SAN JOSE, Calif., January 24, 2001 - Cisco today announced the first wireless networking family offering the security, performance and manageability required by enterprise customers. The Cisco Aironet 350 Series of 802.11b-compliant wireless local area networking (WLAN) products includes a new family of high-speed access points, bridges and client adapters. Using this new wireless networking technology based on Cisco's Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data (AVVID), enterprises can provide mobile network access and increase employee productivity throughout the campus environment.

"The enterprise WLAN market will continue its rapid growth rate and will largely be driven by mobile end users who will continue their insatiable demands for high speed LAN connectivity. Critical to the adoption of WLAN solutions is the maturity and experience of traditional network equipment suppliers such as Cisco to meet enterprise customers' strict requirements, particularly in the area of security," said Bob Egan, vice president at Gartner Group, a Stamford, Connecticut-based research firm. "Providing a wireless network solution that integrates with an end-to-end wired network and delivers robust security, manageability and performance is exactly what is necessary to meet the growing demand for wireless networks within enterprise accounts."

"Enterprise customers have helped us develop the Cisco Aironet 350 series so that it provides a fully secure, high performance mobile wireless solution, which scales from the smallest to the largest installations with minimal management overhead." said Charles Giancarlo, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Commercial Line of Business. "Combined with the Cisco Internet Mobile Office, which we announced in November, mobile business professionals can now have secure, high speed access to the Internet and their enterprise intranet data and applications whether they are on the move in places like airports and hotels or roaming around their enterprise campus."

Breakthrough Security Framework Eases Network Management

Through the new Cisco Aironet wireless networking security framework, based upon the proposed IEEE 802.1x standard, enterprises can, for the first time, scale wireless deployments to thousands of users with a standard, centralized security management framework.

This enterprise-class security framework delivers scalable, centralized security management and supports dynamic single-session, single-user encryption keys integrated with network logon. 802.1x utilizes standard security protocols such as RADIUS to provide centralized user identification, authentication, dynamic key management and accounting. RADIUS server support for the Cisco Aironet 350 Series has also been incorporated into the newest release of Cisco Secure Access Control Server (ACS) for Windows 2000 & NT version 2.6. Cisco Secure ACS includes full support for user authentication of Aironet wireless clients and provides dynamic distribution of encryption keys to secure each connection. This dynamic allocation of encryption keys eliminates the burden of Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) key management, giving IT managers the confidence to deploy an enterprise-wide wireless solution for their users.

"We have removed a key barrier for broad scale deployment of wireless networking through our deployment experience and collaboration with Cisco on the 802.1x security standard," said Rick Devenuti, Chief Information Officer at Microsoft Corporation. "Together, Cisco and Microsoft are providing a key contribution to the industry and customers by delivering an extensible security framework for both wired and wireless networks. As a customer, Microsoft has installed Cisco's Aironet product line throughout more than 80 percent of our facilities in Redmond, making us the largest wireless LAN in the world, and enabling our vision of network mobility and enhanced productivity for our employees."

"Cisco's Aironet 350 Series has raised the bar for wireless networking by delivering the highest levels of security, manageability, performance and scalability," said Marian Moore, Chief Information Officer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Our vision of the unwired campus is realized through Cisco's wireless technology so our students and administration can enhance academic performance and curriculum delivery."

Enterprise-Class Performance and Functionality

Additionally, a series of new software features of the Cisco Aironet 350 Series address key user requirements for enhanced network performance and availability. These features include frequency agility, infrastructure-based load balancing, redundant hot standby and world mode functionality.

New hardware features of the Cisco Aironet 350 Series provide IT directors with higher performance, simplified deployment and reduced installation costs. To provide maximum range, the Aironet 350 client adapters, access points and bridges feature 100 milliwatt (mW) transmit power. This higher-powered radio provides the largest coverage area available.

The Cisco Aironet 350 Series access points support in-line power over Ethernet, which simplifies and reduces the total cost of installation and operation. This line power configuration is compatible with the IEEE 802.3a draft standard and works with all Cisco devices enabled for line power such as Cisco Catalyst switches and line power patch panels.

For more information on the Cisco Aironet 350 Series wireless LAN product family, please visit: http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/146/kits/comlob/350/index.htm. For more information on the Cisco Internet Mobile Office please visit: http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/779/smbiz/cmo/

Pricing and Availability

The Cisco Aironet 350 Series wireless LAN products will be generally available beginning in February, 2001.
Sample U.S. list pricing for 40-bit and 128-bit WEP encrypted products is as follows:
Cisco Aironet 350 Series Wireless Access Point is $1,499.00
Cisco Aironet 350 Series Wireless PC Card is $229.00
Cisco Aironet 350 Series Wireless PCI Adapter is $339.00
Cisco Aironet 350 Series Wireless Bridge is $1,999.00
Cisco Aironet 350 Series Workgroup Bridge is $629.00
Cisco Secure ACS for Windows v. 2.6 is $5,995.00