Ruckus Networks (now part of CommScope via acquisition) has announced an expanded hospitality connectivity portfolio to include the company's ICX 7150-24F fiber switch, ICX 7150-C08 compact switch and Fiber Backpack, which supports its H510 access point (AP).
The new products add fiber support to existing offerings for hospitality and multi-dwelling unit (MDU) customers. Together with CommScope’s structured cabling products, the company can now offer customers an end-to-end solution. Ruckus is also announcing the addition of new Internet of Things (IoT) partners to its ecosystem to better address hospitality business priorities, including improving operational efficiency, enhancing guest services, and increasing guest and staff safety.
As noted by the company, "Hotel properties come in many sizes—from single stand-alone buildings to large resorts spread across acres." The company says its new Fiber Backpack allows for direct integration of Ruckus H510 in-room access points onto the fiber backbone for a clean, secure installation leveraging the scale, speed and efficiency of fiber-to-the-room architecture. The Ruckus Fiber Backpack is a purpose-built, field-installable, fiber-to-Ethernet media converter accessory that provides a pluggable fiber interface for industry-leading Ruckus H510 wall-mounted APs. It also provides Power over Ethernet (PoE) for the associated H510 AP and supports both passive optical networking (PON) and Active Ethernet SFP modules. When paired with Ruckus fiber switches, such as the ICX 7150-24F, the Fiber Backpack enables network designers to easily deploy, standardize and cost-optimize end-to-end fiber solutions.
The new product can utilize a wide range of interoperable fiber transceivers with support for single- or multi-mode, enabled by the portfolio of Ruckus ICX fiber switches, of which the Ruckus ICX 7150-24F is the latest addition.
The Ruckus ICX 7150-24F is an entry-level, 24xSFP enterprise switch with four 10GbE SFP+ ports for uplinks and stacking. The fiber switch can be stacked up to 12 units with other members of the ICX 7150 family. The ICX 7150-C08P is an 8-port 10/100/1000 Mbps compact switch with GbE uplink ports, and full PoE/PoE+ support. The compact switch is fanless, providing silent operation for use in locations such as hospitality suites and MDUs. Both switches are covered by the Ruckus limited lifetime warranty and can be managed by the Ruckus SmartZone Network Controller. The new products will be available in early Q3 2019 through Ruckus channel partners.
Hotels are also looking to vendors to deliver network solutions that support multiple applications, reduce costs, improve reliability and protect investments. To meet these requirements, Ruckus is partnering with IoT ecosystem vendors such as ASSA ABLOY Global Solutions, AVSystem, Kontakt.io, Qubercomm, Telkonet and TraknProtect to empower hoteliers to support the latest IoT use cases on a unified network infrastructure including connected entry, safety buttons, asset, room tray and vendor tracking, energy management, online thermostats and location-based advertising. These vendor solutions are integrated into the Ruckus IoT Suite, enabling a common IoT dashboard and sophisticated rules-engine functionality that allows sensor alerts to trigger actions by other devices.
“In the global hospitality industry, interoperability between multiple applications and vendors is key to helping hotels plan for the future, where higher guest and operations bandwidth consumption present real challenges for existing hotel networks,” commented Larry Birnbaum, vice president of Global Hospitality and MDU, Ruckus Networks. “In addition, our customers and partners see the great value our fiber solutions offer, and it enables us to deliver a faster, richer hotel network while providing flexibility to support the many functions required by hotel operations.”
Ruckus Networks will also be showcasing the Fiber Backpack and fiber switch in booth 2908 at HITEC Minneapolis in the Minneapolis Convention Center, June 17-20.
