ wireless environment in real time.
In addition, with the help of customizable reporting dashboards, MSPs can also create multiple dashboards and customize reports that provide perspectives on different areas of the network, its current state, trends and information.
The reports generated by the dashboards are also dynamic, providing users to get more detailed information. Consequently, it becomes easier for users to optimize the performance of the cloud Wi-Fi service network.
ADTRAN has also built high availability into the current vWLAN platform. This facilitates MSPs and resellers to provide business continuity and reduce risk traditionally associated with cloud-based services.
The vWLAN’s new GUI is designed to reduce learning curves, said the company. This facilitates in faster deployments and lowers operating time as well as cost. The management console is built on HTML5, thereby allowing vWLAN to be accessed and managed from any Windows, iOS or Android-based smartphone or tablet.
Mads Lillelund, general manager, WLAN solutions, ADTRAN, said in a statement, “vWLAN now offers a unique combination of business continuity support, flexibility and customization that fits the distinctive business needs of the managed service provider. As a result, these providers can achieve greater control, react to issues faster and optimize network performance.”
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
