HiPath Wireless Convergence Software provides a complete set of tools to manage the infrastructure as well as client access and services, with unprecedented network configuration, management, security and control possibilities that are essential in all WLAN deployments.
One of its most important capabilities is virtualization, which allows organizations to create separate, protected virtual networks from a single physical WLAN infrastructure. HiPath Wireless Convergence Software gives you the ability to modify policies on the fly, and to take into account variables natural to the wireless environment, such as location and time. This kind of flexibility is ideal for hospitals, hotels, airports, and other environments in which traffic needs to be segmented or prioritized differently in order to enhance security or enable different classes of service.
HiPath Wireless Convergence Software is designed as an extensible platform for centralized management of the inherently fluid wireless environment. Its provisioning and management facilities multiply the value of the WLAN with benefits for network managers and users alike.
Flexible Virtualization
Problem: How to securely partition a WLAN network to deliver independent policies and traffic for separate user groups or service wholesaling.
Solution: Create multiple virtual networks over a single WLAN infrastructure.
While hospitals have been using WLANs for many years, such networks have been suspect with respect to security - a problem now of paramount concern with the implementation of new requirements such as HIPAA. The hospital depicted in the diagram has 4 separate, protected virtual networks: one for its physicians, one for the admissions department, one for its patients and one for visitors. Each group has different kinds of access, different levels of service, different security and authentication policies and different accounting and billing policies.
In this example, HiPath Wireless Convergence Software allows patient data to be secured using RADIUS authentication and encryption. All sensitive information is protected; at the same time casual or unauthenticated traffic can exist simultaneously on the same wireless infrastructure. Access to sensitive information is restricted to authorized personnel only and in some cases is restricted to certain parts of the facility. This ensures that data which belongs on the network and is subject to control stays on the network and isn't subject to compromise