Ruckus Brings Blazingly Fast, Gigabit Grade Broadband Bridging to the Great Outdoors

New 802.11ac Point-to-Point/Multipoint Smart WiFi Bridge System Lets Organizations Avoid Expensive Recurring Fixed Line Costs with Gigabit Class Broadband WiFi That Extends Connectivity to One or Many Locations Miles Away

SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Ruckus Wireless, Inc. RKUS announced today the introduction of its new Ruckus ZoneFlex™ P300 bridge system, the industry's first long-range, Gigabit-class, outdoor Smart WiFi bridging system. By combining custom integrated directional technology with the new 802.11ac standard, the ZoneFlex™ P300 bridge system delivers blazingly fast broadband connectivity between locations miles away. With its internal antennas, it offers hundreds of megabits of performance at line of sight distances up to 8 kilometers, and over 20 kilometers with external antennas.

Featuring one of the industry's most compact and lightest form factors, the ZoneFlex P300 bridge system supports RF capacity up to 867 Mbps. It is an ideal solution to easily extend broadband services, backhaul small cell traffic, or offer high-speed broadband connectivity to locations where fixed lines are limited or simply cost-prohibitive. Schools, hotels, warehouses and other outdoor environments can leverage the ZoneFlex P300 bridge system to save tens of thousands of dollars in annual broadband costs.

"With some 50 schools spread across 300 square miles, our Ruckus Smart WiFi bridges have paid for themselves," said Dan Maclise, senior systems engineer at the Lodi Unified School District (CA). "We've been able to save thousands of dollars by avoiding monthly broadband costs at select sites where fiber connections just aren't feasible. The performance and reliability of these Smart WiFi bridges effectively mirror traditional terrestrial lines, but at a fraction of the cost and complexity. It's been amazing."

"With such a compact and sleek form factor, the P300 is a wireless work of art, representing one of the most advanced WiFi bridging solutions on the market today," said Greg Beach, vice president of Product Management at Ruckus Wireless. "By combining purpose-built, high-gain directional antenna technology with the 802.11ac standard at both ends of the connection, we can now deliver the kind of carrier-class power, performance and reliability in a bridge system that just hasn't been available until now."

Smart Bridging Brings High Density Gigabit Broadband WiFi To the Masses

The ZoneFlex P300 bridge system is designed specifically for high-density user environments such as school campuses, business parks, warehousing environments, urban centers, parks and other outdoor venues where reliable, high performance broadband access is essential. Each ZoneFlex P300 bridge integrates a specially designed 5 GHz, dual-polarized directional antenna system that provides up to 14dBi of antenna gain. This new two-stream (2x2:2) 802.11ac WiFi bridging system features an internal, high-gain directional antenna system as well as external antenna connections to increase effective distance and help ensure highly reliable connectivity.

By combining the signals received across two distinct polarizations (vertical and horizontal) and across high-gain directional antenna elements, ZoneFlex P300 bridges are designed to maximize the received signal-to-noise ratio, resulting in more reliable connectivity and yielding the highest possible performance between two or more points. The Ruckus ZoneFlex P300 bridge system provides 30 degrees of coverage from one root bridge with internal antennas to handle many receiving bridges, or 360 degrees of coverage with external antennas. In addition, the ZoneFlex P300 bridge system features a dedicated sniffer radio for radar avoidance pre-scan, resulting in high availability of WiFi traffic.

Simple Better Wireless Bridging

At 18 centimeters long by 15 centimeters wide and 8.6 centimeters high, and weighing a mere 2.5 kilograms, each Ruckus ZoneFlex P300 root bridge can support up to 10 node links. Each link is secure through the use of AES encryption, with the ability to support multiple networks segmented by VLANs.

Automatic pairing and easy aiming between bridges provides for fast and simple installation, allowing installers to deploy these new wireless bridges effortlessly. Lightweight and designed with flexible wall or pole mounting options, the ZoneFlex P300 bridge system provides precision aiming through sophisticated LED-based aiming software. IP-67 rated and ruggedized for harsh outdoor environments, the P300 bridge system operates at temperatures from -40 up to 149 degrees Fahrenheit (from -40 up to 65 degrees Celsius).

Pricing and Availability

Available immediately worldwide, the new Ruckus ZoneFlex P300 bridge system comes as a single unit, with an MSRP of $1,195 (USD), or as pre-provisioned pairs with an MSRP of $2,395 (USD), and can be purchased through authorized Ruckus BiG DOG resellers.

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ABOUT RUCKUS WIRELESS
Headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, Ruckus Wireless, Inc. RKUS is a global supplier of advanced wireless systems for the rapidly expanding mobile Internet infrastructure market. The company offers a wide range of indoor and outdoor "Smart WiFi" products to mobile carriers, broadband service providers, and corporate enterprises, and has approximately 52,000 end-customers worldwide. Ruckus technology addresses WiFi capacity and coverage challenges caused by the ever-increasing amount of traffic on wireless networks due to accelerated adoption of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Ruckus invented and has patented state-of-the-art wireless voice, video, and data technology innovations, such as adaptive antenna arrays that extend signal range, increase client data rates, and avoid interference, providing consistent and reliable distribution of delay-sensitive multimedia content and services over standard 802.11 WiFi. For more information, visit http://www.ruckuswireless.com.

Ruckus, Ruckus Wireless, and ZoneFlex are trademarks of Ruckus Wireless, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other product or company names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Media Contact
Mark Priscaro
Ruckus Wireless
mark.priscaro@ruckuswireless.com
+1 925-367-5505