Juniper's announcement includes new campus EX switches and Mist Wi-Fi 7 access points.
Juniper is joining the Wi-Fi 7 march with new switches and access points that promise higher throughput, lower latency and extended range for enterprise wireless applications.
The vendor rolled out new EX Series Ethernet access switches – the EX4400-48MXP and EX4400-48XP – with support for Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 access points and managed by the Juniper Mist cloud, which offers a suite of tools for enterprise wired and wireless network management. The AI-based Mist Cloud features Juniper’s natural-language Mist AI and Marvis virtual network assistant (VNA) technology, which can detect and offer help for network problems including persistently failing clients, bad cables, access-point coverage issues, and problematic WAN links.
The 1U EX4400-48MXP includes support for 1/10GbE access ports, 100GbE uplink/stacking, optional 10/25/40/100GbE uplink, up to 90W per port (3600W total power) of Power-over-Ethernet support, and a switching capacity of 1020 Gbps. The 1U EX4400-48XP includes 1/10GbE access ports, 100GbE uplink/stacking, Optional 10/25/40/100GbE uplink, 90W per port POE (3600W total) and 696 Gbps of switching capacity.
A hardened version of the 4400 switch series can withstand extreme conditions such as high vibrations and shocks as well as other demanding environments that leverage Wi-Fi 6 and 6E today and expect a migration to Wi-Fi 7, Juniper stated.
The EX4400s support a full suite of Layer 2 and Layer 3 capabilities and can be used in campus, branch, and data center top‑of‑rack deployments, according to Juniper. Up to 10 EX4400 switches can be interconnected as a virtual chassis using two 100GbE ports. Their PoE power capacity makes the EX4400s ideal for Wi‑Fi 7 deployments, managing smart buildings with smart lighting, IoT sensors, HVAC, and management systems, and supporting other PoE endpoints, Juniper stated.
Wi-Fi 7 access points
On the access side, Juniper rolled out three new AP47 Series access points: AP47 with integrated omni-directional antennas; AP47D with integrated directional antennas; and AP47E with connectors for external antennas.
The AP47 portfolio features a tri-band, four-radio AP with support for dual-5GHz or dual-6GHz operation, a dedicated scanning radio, and two GBPS Ethernet ports. An AI-based Radio Resource Management package is purpose built for Wi-Fi 7 to automate channel/power/multi-link operation.
The AP47s include a converged Wi-Fi/IT/OT/IoT gateway with the dual Bluetooth LE (BLE) radios and Ultra Wideband (UWB) to enable new applications, Juniper stated.
What’s going on with Wi-Fi 7?
Juniper joins a group of vendors offering Wi-Fi 7 products, however general enterprise use of Wi-Fi 7 is still likely a couple years off.
Looking ahead, the speed and performance of Wi-Fi 7 is expected to drive the next surge in mobile and IoT devices and new use cases that demand multi-gigabit speeds. This includes high-definition video, immersive 3D training, hybrid work environments, industrial IoT, automotive applications, and emergency preparedness communication services, Juniper says.
Some Wi-Fi 7 features make it an attractive technology. For example, it will utilize Extremely High Throughput (EHT) to deliver peak data rates of more than 40Gbps, making it significantly faster than previous generations of the Wi-Fi standard. The technology targets mostly physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) improvements capable of supporting a maximum throughput of at least 30Gbps, experts say.
Another feature of Wi-Fi 7 is multi-link operation (MLO), which lets devices simultaneously send and receive data across different frequency bands and channels, enhancing the efficiency of wireless connections. Additional features such as encryption and authentication over WPA3 Enterprise further strengthen Wi-Fi security.
There have been a number of Wi-Fi 7 developments this year. One significant milestone occurred when the Wi-Fi Alliance approved its certification standard in January 2024. Most recently, Wi-Fi 7 got a boost when Apple included support for the standard in the release of its new iPhone 16.
Cisco and Intel expanded their partnership to focus on jointly developing Wi-Fi 7 technologies and strengthening interoperability between Cisco access points and Intel client devices. Meanwhile, Fortinet rolled out a Wi-Fi 7 secure access point and switch that will be able to support the wireless technology’s higher data rate and throughput technology.
Wi-Fi 7 ramp-up will drive WLAN market
On the sales front, the Wi-Fi 7 market has been in flux, market researchers say.
According to a report published this month from Dell’Oro Group, the enterprise-class wireless LAN market saw revenues increase quarter-over-quarter to $2.2 billion, and the adoption of Wi-Fi 7 accelerated, with Huawei shipping over half of the world’s units. Dell Oro found that large volumes of Wi-Fi 6E APs were also sold, especially to North America. But compared to the year-ago quarter, sales declined.
“While WLAN revenues dropped significantly [year-over-year], the fact that 2Q registered the first Q/Q growth in a year is a positive sign for the industry,” said Siân Morgan, research director at Dell’Oro Group. “During the famine and feast of the supply chain problems, the market share ranking of some vendors has been volatile. Juniper’s Mist WLAN has climbed up 3 positions on the market leader table, overtaking CommScope, Extreme, and H3C on a trailing four-quarter basis. Now that the demand-driven market is returning, vendors will be fighting to reestablish their market position.”
Separately, The 650 Group said the enterprise wireless LAN infrastructure market declined 24% year-over-year in the first quarter to approximately $2.3 billion. The report also highlighted that cloud-managed WLAN Services experienced 6% year-over-year revenue growth, far more robust than the overall market.
“Sequential revenue and unit shipment patterns are becoming more like those of the pre-pandemic era, and in 2Q’24, the market grew sequentially by nearly $200M. In the coming year, we expect three secular trends to grow in importance, including the ramp of Wi-Fi 7 technology, the continued growth of cloud-managed services, and the emergence of AI networking as a differentiator,” said Chris DePuy, founder and technology analyst at 650 Group.
“In the remaining quarters of 2024, year-over-year comparisons become easier, so to speak, because the inventory correction began during the third quarter of 2023. As a result, we anticipate that leading vendors like Cisco Systems, Ubiquiti, Extreme Networks, and HPE/Aruba Networking will benefit from the re-acceleration.”
