Context & Continuity

TRAPEZE NETWORKS INTRODUCES SMARTPASS 7.0: INTELLIGENT ACCESS CONTROL FOR WIRELESS LANS

PLEASANTON, Calif., June 26, 2008 – Today, Trapeze Networks introduces SmartPass™ 7.0, the access management platform for Trapeze NonStop Wireless™ networking products. SmartPass 7.0 gives network managers precise control over every dimension of the who, what, where, when, why and how of access management. With SmartPass 7.0, network managers have more control over wireless network access than they typically have for the wired network. Network managers can easily control access based on location, traffic, and time-of-day policies.

“SmartPass 7.0 marks an important advancement in access control and how it must be integrated with business applications,” said Ahmet Tuncay, vice president of product management and marketing. “SmartPass is now a standards-based platform combining user authentication, device integrity checking, and dynamic access control with open interfaces for third-party development, a first of its kind in the wireless LAN industry.”

Today, SmartPass can accept the following plug-ins:

- Advanced Access Control
- Location-Based Authentication
- RADIUS-based Monitoring and Reporting
- Guest Access

Trapeze Networks has published the application programming interfaces for SmartPass so an enterprise can write its own plug-in and control its wireless network with precision.

Advanced Access Control
SmartPass installs quickly and immediately begins to protect the integrity of the production network. With the Advanced Access Control plug-in, the network administrator using SmartPass can set access based on location, time of day, identity of user, SSID, VLAN, and / or accounting data. It is based on the RFC 3576 standard and has the ability to change authorization attributes during active sessions.

One example application of Advanced Access Control is in an education setting where for any given student, after 10 MB of downloads one session, the user is moved down from full access to the lowest priority queue, perhaps 100 Kbps maximum. This way, every student has a chance to benefit from high-speed access.

Location, Location, Location
SmartPass 7.0, with the Location-based Authentication / Access Control plug-in, works with the Trapeze Networks Location Appliance to provide location-based services and add location information to accounting data. Network managers can set rules to permit or restrict access, allocate bandwidth and allow resources all based on location. This is a feature unique to Trapeze Networks.
In a school, for instance, a professor is giving a test from 2:00p to 3:00p in Classroom 230. She has the ability to change wireless access for students instantly to deny access to the internet during that time and at that location. If the professor chooses, students can still have access to relevant classroom materials on the local area network.

Plays Well With Others
SmartPass works hand-in-glove with Trapeze Networks’ LA-200 Location Appliance. SmartPass also works seamlessly with Trapeze Networks’ RingMaster, the company’s wireless network management suite, its access points and wireless controllers. All these components come together to deliver NonStop Wireless for the Always-on Enterprise.

No man is an island and no network application should be forced to work independently of all the others. That’s why when Trapeze Networks engineered SmartPass, it made the platform plug and play with Cisco’s NAC (Network Admission Control), Microsoft’s NAP (Network Access Protection), and the TCG (Trusted Computing Group).

SmartPass maintains per user statistics, lifetime session counts, traffic details, and total traffic passed for a user session or specific device. All together, this means that SmartPass 7.0 cooperates and complements existing network tools by giving managers unique views and reports on all aspects of wireless usage and traffic patterns relating to time of day and location. This information can be used to make decisions about adjusting the capacity of the network by adding more access points to relieve congested areas.

Be Our Guest
Today, it’s expected to allow guests to have wireless access, but too many enterprises give too much away to too many. And the new generation of wireless-enabled sub-notebooks, iPhones, gaming and music devices makes a bad situation worse.

With SmartPass, the guest access operator is completely shielded from the WLAN controllers and network management tools so mistakes can’t be made. When guest accounts are created, they are automatically purged after a pre-determined time, such as the end of a work day, and can be changed in mid-session. SmartPass can be used to handle a couple of guests in a conference room or 1,000 people in a convention center. Either way, every guest can do their own work and only their own work.

Easy to Use, Easy to Buy
Through September 30, 2008, Trapeze Networks customers can upgrade to a SmartPass 7.0 base license for $295, a $300 savings. For more information on this promotion, see the Trapeze website (www.trapezenetworks.com) or one of its many channel partners.

About Trapeze Networks
Trapeze Networks is a leading provider of enterprise wireless LAN equipment and management software. Trapeze was the first company to introduce NonStop Wireless – delivering unmatched reliability to the enterprise wireless LAN. Its solutions are optimized for companies requiring mobility and high bandwidth such as healthcare, education, and hospitality. Trapeze delivers Smart Mobile™— providing scalable wireless LANs for applications such as Voice over Wi-Fi, location services, and indoor/outdoor connectivity.

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The Carnegie Library.

I grew up in the Carnegie Library in Fort Smith.  Now, it's the Fort Smith Library.

I remember the wooden floors, the enormous wooden rails on the stairs leading up to the children's room, and the fact that it was so convient that the Dr. Seuss books were shelved so that I could easily reach them.  My favorite was his first book, And to Think That I Saw it on Mulbury Street.  My second favorite book was his second, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.  I regarded the Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, and its successors as the author lowering his sights and playing to the crowd.  My library card was pale blue with rounded corners and there was a metal tag affixed to it.   I can remember exactly how the library smelled. 

Books also give off special smells. According to a recent survey of French students, 43 percent consider smell to be one of the most important qualities of printed books—so important that they resist buying odorless electronic books. CaféScribe, a French on-line publisher, is trying to counteract that reaction by giving its customers a sticker that will give off a fusty, bookish smell when it is attached to their computers.

From The Lbrary in the New Age, The New York Review of Books, Volume 55, Number 10, June 12, 2008

The Carnegie Library in Fort Smith was one of four libraries endowed by Carnegie in Arkansas.  The four Carnegie Libraries in Arkansas pale in comparison to the the 165 Carnegie Libraries in Indiana. 

And in 1919, when the last grant was given, more than half (1,689) libraries in the U.S. were Carnegie Libraries. In all, Carnegie endowed 2,509 libraries around the world. 

Carnegie Libraries advanced the innovation of open stacks, shelved books open to the public, something we all take for granted now.  Imagine. 

Andrew Carnegie was a wicked man in many respects, but I can't help but second the person who called him the patron saint of the library.  I would not be me, if it weren't for the Carnegie Library and the Fort Smith Public Library.  It's impossible for me to calculate how many hours, days I spent there.  For my mother, it was a combination of childcare and a priceless gift that created ... me. 

In New York, the first place I lived was the Harvard Club which is, basically, a library.  It was all leather and cozy and that summer tasted like Tom Collins.  The New York Public Library had a system whereby the copy machines worked when a special token was inserted in it, a token the library sold.  I discovered, by accident, that the token was identical to a subway token in every respect except for it's price which was fifteen cents less and I arbitraged that spread to pay for my newspapers and magazines and coffee.

Now, in my wallet I only keep three cards:  My Amex, bank card, insurance card and my Library card and I keep the library card so that its covers the others and it is the first thing someone sees when I open my wallet.

In San Francisco, the metropolitan center I live next to, it took me some years before I discovered The Mechanic's Institute Library, a private library I joined about four years ago.  Professionally, I was in need of something like a office pied-a-terre, someplace quiet where I could cool my heels, perhaps do some work, and maybe even use for meetings.  Hotel lobbies are sometimes good for this and I've used many fine hotel lobbies in my time, but there's something about San Francisco hotel lobbies that don't especially strike me as welcoming or conducive to day-long sitdowns the way many NYC hotel lobbies are.  Coffee shops are far to noisy, and the rent on a chair measured in vente lattes is neither healthy for my physical or financial self.  I was familiar with the idea of private libraries and was glad of heart when I discovered The Mechanic's Institute Library as it is Very Affordable, centrally located, chock-ful of character, has requisite technological conveniences and is quite lovely to lounge around in.  I've taken the family there for some of the events hosted there and almost joined the Proust Society that meets there every month (but declined as I had finished my marathon and, frankly, needed to put that obsession behind me for a while).  The oldest chess club is affiliated with the library and meets in rooms that are consecutive from the library and the players there add even more color to the library.  I keep my library card to Mechanic's Institute Library in my back-up wallet in my bag.   Everyone  reading this who lives in  or  near San Francisco should subscribe to and support the library.   

Finally (and I almost forgot this), I've embarked on a project for my synagogue's library.  As the library is without a set of Talmud, and as Talmud is almost essential to the deep study of Torah, I've launched a fundraiser to acquire a set of the "Oral Torah" and perhaps even contract with student librarian to help our library along a bit.

And this is all true.

According to Craig Mathias, Farpoint Research....

Belden Snags Trapeze - Expansion, Not Consolidation

This looks to me like a marriage made in heaven, or at least as
close as one can get to that delightful, if theoretical, concept.
Belden has a huge following, name recognition, a channel, and great
wired products. Trapeze has a very competitive wireless LAN system. I
think that this acquisition is very clear evidence of the importance of
wireless LANs, unified networking, and the very significant growth
prospects ahead for both.

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