HPE Galvanizes Wi-Fi 7 with Launch of New Breakthrough APs

HPE Galvanizes Wi-Fi 7 with Launch of New Breakthrough APs

The News: Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) launched new HPE Aruba Networking 730 Series Campus Wi-Fi 7 access points (APs) designed to strengthen network security and improve location-based services that provide connectivity for enterprise AI, Internet of Things (IoT), location, and security applications. General global availability is July 2024. Read the full press release on the HPE website.

HPE Galvanizes Wi-Fi 7 with Launch of New Breakthrough APs

Analyst Take: The new HPE Aruba Networking 730 Series Campus APs, managed by HPE Aruba Networking Central, are designed to eliminate the need to deploy an IoT network overlay by providing built-in hardware support for a wide range of IoT protocols such as Zigbee and Bluetooth, or through dual USB interfaces. The APs also provide a secure connectivity platform for the increase in IoT devices organizations are deploying at the network edge, such as cameras, motor sensors, energy sensors, and motion detectors.

With integrations from over 350 technology partners, organizations can now efficiently capture, secure, transport, and leverage IoT-sourced data to deliver real-time business insights. Moreover, this data can be used to train and activate their AI models for solutions such as predictive maintenance, digital twins, and personalized customer user experiences.

With the unveiling of the HPE Aruba Networking 730 Series Campus APs, enterprises can maximize the value of their wireless investments with features that encompass greater Wi-Fi performance, improved wireless security, the elimination of IoT overlay networks, broader support for IoT protocols, AP as an edge data processing solution, precision location services, as well as energy and sustainability savings.

HPE Surpasses Wi-Fi 7 Standard with Competitive Advantages

From my perspective, the new HPE Aruba Networking APs deliver clear-cut competitive advantages by providing capabilities that transcend the checklist requirements of fulfilling the latest Wi-Fi 7 standard. For starters, upholding the Wi-Fi 7 standard is essential because it supports built-in advances such as faster data transfers through the doubling of channel width in relation to Wi-Fi 6E.

Plus, the Wi-Fi 7 standard supports enhanced reliability through multi-link operations (MLO) that aggregate bandwidth. Through MLO, one client device can talk to one AP over multiple radios and frequency bands at the same time. As such, the AP and client device can send data simultaneously over two radios at the same time. The radios can operate on either 2.4, 5, or 6 GHz band with the devices selecting which bands, or even a single frequency band, by using the one that works optimally at the time of transmission.

Among users, I have found that MLO’s ability to reduce latency is highly prioritized. Of the three modes of operation available with MLO, link selection ensures that the transmitting device will compare the recent performance of the three different channels on three different bands and then select which channel (band) to transit the data. Lower latencies are most welcomed in helping to support rapidly expanding AII workloads.

The standard also brings user experience improvement through 4K QAM supporting better air-time usage and—akin to Wi-Fi 6E—adds up to 1200 MHz greater capacity. Aiding Wi-Fi 7 potential is that the 6 GHz spectrum is already supported across 70 countries reaching over 2 billion citizens. However, even with these built-in benefits, the new HPE Aruba Networking APs go beyond Wi-Fi 7 capabilities in key areas.

HPE Aruba Takes Wi-Fi 7 to the Next Level

From my view, augmenting the Wi-Fi 7 standard with unique capabilities is where the new HPE Aruba offering excels. First, for performance, the new offerings deliver flexible and enduring Wi-Fi performance breakthroughs through customizable tri-band radio configurations across the 2.4/5/6 GHz bands that can optimize right-size coverage.

I find that the patented dynamic filtering minimizes interference which enables full use of both the 5 GHz and 6 GHz channels. This is a key differentiator for HPE Aruba Networking 730 Series Campus APs. Currently, many countries and regions must sacrifice the lower eight 6 GHz channels, which means cutting out up to one-third of the overall 6 GHz channel. Also, traditional filters prevent the use of adjacent 5 GHz and 6 GHz channels to avoid interference.

To address these limitations, HPE Aruba’s ultra tri-band filtering delivers the fine-grained, dynamic filtering key to maximizing use of adjacent 5 GHz/6 GHz channels that can produce a 30% increase in usable channels. This advantageously maximizes the 6 GHz band delivering higher device density and faster speeds.

Plus, AI-powered client and RF optimization combined with redundancy using dual 5 Gbps ports are vital to attaining seamless 14.4 GHz performance levels. Support for integrated or non-fixed external antennas provides the deployment flexibility that organizations increasingly prioritize alongside requisite backward compatibility with Wi-Fi 6/Wi-Fi 5 devices.

For security, the new solution provides the zero-trust framework essential to bolstering wireless security in an era of increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats. New capabilities include wired encryption support through the extension of wired Ethernet protection with MACsec from the access switch to the AP. New personal wireless network features provide self-service personal device onboarding with segmentation to help ensure unique phase-shift keying (PSK) that helps reinforce login and device connectivity security.

Such built-in security features fulfill user demand for robust encryption and authentication with WPA3 and Enhanced Open capabilities. Additional security benefits include deep packet inspection for granular, per application traffic enforcement, permitting IT teams to block, prioritize, and rate limit bandwidth as well as automatic role-based access throughout wireless and wired environments with Dynamic Segmentation features.

Burnishing its IoT ecosystem and security credentials, the new APs deliver higher density coverage through dual Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 5.4 or 802.15.4/Zigbee radios and dual USB interfaces, thereby doubling device density. The doubling of IoT horsepower is achieved through pre-processing of IoT data using containers on the APs. This adroitly aligns with HPE’s extensive global alliance of over 350 IoT partners.

To bolster location tracking, the new APs support sub-1m precision enabling the broadening and diversification of Wi-Fi location-based services. The APs support GPS receivers and new barometric sensors to provide highly precise latitude, longitude, and altitude measurements. By moving from 2m accuracy to sub-1m accuracy, location services can deliver top priority capabilities such as automated AP mapping, small asset tracking, proximity marketing, and wayfinding.

From my perspective, HPE is committed to fulfilling its strategic energy efficiency and sustainability objectives and is looking to assist customers in doing the same. To that end, the new 730 Series Campus APs are designed to reduce energy consumption by using AI-powered dynamic power saving mode that includes the continuum of 24W (max), 12W (idle), and 2W (deep sleep) modes.

Aruba Networking Central: HPE’s Proven Weapon

Aruba Central provides customers with a single pane of glass view into the entire network infrastructure, including wireless, wired, and SD-WAN applications, allowing administrators to monitor and manage devices, applications, and users from a unified interface. This centralized approach streamlines network operations and troubleshooting, enhancing overall observability.

As a result, HPE Aruba Networking 730 Series Campus APs can optimize user experiences with edge to cloud management, AI-driven troubleshooting, and automated high-performance features. IoT operations are streamlined through IoT dashboard, expedited onboarding, and application store capabilities plus edge security is bolstered through dynamic segmentation, client behavior monitoring, and application traffic enforcement.

Moreover, HPE Aruba integrates advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities into its networking solutions, including providing proactive insights and predictive analytics. By analyzing data patterns and trends, HPE Aruba helps identify potential issues before they impact network performance, enabling administrators to take preemptive action and ensure optimal network operation. Large language models (LLMs) play a significant role in enhancing observability within HPE Aruba’s networking solutions. By incorporating LLM functionality into their platforms, such as HPE Aruba Networking Central, the network’s ability to analyze and understand vast amounts of data is greatly enhanced. LLMs excel in processing and interpreting natural language, which allows them to ingest, analyze, and interpret network telemetry, logs, and other data sources more effectively.

With the integration of LLMs, HPE Aruba’s networking solutions gain the ability to understand complex queries and commands in natural language, improving the user experience for network administrators. This capability enables administrators to interact with the network more intuitively, facilitating faster troubleshooting, configuration, and optimization tasks.

LLMs enhance the analytics capabilities of HPE Aruba’s networking solutions by enabling deeper insights into network performance and behavior. By analyzing unstructured data such as network logs, LLMs can uncover hidden patterns, anomalies, and trends that may indicate potential issues or optimization opportunities within the network. This proactive approach to analytics empowers administrators to identify and address issues before they impact network performance or user experience.

LLMs are essential to enhancing observability within HPE Aruba’s networking solutions by enabling natural language interaction, improving analytics capabilities, and facilitating proactive network management. By leveraging LLM technology, HPE Aruba enhances its ability to provide administrators with the insights and visibility needed to effectively monitor and manage modern network environments.

Key Takeaways: HPE Aruba Networking

I believe that the new HPE Aruba Networking 730 Series Campus APs provide the performance and efficiency breakthroughs integral to delivering an intelligent IoT hub, strengthened overall network security, flexibility distributed workloads, and the augmentation of operational analytics that are essential to improving business outcomes. Now customers can take advantage of HPE Aruba Networking’s new Wi-Fi 7 APs to attain the AI-ready edge IoT solution that provides the secure, high-performance user and IoT connectivity key to capturing data for AI training and inferencing.

Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.

Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.

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Author Information

Ron is an experienced, customer-focused research expert and analyst, with over 20 years of experience in the digital and IT transformation markets, working with businesses to drive consistent revenue and sales growth.

He is a recognized authority at tracking the evolution of and identifying the key disruptive trends within the service enablement ecosystem, including a wide range of topics across software and services, infrastructure, 5G communications, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), analytics, security, cloud computing, revenue management, and regulatory issues.

Prior to his work with The Futurum Group, Ron worked with GlobalData Technology creating syndicated and custom research across a wide variety of technical fields. His work with Current Analysis focused on the broadband and service provider infrastructure markets.

Ron holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from University of Nevada — Las Vegas and a Bachelor of Arts in political science/government from William and Mary.

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