Juniper Networks, an AI-driven network solutions provider, today announced two new 6 GHz access points that leverage Mist AI to maximise Wi-Fi performance and capacity while simplifying IT operations. The company is also introducing a new IoT Assurance service that streamlines and scales the onboarding and securing of IoT devices without Network Access Control (NAC).
AI for 6E
Wi-Fi 6E is a new wireless standard that expands network capacity by making a larger amount of RF spectrum available in the 6 GHz range to add to the existing 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. To take full advantage of Wi-Fi 6E, Juniper is announcing two new tri-band access points (APs), managed via the same Mist cloud and AI engine as the rest of the Juniper Mist portfolio.
The new access points complement the existing 2.4- and 5-GHz APs currently in the Juniper Mist portfolio, which support both 802.11ac and 802.11ax protocols. All APs incorporate either Juniper’s patented virtualised Bluetooth LE or omnidirectional BLE antenna in addition to Wi-Fi to provide a wide range of location-based services in a scalable and cost effective manner.
The company said its solution incorporate rich client insights and AIOps to deliver optimised configurations, maximum performance and optimised packet scheduling for increased capacity.
Secure IoT Onboarding in a NAC-less Environment
The new Juniper Mist IoT Assurance cloud service is said to deliver IoT operations for enterprise customers, including policy assignments, segmentation, traffic engineering and key lifecycle management. Many IoT devices (such as cameras, smart locks, HVAC systems, wearables, sensors, MRI/CT/ultrasound machines, bed monitors and digital displays) do not support 802.1x, so they cannot be onboarded using traditional NAC solutions. Juniper solves this by enabling them to be onboarded at cloud scale using private pre-shared keys (PPSK) which can be easily set up and administered using a self-serve programmable cloud portal.
