ADTRAN vWLAN Cloud-Based Control & Management
Virtualized Management for Maximum Scale, Reliability and Security

Overview:

The ADTRAN^® Bluesocket^® virtual Wireless LAN (vWLAN) offers the industry’s first cloud-based, virtualized control and management system for wireless LANs, eliminating physical, hardwarebased controllers from the network. By removing 100 percent of the controller hardware, Bluesocket vWLAN® eliminates scale limitations, and enables centralized control and management of access points (APs) across multiple buildings, the corporate campus or across any geographic location.

Integrated Solution

The vWLAN’s management and control software is a comprehensive, integrated system that allows you to:

• Configure and manage APs, SSIDs, licenses and Wireless IDS, setup users and define access controls, and manage guest access
• Administer AP configurations, firmware upgrades and patches, conduct system diagnostics, and backup and restore the system
• Generate Status Reports on APs, active users and locations; setup alarms, logs and dashboards, and create status maps using multiple filters

Manage from Anywhere on Any Device

The Bluesocket vWLAN’s unique architecture involves separation of the management and control plane from the data plane - these functions are virtualized and placed in a VMware® environment in the data center. This enables network administrators to configure, control and manage APs across multiple locations anywhere in the world, via a public or private cloud. This also ensures consistent policy management, seamless roaming, and the ability to troubleshoot APs without physically traveling to each location. In addition, with HTML5 elements, and no flash components, network admins can access the system from any mobile device including iOS-, Windows- or Android-based smartphones and tablets.

Custom Dashboards, Granular Reports

Bluesocket vWLAN provides multi-level reporting based on user role. Clients can view detailed reports on health of each device (AP), number of active users and locations, and create custom dashboards that provide at-a-glance view of the health of the system.

Templates for Faster Configuration

Bluesocket vWLAN includes the concept of AP templates that have prepopulated data to simplify configuration of groups of APs. Each template has its own unique configuration for settings, radios, firmware, and SSIDs. Simply create a template, and apply it to one or a group of APs in a domain or location without having to individually configure each AP. This simplifies large multi-site deployments by providing the ability to group APs, and applying configurations in bulk.

Multi-tenant Support

Bluesocket vWLAN is revolutionizing wireless LANs by enabling enterprises and service providers to take it to the next level with multi-tenant support – support multiple client domains (tenants) on a single instance of Bluesocket vWLAN. Now you can configure, control, and manage both users and APs for multiple tenants on a single Bluesocket vWLAN virtual software instance. This allows Managed Service Providers to offer a hosted WLAN service to multiple clients, who each may have their own security or access requirements.

Wired and Third-party AP Users Support

Bluesocket vWLAN offers the industry’s first software-enabled support for both wired and wireless users. This is a software upgrade option that allows integrated management and control of all users irrespective of method of access – Bluesocket APs, wired ports or even from any third-party AP. This simplifies administration, and enables an enterprise to create a truly unified wireless and wired network providing a seamless user experience, and consistent authentication irrespective of a user’s access method.

Business Continuity

A key feature of Bluesocket vWLAN is the ability to provide High Availability (HA) by simply creating an additional instance of the virtualized software in the backup data center and upgrading the AP license to HA mode. In the event of losing network connectivity to the primary instance, the APs will automatically switch over to the backup vWLAN instance with “zero packet-loss”. Even if the primary instance of the platform itself fails, client APs are automatically pointed to the secondary instance ensuring business continuity for the service provider.

Configurable Alerts and Notifications

Network administrators can configure several types of notifications to be kept apprised of the functionality and condition of the vWLAN domain. The types of notifications can be configured based on hierarchy and access rights of administrators –the root administrator can create alerts about the domain, such as high CPU or memory usage on the vWLAN system; domain administrators can set alerts that can include information messages, SNMP traps, syslog notifications, email notifications, and any outstanding administrative tasks specific to a domain.

Supported Interfaces

Bluesocket vWLAN supports the following primary northbound interfaces – syslog, SNMP Traps, RADIUS and Email – to track and provide alerts on the overall system or individual domain.