Extreme Networks announced its Smart OmniEdge, which provide visibility and policy across unified wired and wireless infrastructure.

“We ship infrastructure: access points and switching infrastructure,” said Mike Leibovitz, Extreme Networks senior director of mobility solutions. “The OmniEdge is a product marketing wrapper for all the things we do at the access, visibility, control, analytics, and powering the network with AI technologies.”

Customers with a unified wired/wireless infrastructure gain the ability to see all devices across their network and detect anomalies to correct problems. It gives IT staff the ability to see where coverage may be weak and where additional coverage may be required to accommodate crowding of users.

Leibovitz said it’s difficult to control radio frequency (RF) conditions, which can be impacted by some atmospheric conditions. “No vendor until recently has done this; we can put a brain on top of the access points,” he said. “We’re talking about wired switches and wireless access points [having] single orchestration.”

The Smart OmniEdge also includes artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to collect network analytics, device statistics, connection rates, and user and application experience characteristics. This enables the network to continuously learn and adapt.

The solution also provides security for wired IoT devices that are plugged into the wall jack of an Extreme Networks access point.

Smart OmniEdge can be deployed on premise or delivered as-a-service. It is also available as a virtual machine (VM) for customers that have their own private cloud services. And Extreme Networks says it is container ready.

WLAN

Earlier this year, Verizon Enterprise Solutions launched a software-defined wireless local area network (SD-WLAN) managed service within its Virtual Network Services portfolio. Verizon’s SD-WLAN service manages both the corporate WiFi network as well as Bluetooth-enabled devices connected to the network. Verizon chose Mist Systems’ technology for the service, which includes AI and machine learning capabilities.

Asked if Extreme Networks’ Smart OmniEdge was a SD-WLAN service, Leibovitz said Extreme doesn’t use the SD-WLAN nomenclature. But he added that Extreme’s technology was similar to Mist Systems’ technology.