Novarum Test Compares Performance of Three Leading Enterprise-Class WLAN Vendors

Meru Excels in Predictable 802.11n Performance and Airtime Fairness
SAN FRANCISCO--(Business Wire)--
A new benchmark test of IEEE 802.11n enterprise-class wireless LAN systems by
Novarum shows that there is wide variation in performance and "airtime
fairness". Novarum's "Enterprise 802.11n Wireless LAN Access Point Performance
Benchmark" compared 802.11n WLAN systems from leading enterprise vendors Aruba
Networks, Cisco and Meru Networks. The tests focused on throughput and airtime
fairness, the system`s ability to provide equal access to the airwaves for a
variety of client types regardless of data rate. The Meru Networks system
performed the best in most tests, delivering more than 180 megabits per second
throughput in single AP tests with multiple clients.

"2009 will be a significant transition year for enterprises, as many large-scale
WLAN deployments move to upgrade from legacy 802.11a/g to contemporary dual-band
802.11n networks," said Ken Biba, CTO and co-founder of Novarum. "Our goal was
to design a test suite that accurately reflects enterprise-level WLAN
performance capabilities.

"While these initial single AP tests do not cover every aspect of performance,
we believe they establish a good baseline and provide a strong indicator of the
performance expectations for larger enterprise-class WLANs. We examined airtime
fairness as a gauge of a system`s ability to scale, since certain applications
won't operate satisfactorily in dense client environments when one set of
clients is permitted to `hog` airtime at the expense of other wireless clients.
We look forward to testing more complicated scenarios with multiple 802.11n APs
where even more performance differences should emerge."

Key Findings of Novarum's "Enterprise 802.11n Wireless LAN Access Point
Performance Benchmark":

Throughput. The Meru AP consistently exceeded 170 Mbps and often 180 Mbps,
outperforming the Aruba AP by as much as 29% and the Cisco AP by up to 67%.

Airtime Fairness - 802.11n clients. The Meru and Cisco APs consistently offered
equitable access to all 802.11n clients, far outperforming the Aruba AP in terms
of airtime fairness. Meru's airtime fairness improved as client density
increased, while Cisco's and Aruba's fairness degraded.

Airtime Fairness - Mixed 802.11n and 802.11b/g. The Meru and Cisco APs offered
equitable access to a mixed load of 11n and 11a/g clients, while the Aruba AP
consistently showed a marked bias towards the 11n clients. Meru maintained
higher throughput for both the network as a whole and each client, and had the
least variation in per-client throughput as the number of clients increased.

Mixed voice/data application performance. With 10 voice and 10 data clients, the
Meru AP maintained high performance under a heavy bidirectional data and voice
traffic load. The Cisco and Aruba APs offered poor downstream voice and data
performance and appeared to be overwhelmed by the upstream traffic load. Only
Meru achieved a Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of score of 4 (Good) or better on both
uplink and downlink voice streams.

Test Methodology

All testing was performed Over-the-Air in an actual, high-multipath RF office
environment, rather than with "wired" testing and simulated RF conditions.
Client devices consisted of two banks of 10 laptop computers each. All APs were
connected using gigabit Ethernet. A single dual-band 802.11n access point with
supporting controller from each of the three vendors was used. Testing was done
in the clear with no wireless LAN encryption enabled. All vendors' products were
configured for maximum performance.

The "Enterprise 802.11n Wireless LAN Access Point Performance Benchmark" was
sponsored by Meru Networks. The paper, including complete results of the tests,
is available at www.novarum.com.

About Novarum

Novarum Inc. provides comprehensive broadband wireless advisory, analysis,
network design and testing services. Novarum`s technical, business and executive
experience in the wireless industry make it the ideal partner for service
providers, municipalities, enterprises or wireless infrastructure vendors
seeking trusted information on broadband wireless technologies and services. The
company is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, please visit
www.novarum.com.

Novarum Inc.
Wayne Gartin, 831-818-7479

Copyright Business Wire 2009