Ruckus promises better outdoor Wi-Fi

Networking firm Ruckus Wireless has expanded its ZoneFlex range with two products aimed at providing coverage for outdoor areas such as school campuses, multi-tenant buildings and resort complexes.

The Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi outdoor access points have been adapted to survive harsh climates, and use the company's dynamic beamforming technology to help deal with the hurdles often experienced in most outdoor Wi-Fi deployments, including interference, unanticipated physical obstructions, network management and complexity.

The biggest problems come from Wi-Fi signals struggling to penetrate building walls, according to Ruckus, but outdoor systems are traditionally bad at coping with constantly changing environments.

Beamforming automatically directs transmissions to the best performing signal path on a per-packet basis using real-time feedback mechanisms inherent in the 802.11 protocol. The devices can be configured in a mesh backbone architecture to help ensure full coverage throughout the area.

The platform incorporates dual-band 802.11n technology which promises double or even quadruple the signal range and reliability compared to existing b and g Wi-Fi.

The ZoneFlex 7762 is a centrally managed, concurrent, dual-band 802.11n outdoor access point which promises a connection of up to 150Mbit/s over 300m between meshed nodes, and up to 50Mbit/s to client devices over 150m away. It is IP-67 rated for water and dust and operates in temperatures ranging from -40C to 65C and includes an integrated heater for operation in cold climates.

The smaller ZoneFlex 2741 is an 802.11g outdoor access point which should give users up to 30Mbit/s between meshed nodes 300m apart and 25Mbit/s and 150m to client devices. It is IP-65 rated for water and dust and operates in temperatures ranging between -20C and 65C.

The ZoneFlex 2741 is available now with a list price of $899 (£543), while its big brother the ZoneFlex 7762 is due out next month priced at $1,999 (£1,200).