Ruckus Wireless unveils first purpose-built 802.11ac Wi-Fi product

Ruckus Wireless has unveiled the Ruckus ZoneFlex R700, the world’s first dual-band, three-stream indoor Wi-Fi product specifically designed from the ground up built on the new 802.11ac standard.

The R700 is the only 802.11ac product on the market that integrates BeamFlex+ adaptive antenna array technology to extend the range, reliability and speed of indoor Wi-Fi services, giving enterprises and service providers the ability to offer reliable, gigabit-class Wi-Fi performance.

Operating as a standalone access point (AP) or part of a centrally managed wireless LAN (WLAN), the Ruckus ZoneFlex R700 is purpose-built for the 802.11ac standard, and is suitable for high capacity and challenging Wi-Fi environments such as airports, hotels, schools, hospitals, warehouses and high-density venues.

The ZoneFlex R700 is also the only 802.11ac product on the market to incorporate six custom smart antenna arrays—one for each band and spatial stream. This unique capability allows Wi-Fi transmissions to be focused and automatically directed over the fastest signal paths for each client.

The result is better signal decorrelation, stronger signals to client devices, higher sustained data rates at longer distances, increased AP capacity and gigabit-class Wi-Fi performance.

Backwards compatible with existing 802.11 devices, the Ruckus ZoneFlex R700 operates with full functionality using standard 802.3af Power over Ethernet (PoE) ­– delivering aggregate data rates of up to 1.75 Gbps using the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands while offering an improvement in Wi-Fi signal coverage.

“While 802.11ac promises improved performance across the board, realising that promise requires sophisticated RF controls and advanced WLAN system architecture and product implementation,” says Craig Mathias, a Principal with the mobile and wireless advisory firm Farpoint Group.

“With the announcement of the R700, Ruckus Wireless is building upon years of innovation with exactly the techniques required for success in the gigabit-WLAN era.”