Ruckus Wireless to Unplug the Republican National Debate With New Smart Wi-Fi Technology

    SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Ruckus Wireless today
 announced that it has been selected by one of the nation's largest
 multi-service operators (MSO) to provide "Smart Wi-Fi" equipment for the
 upcoming Republican national debate on Wednesday, November 28, 2007 in St.
 Petersburg, Florida.
 
     Smart Wi-Fi is a new approach to Wi-Fi that leverages technical
 breakthroughs to effectively double the range and increase the reliability
 of Wi-Fi signals using highly-optimized antennas and quality of service
 mechanisms. This results in higher and more consistent performance over
 conventional access points that are unable to adapt in real time to Wi-Fi
 problems such as interference. These impressive range and performance gains
 are achieved through the automatic selection of the best path for each
 Wi-Fi "beam" or signal -- constantly steering these signals around
 interference as they occur.
 
     "Carriers and MSOs understand the value that new Smart Wi-Fi technology
 brings to building business-class hotspots that deliver predictable
 performance and reliable connectivity to users now carrying a wide range of
 Wi-Fi-enabled devices," said Selina Lo, president and CEO of Ruckus
 Wireless. "It's expected that over 150 million Wi-Fi-enabled mobile devices
 will be shipped by 2009. This raises the bar everywhere for Wi-Fi to live
 up to the expectation of becoming the reliable medium everyone needs it to
 be."
 
     The debate, to be hosted by CNN with questions coming from YouTube
 users, will be held at the 2000-plus seat Mahaffey Theater in St.
 Petersburg. Select attendees and media will be provided Wi-Fi access to
 file stories, upload photographs, post BLOG entries and use the network for
 a variety of Web-based applications.
 
     Ruckus is deploying the new centrally-managed Ruckus ZoneFlex wireless
 LAN system that takes advantage of Smart Wi-Fi technology.
 
     The event will feature several high-density Ruckus ZoneFlex 2942 access
 points to support approximately 500-plus attendees and media. The Ruckus
 ZoneFlex wireless LAN is being used to cover a number of areas within the
 Mahaffey Theater such as the ballroom, the Bay front room, the atrium and
 the conference center. The Ruckus ZoneFlex access points are being managed
 by a Ruckus ZoneDirector 1025 allowing centralized control and management
 of users and access points. A redundant Ruckus ZoneDirector is available
 for automatic failover.
 
     "This is an important event that really requires a carrier-class Wi-Fi
 system that can do more than just provide convenient connectivity," said
 Eric Stresen-Reuter, technical director at Ruckus Wireless and the
 consulting engineer on the GOP Wi-Fi project. "When it comes to Wi-Fi,
 users have become much more sophisticated and want to move Wi-Fi beyond a
 technology of convenience to a ubiquitous utility that they can count on."
 
     Stresen-Reuter noted that because this is a one-time event, a key
 criterion for the Wi-Fi system was simplicity. "They needed a
 centrally-managed Wi-Fi system that is robust but also easy to use, quick
 to deploy and mindless to manage. And they found exactly what they were
 looking for," Stresen-Reuter concluded.
 
     Providing ubiquitous Wi-Fi coverage using a few number of access points
 while delivering a carrier-class Wi-Fi experience was another key in the
 selection of the Ruckus ZoneFlex system for the GOP debate. Through the use
 of high-gain, directional antennas, the Ruckus ZoneFlex system can cover a
 greater physical area using fewer access points than competitive solutions.
 While providing better coverage, the Ruckus ZoneFlex system delivers
 unprecedented signal quality and real-time adaptations to interference
 problems that consistently lower the real throughput that users experience.
 
 

     Media Contacts
     David Callisch
     Ruckus Wireless
     david@ruckuswireless.com
     +1-408-504-5487 mobile
 
 

SOURCE Ruckus Wireless, Inc.