Extreme Networks releases industry-first Wi-Fi offering

Extreme Networks has unveiled the Extreme AP5050, the industry's first Wi-Fi 6E Outdoor Access Point (AP), designed for a range of locations.

This includes outdoor venues, convention centres, hospital and university campuses, large stadiums, and more.

The AP5050 provides improved wireless experiences, faster speeds and reduced interference, enabling large outdoor venues to operate across up to three times as much spectrum as previous generations of Wi-Fi.

"Wi-Fi 6E is the equivalent of an open field with no one to block your drive. The untapped spectrum will provide an opportunity to roll out new mobile services both in the venue and across the entire campus with enhanced security, reliability, and performance," National Football League IT vice president Aaron Amendolia says.

"Our fans rely on high performing, frictionless connectivity as a part of gameday. Removing latency and congestion is key to creating the absolute best fan experience, whether its AR/VR, cashless transactions or streaming on NFL+, Wi-Fi 6E will allow the NFL to build best in class digital engagements."

Further, Extreme Networks' latest offering assists customers in future-proofing their networks with infrastructure explicitly made to support next-generation, high bandwidth applications and IoT devices to significantly enhance operations and consumer experiences while creating a foundation to monetise new mobile services.

"As the first publicly available outdoor Wi-Fi 6E capable access point, the AP5050 will provide limitless opportunity when it comes to rolling out innovative new mobile services and experiences at large outdoor venues," Extreme Networks products senior vice president Dan DeBacker says.

"Extreme understands the requirements of secure, reliable, uninterrupted connectivity in large venues better than anyone in the industry, as evidenced by our relationships with some of the world's most esteemed professional sports organisations, hospitals, convention centres, universities and iconic venues like Olympiastadion Berlin, Los Angeles Coliseum and soon Old Trafford Stadium.

"The AP5050 also unlocks the potential to push mobile services to the perimeter of the venue to create new monetisation opportunities and a better, more consistent customer experience."

Key features include:

High-Speed Wi-Fi

The AP5050 delivers high-speed wireless connectivity designed for high-density venue environments as well as bandwidth-intensive applications and devices used by both stadium/venue personnel and fans.

Further, Wi-Fi 6E can access up to 1,200 MHz of the spectrum, which improves the quality of service in dense environments, gets the most out of the performance of new applications and creates better user experiences.

High-efficiency and performance

Created especially for high-density outdoor environments, the AP5050 has three 4x4:4 radios, which provide high efficiency, high-performance 802.11ax aggregate data rates up to 10 Gpbs.

As a result, the offering brings Wi-Fi 6E, advanced security and AI/ML capabilities into a single solution.

Enhanced security

Unlike other APs that scan only part-time, the AP5050 features a dedicated tri-frequency sensor that does a full-time scan for rogue devices, significantly minimising the risk of vulnerability and attacks without compromising the network's performance.

The AP5050 also supports the latest Wi-Fi Alliance WPA3 security certification, a stateful DPI firewall for context-based access, Private Pre-Shared Key (PPSK) to secure IoT environments, Extreme Fabric Attach for automated provisioning and a location analytics sensor.

Flexible, easy to install, deploy and order

Deployment options for the AP5050 include under-seat, pole-mounted or APs with software-selectable antennas, ensuring a seamless mobile experience across the venue.

The AP5050 is also a universal hardware platform, meaning it is available as a global SKU and comes with a dual-persona capability, affording customers the ability to use the OS of their choice and making it easy to deploy as either a cloud-managed or on-premises service.

Cloud-based control, insights and analytics

Pairing it with the ExtremeCloud IQ management platform, the AP5050 provides a single pane of glass into network performance, health and security and offers insights and analytics around app usage and efficiency of venue operations.

"With the addition of Extreme's new AP5050 6E units, we're creating the foundation to offer innovative new mobile services and positioning ourselves to provide exhibitors and visitors with connectivity and speed that they've never experienced," Metro Toronto Convention Centre chief information officer Ryan Partridge says.

"This is a complete game changer, and the Metro Toronto Convention Centre is leading the market when it comes to leaning into innovation to drive new and engaging experiences."