Today HP announced some progress in the wireless space. I’m talking about a dual-radio 802.11n solution that can operate at 900 Mbps. According to HP the new Mobile Access Solution is 10 to 12 times faster than any current products and 50 percent faster than existing 802.11n products. So what’s the offering look like? Seen below is the HP E-Series enterprise mobility portfolio. It includes the new E-MSM 430 AP which is an 802.11n dual band radio as well as the E-MSM 460 and 466 AP which is also an 802.11n dual radio.

Management is still done via the existing controllers but what I found interesting is how the AP deals with user data. On a briefing call with HP we were told that unlike the Cisco solution with all traffic using LWAPP or CAPWAPP and flowing through the controller, with the HP product you can decide wether traffic flows through the controller or not, and by default, it does not. Additionally the communication from AP to controller is done via a proprietary protocol, which is apparently a modified version of IAPP using OpenVPN and UDP tunnels.

What I really like about what HP is doing here is that they are thinking in terms of innovation. They want the wireless network to operate just like the wired network and this puts us in that category. What’s more is that “single pane-of-glass” type management makes it easy to manage and deploy these devices with up to 2,500 devices.

If you haven’t taken a look at the HP solutions check them out here!