Meru Networks, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, introduced a WLAN system designed to address key technical problems associated with carrying land-line quality voice over the shared wireless medium. Notably, as more than 3 active users join a WLAN access point, the performance of the hotspot rapidly degrades due to over-the-air contention. For companies or campuses planning to support Wi-Fi voice , the issue of contention severely limits the scalability of the service. In addition, IP streams are often interrupted or lost when moving between adjacent access points.
Meru's technology provides application-specific QoS, high client density on a WLAN, and cellular network-style soft-handoffs between access points. Meru leverages a set of distributed algorithms in its access points and gateway to provide near deterministic channel access. Multiple access points collaborate to form one "virtual AP". No changes are needed for Wi-Fi compliant client devices. Meru Networks claims that by controlling over-the-air contention, its Air Traffic Control architecture yields a 5X effective performance boost for an access point. This leads to an ability to support up to 100 active users per access point, compared to a maximum of 10 to 20 users per access point today. Meru is also able to support per-application QoS with built-in flow detectors for multimedia streams such as SIP and H.323. It also offers location services, access point load balancing, and a number of security features, including RF monitoring, rogue access point detection, etc.
Meru's product line will include standards-compliant access points and a centralized gateway through which all security, QoS, and management policies can be configured and enforced.
http://www.merunetworks.com
- Meru Networks was founded in February 2002 by Ujjal Kohli, who was previously EVP Marketing/Sales for AirTouch Cellular (Acquired by Vodafone), and Dr. Vaduvur Bharghavan, a noted researcher from UC Berkeley who holds a number of patents on 802.11 technologies.
The company is funded by NeoCarta, Clearstone Venture Partners, Evercore, JumpStart, DotEdu Ventures, BrainHeart Capital and Monitor Venture Partners.
