Black Box uses the cloud to replace wireless network controllers

Network hardware company Black Box announced on Wednesday a new line of 802.11n wireless access points for enterprise which utilize a cloud-based management system, eliminating the need for physical WLAN controllers and opening up IT to remote administration.

The service is called SmartPath, and when a new access point is connected, it hooks up with the SmartPath Enterprise Management System (EMS), Black Box's $99 per year cloud-based subscription management service, and automatically discovers nearby access points that it will be working with. By doing this, each access point does not need to be connected to a central wireless network controller.

Administrators can then remotely connect to SmartPath EMS to manage multiple APs in various locations, apply group policies and manage security settings.
The platform includes a built-in firewall with VPN capabilities, and it supports full 802.1X authentication, RADIUS with Active Directory, LDAP, Open Directory, and eDirectory integration. Black Box says the SmartPath EMS is hosted within secure Tier IV SAS 70 Type II data centers, with backups, disaster recovery capabilities, and 24/7 monitoring, but says the APs continue to function on their own even if EMS were to go down, due to their autonomy.

The company says SmartPath uses "a collaborative control design based on the same architectural premise behind dynamic routing protocols used by WANs and the Internet, and the Spanning Tree protocols of LANs." In short, it has distributed both the control and data plane.