Introducing Wi-Fi 7 access points that deliver more

We’ve always viewed Wi-Fi more broadly than just a way to wirelessly connect users to the IT infrastructure.  Sure, we do that terrifically well, as 18 consecutive times as a leader in the Gartner Wired and Wireless Magic Quadrant attest, but even as early as the first Wi-Fi product back in the early 2000s, we defined our mission as secure connectivity and introduced the industry’s first (and to this day the only) Layer 7 application firewall to run on an access point.

This idea that the access point (AP) can do more than just route traffic is a core part of our product philosophy, and we’ve consistently expanded on that over multiple Wi-Fi generations with the addition of location services, IoT protocol support, and extensive network telemetry for security and AIOps. As organizations continue to innovate, and leverage applications that require more bandwidth or more IoT devices to support new digital use cases, the AP must continue to do more. Delivering solutions that go beyond standards is part of HPE Aruba Networking’s history and future. 

Now, with the introduction of 700 series access points that support Wi-Fi 7, we are doubling IoT capabilities with dual BLE 5.4 or 802.15.4/Zigbee radios and dual USB interfaces and improving location precision for use cases such as asset tracking and real-time inventory tracking. Moreover, we are using both the resources and the management of the AP to its full potential by delivering ubiquitous high-performance connectivity and processing at the edge.  What this means is that these access points not only have optimal support for the 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz spectrum (fully mix-and-match configurable for backward compatibility) but also enough memory and compute capacity to run containers.  This general-purpose processing capability means that organizations now have another edge resource to not just capture and route data from sources such as IoT and OT but can begin to process that data locally to determine its ultimate destination—or even to make a decision and take action.

This means that the motivation for moving to the 700 series access points goes beyond future-proofing as the device market catches up.  Our flexible support for all the relevant Wi-Fi bands means that they will immediately increase wireless connectivity and performance.  The rich IoT protocol support (Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Bluetooth, and proprietary protocols) means the elimination of overlay IoT hardware networks.  The ability to see and process IoT data at the point of capture in real time means that AI workflows that rely on this data for training and inference are now fully integrated.  And while inferencing on an AP is not yet here, Google has introduced AI that runs on Android phones, so the resources required for running AI continue to shrink. Furthermore, we are including additional encryption security features by extending wired protection to the wireless edge.

Why are we so excited about the breakthroughs of the 700 series?  Innovations abound:

• Wi-Fi 7 device support not required:  Yes, Wi-Fi 7 device support will take a while to gain momentum. But support for 6 GHz is already mainstream. If you are doing a wireless refresh, the 700 Series will greatly improve performance and capacity for current devices, especially if you are upgrading from a 300 or 500 Series AP. Patented Ultra Tri-band (UTB) filtering eliminates interference on adjacent channels in 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands. Seamless transition between 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz radios means that all users and devices benefit. When Wi-Fi 7 devices catch up, you’ll be all set to leverage the larger channels for even more performance.
• End-to-end security: New link level encryption (MACsec) capabilities extend wired data protection to the AP.  This enhanced wireless security joins existing security-first wireless capabilities that include: