Wireless Switch Deployment Growing Rapidly, Study Finds

Paced by rapidly increasing adoption of wireless switches, overall sales of enterprise-class WLAN equipment grew 21 percent in the recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago, according to a market study released Wednesday by Dell'Oro Group.

Sales of WLAN switches grew by 125 percent, according to the study. However, hard sales numbers remain relatively small, with only $36.8 million in WLAN switching equipment sold in the quarter.

Leading the growth was Symbol Technologies, which is the leading switch vendor. The study indicates that Symbol's wireless switch sales increased by 256 percent. Airespace, the second leading wireless switch vendor, saw its sales increase by 48 percent, according to the study.

"Symbol was early to market with their WLAN switch offering, and so during the past year their customer base has increasingly accepted this new network architecture," Greg Collins, Dell'Oro's senior director of wireless LAN research, said in a statement.

In addition to switches, the growth in enterprise WLAN sales also was paced by increased sales of access points. The study notes that the increase is largely the result of Cisco transitioning its access points from 802.11b to 802.11g.Sales of enterprise WLAN equipment totaled $204 million in the quarter, according to the study.