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Symbol moves smartness from access points to switch: In what is clearly part of a trend for enterprise-grade wireless LAN equipment, Symbol announced a new kind of AP controller switch. The APs for this unit are about 1/2 or 1/3 of the cost of a typical enterprise AP, and comprise more or less a NIC and radio in a box using power over Ethernet, and thus allowing more flexibility in deployment than DC-adapter based APs. The intelligence is in the rank-mounted switch, which handles network policy, authentication hand off, and other filtering tasks.
I call this a trend, as I'm in the middle of researching the topic and thought that the broad conclusion you could make is intelligence is moving from individual APs to centralized controllers in the enterprise. Several other companies have similar solutions with a different mix of options, including Cisco, Proxim, and Sputnik. Look for more comprehensive information in a few weeks.