Trapeze Networks is trying to extend the usefulness of WLAN switching beyond the corporate HQ to the branch office, announcing today the MXR-2, the first WLAN switch under $1000.

The burgeoning WLAN switch sector has begun to penetrate enterprise wireless networks at corporate main offices, which often have hundreds of access points, but they have made little headway into those corporations’ branch offices, many of which number in the thousands. What’s held companies back is the cost of the switches and the IT nightmare of installing them all, said Dan Simone, vice president of product management and worldwide marketing for Trapeze.

"If you want to be a strategic provider to enterprises, you have to be able to scale up as well as down," Simone said. "You don’t want to have a situation where you can serve the HQ but not the remote sites."

Trapeze believes its MXR-2, priced just under a grand, at $995, will be the critical product to encourage enterprises to start enhancing their branch office wireless networks. It manages up to three access points and has much of the same management and configuration functionality of its large-office switches. In addition, the box is designed to communicate back to the mothership switch at corporate headquarters, which configures the branch office switch remotely, helping ease deployment pains, Simone said.

Trapeze’s competitors, however, have taken different approaches to the same market. Airespace is offering an intelligent access point for branch offices. The AP takes its commands from a central switch via remote control, but it handles the local packet processing needs of the remote site. Cisco also offers a fat access point solution. While it is possible for a more robust switch to manage remote access points over a company’s VPN, Simone said he believes that given the proper price point, companies want the security of having some network intelligence on each individual site.

"If the HQ is managing the remote sites and you lose your link to the WAN, your network basically shuts down," Simone said. "You can’t even use your local resources to print." If the wide area connection fails, the branch office switch can run independently, and if the branch office switch fails, the HQ switch can remotely take charge of the network, Simone said.

The MXR-2 will be commercially available worldwide this quarter. Launching a MXR-2 and two access points, Simone said, would cost an enterprise about $1350 per branch office, a price Trapeze believes far undercuts its competitors. Aruba Wireless Networks’ smallest switch has eight ports, designed for much larger offices than those needing two access points. Airespace doesn’t yet make anything more scaled down than its 12-port Airespace 4012 WLAN switch, choosing instead to go with its intelligent access approach.