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The first wave of wireless LANs were autonomous (standalone) access points and were relatively simple to deploy but lacked the manageability, mobility, and security features that enterprises required, even for convenience networks. Centralized controller-based architectures emerged to address these issues and were able to add central management, allow device roaming, and provide a coordinated RF management and security policy to these networks. Unfortunately, they also introduced opaque overlay networks, performance bottlenecks, single points of failure, increased latency and substantially higher costs to enterprise networks. As wireless is increasingly embraced as a critical part of the enterprise network and as enterprises look to support voice over WLAN and increase WLAN performance with 802.11n the consequences of these issues are magnified which is leading the industry to reexamine the validity of today’s centralized WLAN architecture. Aerohive Networks has responded by pioneering a new WLAN architecture called a cooperative control WLAN architecture. It is a controller-less WLAN architecture that eliminates these downsides of controllers while providing the management, mobility and security enterprises require in their wireless infrastructure.
The Aerohive Approach – Cooperative Control Architecture
Aerohive Networks has developed an innovative new class of wireless infrastructure equipment called a Cooperative Control Access Point (CC-AP). A CC-AP combines an Enterprise-class access point with a suite of cooperative control protocols and functions to provide all of the benefits of a controller-based WLAN solution, without requiring a controller or an overlay network. Aerohive Networks’ implementation of a CC-AP is called a HiveAP. This cooperative control functionality enables multiple HiveAPs to be organized into groups, called “Hives,” that share control information between HiveAPs enabling functions like fast and secure layer 2/layer 3 roaming, coordinated radio channel and power management, security, quality-of-service (QoS) and mesh networking. This capability enables a next generation wireless LAN architecture, called a cooperative control wireless LAN architecture, that provides all of the benefits of a controller-based architecture, but is easier to deploy and expand, lower cost, more reliable, more scalable, more ubiquitously deployable, higher performing and more suitable for voice-over-wireless LAN than today’s controllerbased architectures.
The diagram that follows outlines the building blocks of a cooperative control architecture. It is implemented using two types of products:
- Cooperative control access points, called HiveAPs, that have dual radios to support simultaneous use of IEEE 802.11b/g and IEEE 802.11a for wireless access and/or wireless mesh connectivity, and implement robust security with IEEE 802.1X , the latest IEEE 802.11i standards, firewall rules, and layer 2 through layer 4 denial-of-service (DoS) prevention
- A central management platform, called the HiveManager, that provides centralized user policy management, and simplified HiveAP configuration, firmware updates, monitoring and troubleshooting.
The architecture is supported by three distinct, but tightly interrelated technology building blocks:
- Cooperative control: a set of protocols that provides dynamic layer 2 (MAC-based) routing, automatic radio channel and power selection and fast roaming without requiring centralized controllers;
- Policy enforcement at the edge: the ability to enforce granular, userbased QoS, security and access policies at the edge of the network where the user first connects;
- Best-path forwarding: ability to leverage policy enforcement at the edge, cooperative control and scalable mesh routing protocols to allow traffic to be securely forwarded via the highest performance and most available path in the network.
Key Aerohive Concepts and Naming Conventions
The diagram below shows that HiveAPs have different roles which are automatically designated based on how they are connected to the network. The following is a list of key terms used to describe the Aerohive Networks cooperative control architecture:
- HiveAPTM: The product brand name for Aerohive’s CC-AP (Cooperative Control Access Point). HiveAPs coordinate with each other using cooperative control protocols to provide critical functions including seamless mobility, automatic RF control and best path forwarding.
- HiveOSTM: The firmware developed by Aerohive Networks that runs on HiveAPs.
- HiveManagerTM NMS Appliance: A network management appliance that enables sophisticated identity-based policy management as well as simple device configuration, HiveOS updates, and monitoring of HiveAPs within a cooperative control wireless LAN architecture.
- Hive: A hive is a group of HiveAPs that share a name and secret key that permit them to cooperate with each other using cooperative control protocols. Within a hive, clients can seamlessly roam between HiveAPs across layer 2 and layer 3
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