Wireless Field Day 3 - Meraki

Wireless Field Day 3 - Meraki

By CWNP On 09/13/2012 - 21 Comments

Meraki opened their presentation by sharing their continued growth numbers. They have grown 2-3 times year over year and the have hired new staff with major expansions in R&D. Expanding customer support has been a large focus during this time of growth.

Meraki is not just a WLAN vendor. They create Ethernet switches and security appliances as well. In addition, they provide the System Manager, which is cloud-based computer and mobile device management for computers, laptops and true mobile devices. They started as a wireless vendor, but have expanded to introduce many other devices and services over time.
 
Meraki uses a design process that starts with product requirements documentation and hardware specifications. next they move to RF and antenna design as well as industrial and mechanical design. The build and test phase is broken into three phases and results in the finished product.
 
They work with Atheros and Broadcom to select radio chipsets and they partner with other companies as well. The MR16 is a dual-based wireless AP. It starts with radios but custom filters are added on to improve receive sensitivity. The radio design is described by Meraki as this:
 

• Starts with the wireless silicon
• High Tx power
• Enhance receive sensitivity
• Filter for dual concurrent operation
• Negate spurious emissions
• Firmware work-arounds required
• Optimized band edge performance

 
Rigorous testing is performed on Meraki APs. The tests include:
 

• IP67 1 meter water submersion
• Temperature tests
• Salt spray rapid aging tests
• Vibration tests
• Drop tests

 
Meraki said that a few trends are occurring in the wireless market, including density - the new normal is 3+ devices per user. They have also updated the firmware this year to include:
 

• Software-controlled RF enabled ongoing tuning
• Scale capacity of new & early-model 802.11n APs
• Optimize for low-power clients

 
Meraki also gets trends. For this reason, they are not pretending that Apple is the only game in town when it comes to mobile devices. They are addressing the rise of the Android in their System Manager and other products.
 
 
  Tagged with: Meraki, tom carpenter, wireless field day, wfd

Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates.