Press Release 2003

Bluesocket Launches Industry's First Open-Systems Wireless Gateways with Intelligent Switching, Supporting Thousands of Users, Devices and APs 

WGX-4000 Switch Wireless Gateway- Bluesocket's third-generation product adds switching and management of multi-vendor WLANS to deliver open-systems, enterprise-class solution 

BURLINGTON, Mass. and NetWorld+Interop 2003 LAS VEGAS, Booth #7343, April 29, 2003 -- Bluesocket, Inc., the leading vendor of open-systems Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) management and security solutions, today announced the industry's first open-systems 802.11 wireless LAN gateway offering 800 MB throughput, support for thousands of users; centralized management via a matrix architecture; air-tight security, and the world's fastest wireless gateway: the WGX-4000 Switch Wireless Gateway. The WGX-4000 news coincides with Bluesocket's announcement that worldwide shipments of its initial third generation products (WG-1100 SOE, WG-1100 and WG-2100 Wireless Gateways) also began today.

Open-Systems Interoperability 
Bluesocket's agnostic approach is optimized in the WGX-4000 to support wireless devices and Access Points from all major vendors, and support for current and future 802.11 versions. This open systems approach means that organizations won't be locked into a specific technology or vendor, thereby ensuring interoperability with current and future WLAN infrastructures.

Since Bluesocket Wireless Gateways require no additional or proprietary client software, they dramatically simplify WLAN implementation and support while and ensuring interoperability. This also ensures support for the emerging plethora of heterogeneous mobile devices irrespective of the type of OS and client types they support (e.g. PDAs, Scanners, Tablet PCs, VoWLAN Handsets/Devices and Integrated Laptops).

"Bluesocket's open-systems approach is very intriguing," said Craig J. Mathias, a Principal with the wireless advisory firm Farpoint Group (Ashland, MA). "We expect it to be a major influence on the development of future centralized WLAN systems, and its benefits in legacy installations are obvious."

Secure Mobility (TM) MatriX 
The WGX-4000 Switch Wireless Gateway is the newest addition to Bluesocket's Secure Mobility (TM) MatriX architecture. Where multiple Wireless Gateways are deployed across multiple WLANs, these Wireless Gateways communicate with each other; configuration is performed on one unit and changes are automatically pushed out to all other Wireless Gateway devices without the need for a central server. The Secure MobilityTM MatriX easily conforms to any enterprise network infrastructure and works with any vendor's Access Points without expensive additions or reconfigurations.

"The WGX-4000 and Bluesocket Secure MobilityTM MatriX architecture give enterprises what they have been demanding for their WLAN deployments", said Eric Janszen, Bluesocket CEO. "Enterprises are making architectural decisions at the CIO level about how their WLAN will be deployed over the next 18-24 months and they need to understand the unique advantages of a matrix approach if their goal is to support thousands of 802.11 WLAN users and devices. The benefits of this feature involve immediate system configuration, control and management of very large WLAN deployments: these are long term differentiators.

Designed for Large WLAN Deployments 
The WGX-4000 Switch Wireless Gateway is a high-performance, WLAN infrastructure platform that aggregates WLAN traffic from existing edge switches as well as directly connected access points. It easily conforms into existing wired and wireless network infrastructures, allowing enhanced policy-based deployments. Role-based access control can now be rolled out across the enterprise allowing administrators to control network access based on individual users or groups, time, user location, network services, destinations and bandwidth---while providing both security and mobility.

The WGX-4000 provides Gigabit Managed and Protected interfaces and eight 10/100 interfaces on the managed side for traffic aggregation. Providing 800 Mbps throughput for clear traffic, and 400 Mbps for IPSec (3DES) encrypted traffic, the WGX-4000 is the industry's best performing WLAN Gateway, ideally suited for high density deployments involving hundreds of users, devices and access points.

"With over 250 customers, Bluesocket is well-positioned to provide an enterprise-class solution based on real customer feedback," said Sarah Kim, Wireless/Mobile Technologies analyst at the Yankee Group. "Bluesocket's third-generation product, the WGX-4000 Switch Wireless Gateway, offers its existing and future customers with a clear roadmap for expanding and securing wide-scale WLAN deployments." 

Intelligent Switching and Dynamic Hardware-Based WLAN Traffic Optimization 
The WGX-4000 Switch Wireless Gateway provides dynamic traffic optimization across the WLAN infrastructure. Given that WLANs are a shared medium, specific users or applications could "hog" all of the bandwidth and bring the network to a crawl. Bluesocket's WGX-4000 implements 802.1q VLAN trunking, 802.1p traffic prioritization, and intelligent VLAN learning within its switch fabric. Additionally, administrators can control WLAN traffic by utilizing Bluesocket's advanced QoS features supporting DiffServ marking, and Bandwidth Management for incoming/outgoing traffic allowing each user, group or service to be allocated their appropriate amount of the WLAN bandwidth. 

Universal Authentication and Encryption 
Configured to authenticate against LDAP, RADIUS, Active Directory or NT Domain Servers, the 
WGX-4000 provides a universal authentication method without the need for client-side software. Additionally, for users logging into a Windows Domain or utilizing 802.1x/WPA Access Point authentication, the WGX-4000 can transparently place users into a role. For air-tight security directly from the users' mobile device, the WGX-4000 can encrypt wireless sessions supporting both PPTP and IPSec secure tunnels working with many popular PPTP and IPSec clients, including those built into Windows and Macintosh platforms. Microsoft's native L2TP/IPSec client implementation is also supported, which allows for a single, non-proprietary access to WLAN and existing remote access VPN resources.

Pricing and Availability 
The WGX-4000 Switch Wireless Gateway will be available in the first half of 2003. Pricing will be announced at a later date. 

About Bluesocket Wireless Gateways 
Bluesocket's Wireless Gateways deliver an open-systems approach to secure and manage WiFi networks and provide authentication, subnet mobility, policy and bandwidth management through unparalleled interoperability with legacy infrastructure and WLAN standards. Bluesocket Wireless Gateways have received numerous awards including "Product of the Year" (Mass Telecomm Council), "Best Security Product" (Networking Industry Awards) and "Best Product in Show" (Networld+Interop/Sydney) 

About Bluesocket 
Bluesocket, Inc. manufactures systems to manage and secure wireless local area networks (WLANs) in enterprises, institutions and public hotspots in 25 countries worldwide. With offices in the U.S., U.K., and Asia, Bluesocket, Inc. is a private, global corporation managed by executives from BT, Cisco, GTE, Ericsson, Intel, NetScreen, Nortel; other industry leaders.

For more information, http://www.bluesocket.com

Mobileinfo Comments & Advisory: Bluesocket has pulled itself away from the herd of wireless security vendors with a strong product that advances the state of art in wireless LAN security in a number of ways. Firstly, it incorporates a few switching features that enterprise customers need today. This capability and its Secure Mobility MatriX approach of centralizing configuration in one large server and downloading changes to smaller units gives Bluesocket a strong differentiation. Its open standards-based architecture and no need to have a client side software will be attractive to many customers. More than anything else, Bluesocket's product and market performance seems to demonstrate that it is listening to its customers and in a pragmatic way, preparing its product line for the future.