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"Most recently, the US Joint Forces Command layered on AirWave centralized configuration and management software to help scale access point deployment. This move happened after attempting to automate access point setup with Cisco's Wireless LAN Solution Engine (WLSE) for two months and finding it 'not intuitive,' says Derek Krein, wireless engineer." NetworkWorld
Federal, province, and local government agencies are rapidly installing wirelessi networks for the same reasons as large enterprises and other organizations: to improve employee productivity through mobile access. Increasingly, cities and towns are also beginning to investigate and install municipal wireless networks for city workers, residents, and visitors alike. These government agencies have unique manageability and security requirements that must be addressed by wireless network management solutions.
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Government Requirement
| AirWave Solution |
| Integrated support of indoor and outdoor (mesh & WiMax) wireless technologies |
For years, government agencies and municipalities have been using WiFi indoors. Now, government entities are increasingly interested in outdoor coverage as well -- to provide connectivity for public safety workers and even to blanket entire towns with high-speed coverage. The AirWave Wireless Management Suite is unique in its ability to support enterprise WiFi, mesh networks, and even WiMax from a single console -- giving the municipality one solution to manage even the largest and most diverse networks.
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| Multi-vendor hardware support |
Government agencies are often required by legislative mandate to solicit competitive bids when awarding hardware contracts. Proprietary, single-vendor solutions result in vendor lock-in, which prevents the agencies from considering other hardware alternatives in the future. AirWave's multi-vendor device support lets administrators select whatever hardware solutions best meet their needs and budgets, both now and in the future.
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| Automated enforcement of security policies and compliance audits |
Government agencies - especially those in DoD and Homeland Defense -- must pay particularly close attention to the enforcement of security policies. Government auditors have been expecially critical of agencies compliance efforts to date. AirWave's automated compliance audit feature automatically compares the configuration of every device to your policy -- and generates a high-priority alert whenever a variance is detected. The AirWave software can even be instructed to automatically restore the correct settings whenever a violation is detected.
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| Centralized management across thousands of facilities |
Government agencies often have multiple facilities, sometimes in remote areas of the world, that must be controlled centrally. Via AirWave's web-based interface, government network administrators can fully manage an agency's wireless infrastructure anywhere in the world, across a WAN or LAN. With AirWave, wireless devices may be managed by local IT personnel or centrally administered from a network operations center.
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| Integrated location services -- without a costly location server |
Government agencies often need to know exactly where every user and wireless device is located at all times. AirWave's VisualRF module provides accurate location information and maps -- all on the same server as the rest of the AirWave software, without requiring a costly location appliance or additional per-AP fees.
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| Rogue detection |
Security-conscious agencies simply cannot tolerate rogue access points - but sensor-based IDS solutions can be prohibitively expensive and may take years to install. AirWave's RAPIDS module, with wired network scanning, makes it easy to detect rogues anywhere on the network without proprietary sensors.
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| Scalability |
A large municipal network can easily reach 25,000+ access points, so scalability is critical. With the AirWave Master Console, no matter how big the wireless network grows, you still have one integrated console for monitoring and management.
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