News

Habitech Introduces the Ruckus Line (1/11/2012)

Robust, Secure, Fast, Easy and Everywhere = Ruckus Smart WLAN

Habitech, a leading value added distributor of home entertainment and automation products, is building its new ProNet platform for wireless IP around a truly tried and tested line of wireless APs and controllers by Ruckus, a world-leader in the field. Founded in 2004 in Sunnyvale California, and with R&D also in China, Taiwan, India and Israel Ruckus has shipped over 3 million Smart WiFi units through 12,000 customers worldwide and owns 55 patents (with 80 pending).

Wireless is now front and centre of all thinking in product development and system design. But there is a real concern that off-the-shelf wireless infrastructure will buckle under the pressure, creating unstable connections, dropped packets, and erratic performance.

Habitech has chosen Ruckus because its powerful, scalable, affordable technology squeezes unmatched capacity and reliability out of the 802.11 standards. It operates, for the most part, automatically, by intelligently and continuously optimising performance in the background. It’s also very easy to install and configures via a simple wizard. Habitech is stocking the flagship Ruckus ZoneFlex™ product line, a fully hardware-managed wireless system scalable to 50 APs.

The Ruckus Smart WLAN approach blends high-gain adaptive antenna technology (BeamFlex™) and sophisticated best-path-selection algorithms (ChannelFly) to direct signals over the highest performance paths to each and every client. Self-organised, self-optimised and self-healing, and, unlike many competing systems, complete with concurrent dual-band (5GHz/2.4GHz) support, Ruckus WiFi management reaches further and is inherently more stable. It mitigates interference and focuses RF energy only where it's needed to ensure unprecedented coverage and consistent performance at longer ranges: all the bells and whistles, easy to deploy and manage.

Improved user experience with adaptive beamsteering

Ruckus BeamFlex™, a patented Wi-Fi smart antenna implementation, enables consistent, high performance multimedia support by continuously ranking the antenna configurations for each receiving device and re-configuring itself in real-time to bypass interference and physical barriers. Patented smart antenna arrays integrate up to nine high gain vertically-polarised and nine horizontally-polarised antenna elements, enabling up to 4224 potential antenna combinations, up to 9 dBi gain and up to 17 dB of interference rejection, thereby delivering unprecedented range extension and signal reliability. This translates into fewer APs, more satisfied users, and a cost-effective system that eliminates Wi-Fi dead spots and significantly extends the range and performance of the Wi-Fi network.

Channel changing done right

The Ruckus ChannelFly channel selection engine runs in every ZoneFlex Smart Wi-Fi AP to automatically select the channel providing the greatest client capacity. Most channel selection algorithms scan channels in the background, taking a snapshot of interference on alternative channels. ChannelFly measures channel capacity and interference over time. By evaluating trends in capacity, ChannelFly can quickly and intelligently react to drops in capacity, resulting in significant performance improvements over conventional background scanning.

Ruckus’s Smart WLAN systems are operating at hundreds of thousands of locations across the globe, including those in Hong Kong’s nine DG Lifestyle Stores. Asia’s largest Apple reseller decided to revamp the internal networks with Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi to run Apple product demos and retail operation applications. Dennis Ng, DG Lifestyle’s Sales and Marketing Manager said “we selected Ruckus because their RF signal is much stronger and more stable, and particularly suitable to busy shopping environments such as those found in Hong Kong. Walls are a big challenge here…the service is very good, performance stable and return on investment is high. Ruckus products are very durable. We are frequently asked by customers who supplies our network equipment and we have no hesitation in recommending Ruckus.”

Commenting on the decision to back Ruckus, Habitech’s Sales Manager Timmi Thorsen said “new devices and applications are redefining wireless landscape. With personal usage from multiple devices set to skyrocket, a strong reliable wireless backbone will be an essential part of the CI toolbox. Ruckus will ensure that wireless coverage is managed, meshed and distributed perfectly around the home/office.”

Habitech’s Ruckus range:

ZoneDirector 1106 (6 APs), 1112 (12 APs).
The ZoneDirector can be deployed anywhere within a Layer 2/3 network. Up to 50 ZoneFlex APs automatically discover the ZoneDirector and are dynamically provisioned (Licenses for 12/25/50 APs available).

ZoneFlex 7321
Unmatched Price/Performance in a Dual-Band 802.11n Enterprise Access Point

ZoneFlex 7341
The industry’s best-in-class mid-range performance indoor 802.11n Smart Wi-Fi access point with adaptive antenna technology and centralised management.

ZoneFlex 7363
The industry’s best-in-class mid-range performance dual-band indoor 802.11n Smart Wi-Fi access point with adaptive antenna technology and centralised management.

ZoneFlex 7731 (outdoor)
Connect your access mesh to the core network with robust, easy-to-use, and low-cost point-to-point 802.11n backhaul

ZoneFlex 7762 (outdoor)
One of the World’s First Concurrent 2.4/5GHz 802.11n Access Point with Adaptive Antenna Technology and Smart Wi-Fi Meshing

ZoneFlex 7982
The industry's highest capacity, highest performing Three-Stream 802.11n AP

Full free-of-charge training is available from Habitech.

www.habitech.co.uk/Manufacturers/Ruckus