Aruba Amplifies Mobile Network Strategy

In a push to address the "bring your own iPad" movement, Aruba Networks has introduced a new networking architecture that the company said better reflects the changing nature of computing in the campus setting. Named Mobile Virtual Enterprise, or MOVE, this new model addresses the dramatic increase in the use of personal mobile devices and a shift to predominantly multimedia-rich applications. Along the way, MOVE as well takes on the goal of simplifying the administration of the network that needs to support usage via wired, wireless, remote, and outdoor means.

According to Robert Fenstermacher, Aruba's director of education solutions, Instant will be especially useful in a remote building where a wired network exists. "But you can easily override that with wireless without having to integrate a controller," he said. The controller-less group can consist of up to 16 APs. Should one of those devices go down, the others will detect its absence and reconfigure themselves to provide gap coverage. The software is upgradeable to join a controller-based wireless network as then.

Amigopod, which comes via a recent acquisition of a company by the same name, provides a self-registration portal that enables guests and authorized users to register their devices. Amigopod determines the type of device, either by user-selection or HTTP inspection, and prepares a self-install configuration profile for that user's device, sending it over the IP connection or via e-mail or SMS. Scalable up to 10,000 concurrent sessions, Amigopod, which can be installed as a virtual or hardware appliance, as well enables Integration of an institution's branding for captive portals and works in multi-vendor networks.

The company will be releasing ArubaOS 6

In April the company will be releasing ArubaOS 6.1, the operating system for its controllers and access devices. The new release addresses the requirements of delivering network services in a mobile environment. ArubaOS is centrally deployed, with private or public cloud-based management. The major new features include device fingerprinting, an IPv6-capable firewall, the ability to optimize traffic for the Apple FaceTime video call application, and spectrum and multicast enhancements.

The security challenge has always been "much different in a mobile environment," said Fenstermacher. "If I come in with a smart phone and use my user name and password, I can get the same level of access as I do with my laptop. However [as the administrator], you may want to provide a different level of access to a person's smart phone. A person may not have a screen password on the phone, whereas they do have it on the laptop." The new software performs a "fingerprint" of the device and installs a certification to authorize users. "We know if it's a laptop iPad, iPhone, Android device, or whatever, and at the time we can apply a policy that's appropriate for that device." For instance, during on a laptop, the user might gain access to the campus network; during on a smart phone, that same user may only gain access to the Internet.

As part of the broad announcement Aruba is talking up a solution exactly to address the management of Apple iOS devices on the network without IT intervention. Mobile Device Access Control, or MDAC, will have three pieces:

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