Meru links wireless security to QoS

Meru Networks has introduced a product suite designed to protect wireless networks from security threats, while maintaining the quality of service of applications.

Traditional wireless Lan services must disable security scanning to serve voice and other services. However, Meru Networks' Airshield 2.0 Security Suite can identify mission-critical traffic on the network and, according to the supplier, will maintain the quality of service requirements of the application and continue to scan for rogue devices.

Wireless security threats include rogue access points masquerading as part of the network, ad hoc networking, clients associating and talking to unauthorised devices, and denial of service attacks.

Rachna Ahlawat, principal analyst at Gartner, said that, from a technical perspective, wireless Lans were now considered secure, through the adoption of IEEE standards and native improvements to the technology. However, issues of interoperability and security still needed to be addressed.

"We have gone from thinking of offices as network nodes to considering each employee as a node on a wired network. Now every major physical item the company owns is becoming a node on a wireless network," he said.

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