Nortel has launched a range of wireless LAN products into the crowded Australian market.

A key differentiator for the range is its ability to support the same sort of converged network services as the company’s wired products, according to Nick Avakian, general manager Enterprise Networks for Nortel ANZ.

The Nortel WLAN 2300 series includes security switches, a multi-mode access point and management software, and is aimed at the enterprise level such as in education, healthcare, government, hospitality and retail.

Avakian said the new series has been specifically designed for today’s converged IP telephony and multimedia applications, adhering to the latest IEEE and de facto industry standards to ensure strong security and Quality of Service (QoS) while maintaining compatibility with user devices.

Built on a centralised architecture the Nortel WLAN products support roaming voice and multimedia applications with QoS and dynamic RF management, and full n+1 redundancy of all network components to protect against service interruption.

Advanced mobility management with pre-defined, user-based security and QoS policy management, access controls, VLAN/subnet assignments, bandwidth rate, QoS priorities and multicast memberships, and time-of-day and location-based restrictions that block access from specific areas add to the enterprise flavour.

Avakian said the new products have been designed with ease of use and deployment front-of-mind, and dovetail neatly with Nortel’s existing portfolio of wireless solutions such as 802.11-based wireless mesh.

“We’re making it easy for organisations to transition their existing wired IP networks to take full advantage of wireless communications, without compromising the features and functionality of existing networks,” said Avakian.

“For example, the 2300 series access points attach to their controllers across the network, and self-configure with minimal user intervention. In addition, one WLAN infrastructure can be securely partitioned to form up to 32 unique service groups, each with their own web-portal, security and QoS policies, making it easy to deploy and extend across small to large organisations as required.”