Comparison Chart

Traditional WLAN vs. virtual Wireless LAN (vWLAN )

Traditional WLAN Physical Hardware Controller Controller Infrastructure Access Points Supported Users Supported Typical Cost Upgrade Process Solution/Feature Upgrade 802.11ac Upgrade Forklift Upgrade Additional Hardware Controller Capacity Must be Added to Support 3X Throughput Traditional: All Traffic Must Travel Through HW Controller Backplane Capacity of HW Controller (20-30 Gbps) Requires Additonal Hardware and Software Software Upgrade No Changes Needed; 802.11ac Ready Distributed: Separates the Control and Data Plane Aggregate Throughput of all APs Combined e.g. 1,000 Access Points (200300 Gbps) Included in Software Hardware controller at each site 150 4,000 $25,000 vWLAN Virtual Software Controller One Software Instance 1,500* 48,000 $0

Architecture Design Throughput Guest Access Unified Support Support of Users Through Wired Ports Support of Users Through Third Party Access Points Support of Virtualization Strategy Single Point of Failure Control Plane Interruption High Availability Failover Security Unwanted Traffic Central Point of Risk VMware Ready Certified Sustainability Energy Costs HW Waste Disposal CO2 Emissions

Requires Additional Hardware No No Yes (HW Controller Based) Data Session is Severed Requires Duplicate Hardware Controller Packetloss Travels on Network to Hardware Controller Centralized Hardware Target for Hackers No No Improvement No Improvement No Improvement

Software Option Yes (Software Option) Yes No (Data Center Based) Data Session is Unaffected Software Option Hitless

Turned Away at the Access Point No Centralized Hardware Removes Hacking Risk Yes Reduced by 80% Reduced Reduced

* Additional scalability through parallel VMware instances.

vWLAN: Bringing the Power of Virtualization to Wireless

Within a wireless LAN, legacy hardware controllers have complexities and scale limitationsthe method of scaling has been to add more and more costly hardware controllers. ADTRANs vWLAN solution brings the power of virtualization to wireless networks. vWLAN virtualizes network control and management onto to software which runs on a hypervisor (e.g. VMware) or a virtual appliance. vWLAN eliminates the need, cost, and all the operational constraints inherent to hardware controllersresulting in significant cost savings (CAPEX/OPEX/TCO).

What is Wireless LAN Virtualization?

Traditional Controller-based Architecture

WLAN Hardware Controller Access Points

vWLAN Virtual Controller Architecture

Hypervisor Access Points

MANAGEMENT PLANE CONTROL PLANE DATA PLANE PHYSICAL/ MAC LAYER MANAGEMENT PLANE CONTROL PLANE DATA PLANE PHYSICAL/ MAC LAYER DATA PLANE

Three planes exist at the centralized controller. Not a scalable solution for 802.11n deployments because the controller limits the data throughput.
ILL308A

Eliminates the controller hardware. Moves control and management to the hypervisor. Moves the data plane to the access point.

First and only WLAN Solution with control based on VMware.

ADTRAN, Inc. 901 Explorer Boulevard Huntsville, AL 35806 P.O. Box 140000 Huntsville, AL 35814-4000 256 963-8000 256 963-8699 fax

General Information 800 9ADTRAN info@adtran.com www.adtran.com Bluesocket Business Group 866 633-3358 vWLAN@adtran.com

Pre-sales Support 888 423-8726 application.engineer@adtran.com Post-sales Support 888 423-8726 support@adtran.com

EN1646H March Copyright 2012 ADTRAN, Inc. All rights reserved. ADTRAN believes the information in this publication to be accurate as of publication date, and is not responsible for error. Specifications subject to change without notice. ADTRAN, Bluesocket, and vWLAN are registered trademarks of ADTRAN, Inc.