Pakedge Device & Software has introduced the W5L Wireless Access Point and Controller.
The W5L Wireless Access Point and Controller.
The W5L incorporates the company’s Residential Virtual Cell Technology to enable multiple wireless access points in a large home network to function as a single “virtual” wireless access point (WAP), thereby enabling seamless Wi-Fi roaming for an iPad, touch panel, VoIP Wi-Fi phone or another portable device.
Wireless home networks that cover a large area require multiple WAPs to achieve adequate coverage. However, when a person moves from the coverage area of one wireless access point to another, there is typically an interruption in service as one WAP “hands off” to another, according to the company. The result is an interrupted video stream, phone call or data stream, or lost commands from a touch panel.
The W5L and CTL-W5N use Residential Virtual Cell Technology to link the operation of all the wireless access points in a network together so that they all appear as a single wireless access point to a device (client). The result is glitch-free roaming over the entire home network, because with Virtual Cell Technology, the client device always “sees” a single WAP and never has to initiate a handoff, Pakedge says.
A single dedicated “virtual WAP” is created for each client on the network. This dedicated WAP can be customized to the client around speed and bandwidth to optimize the performance of the applications the device needs to run.
Similar to a wired Ethernet port, this “virtual port” eliminates latency, jitter and competition for bandwidth since there is always only one client on each “wireless” port. The W5L is compact and easy to install in custom installation audio/video systems and home networks. It features six simultaneous dual-band radios with omnidirectional antennas for reliable operation even in larger homes. The W5L is preconfigured to work with Pakedge routers and VLAN (virtual local area network) switch solutions, and provides centralized configuration and management and multilayer security and scalability, while eliminating co-channel interference and the need for channel planning.
If additional WAPs are plugged into the network, they will automatically configure. The W5L offers monitoring capabilities including self-monitoring, and real-time and cumulative performance metrics for individual wireless devices, access points and the network as a whole, all from a single interface.
The W5L is powered by a standard 802.3af Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) power source. It supports all 802.11a/b/g/n devices, with 802.11n support in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands using 40MHz channel bonding.
The Pakedge Residential Virtual Cell Wi-Fi system is now available and is sold as a kit which includes a quantity of W5L Wireless Access Points, a Power-over-Ethernet switch and CTL-W5N Wireless Virtualization Management Controller.
