Broadcom believes it can leverage its success in the consumer 802.11n WiFi market to move into the enterprise WLAN market. The company announced a new 802.11n enterprise solution the combines its Intensi-fi silicon and its Fastpath networking software that it says will extend the enterprise-critical features from the company's StrataXGS enterprise switches to create an end-to-end solution for business-grade 802.11n WiFi networks.
Broadcom said this integrated platform provides significant cost and time-to-market advantages for manufacturers compared with other silicon solutions that do not include the software features that IT managers require. The solution also successfully addresses power consumption issues, said Broadcom. Broadcom claims that APs built using its new chip use half the power of competing 802.11n chipsets, allowing access points to operate simultaneously on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands while being powered by a company's existing Power over Ethernet infrastructure.
"Broadcom is building on the great success we have achieved with consumer 802.11n solutions to serve the untapped enterprise wireless market," said Michael Hurlston, vice president and general manager of Broadcom's Wireless LAN line of business, in a press release. "By marrying the industry's leading WLAN solutions with proven switch hardware and software, Broadcom is well-positioned to pursue the $2.3 billion enterprise wireless market with an end-to-end solution."
For more about Broadcom's foray into the enterprise market:
- read this release