Extreme Networks Launches First Wi-Fi 7 AP, Switch Series With Integrated Universal ZTNA

The networking specialist Tuesday launched its first Wi-Fi 7-capable access point and two new switches that offer ease of deployment and cloud-based management with built-in security via Extreme's Universal ZTNA.

Extreme Networks is getting into the Wi-Fi 7 market with the introduction of a new Wi-Fi 7-capable access point and switch series, the company said Tuesday.

Following in the footsteps of the company's previous generations of wireless offerings, the new technology can be cloud-managed, and Extreme has placed priority on the new AP and switch series being the “industry’s easiest” to deploy and provision, Dan DeBacker, senior vice president of product for Extreme Networks, told CRN.

The latest addition to the wireless portfolio is the AP5020, a cloud-managed Wi-Fi 7 access point that can support bandwidth-intensive applications and an influx of IoT devices in a variety of settings, including high-density environments.

The AP5020 is the first AP to feature a separate IoT radio that can support multiple IoT use cases without impacting performance for users and non-IoT devices, DeBacker said.

“You’re not sharing a radio with your other type of production traffic, so you could dedicate a radio for a specific IoT functionality. Customers that we’ve talked to about this are very excited about that fact that they’re going to have this dual IoT capability,” he said.

The latest AP also offers Power over Ethernet (PoE) failover and a dedicated 2x2 security radio that can be paired with Extreme AirDefense for wireless intrusion prevention. It also integrates with ExtremeCloud Universal Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), a subscription-based network access offering that the company introduced in November.

The AP5020 offers multilink operations, a functionality specific to Wi-Fi 7, DeBacker said.

“As we continue the evolution of wireless, in the past it was all about an AP signal strength and how far could the signal go. As we move now into these later generations of APs and get into the 6GHz and above, it’s really not about how far an AP can go. It’s really about bandwidth requirements of an AP. The cell sizes are getting smaller, [with] more users with higher bandwidth in these cells,” he said.

Alongside the new Wi-Fi 7 AP, Extreme introduced a new cloud-managed 4000 Switch Series that consists of two switches, the 4120 and 4220. While the new switches don’t have to be used in conjunction with the new AP, the new 4000 series gives users enough PoE to support Wi-Fi 7, the company said.

The 4220 offers 8, 12, 24 and 48 ports, while the 4120 offers 24 and 48 ports. The 4000 Series allows channel partners and IT teams to instantly stack the switches and automate setup using a single button across multiple switches, DeBacker said.

“The new series of switches is really targeted at the edge closet and is a very cost-effective switch that will be able to power basically everything that you’ll need to do,” he said.

IT teams can also “Instant Port,” which removes the need for manual port configuration, according to the Morrisville, N.C.-based company. Extreme’s “Instant” features aim to make networking deployment and management easier for end users.

The switches offer integrated authentication and policy enforcement through ExtremeCloud Universal ZTNA, which makes both the new AP and switch family an enforcement point for Universal ZTNA, DeBacker said.

“Two very important motions moving forward for [Extreme] are security and AI, not necessarily separately,” he said. “We don’t want to think about security as something that you bolt on to the infrastructure. Security is something that is built in as part of the infrastructure."