Aruba Networks, Inc. has completed its acquisition of privately-held Azalea Networks, a maker of outdoor mesh networks, the Sunnyvale, Calif., company said in a news release. The acquisition includes an operations center in Beijing which will complement Aruba's existing R&D centers in Bangalore and Silicon Valley. Azalea Networks develops mesh products for critical outdoor industrial applications in the oil and gas, logistics, manufacturing, mining, petrochemical, public safety, smart grid and transportation sectors. These products will enable Aruba, a maker of campus, branch and mobile soltions, to deliver secure mobility solutions that span from indoor carpeted spaces to the outdoor industrial enterprise, the release said.
In a mesh network, data packets hop wirelessly from radio to radio. Azalea's mesh technology allows it to also carry latency-sensitive video and voice traffic, with full fidelity, over long distances, the release said. At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, 600 mesh nodes provided voice, video, and Wi-Fi access over 19 square miles (50 square kilometers) of the city.