End-users have high expectations when it comes to WiFi availability, performance, and Quality of Experience (QoE). In response, WiFi networks have become more sophisticated in their handling of subscriber management, control, and security. Ciena’s virtual WiFi Access Gateway (vWAG) is a scalable, carrier-grade solution capable of addressing the high-performance demands of several WiFi use cases including public/community WiFi, smart cities, venue WiFi, and several others.
Ciena’s vWAG enables the use of cost-effective WiFi Access Points (APs) and supports multi-vendor WiFi networks without compromising functionality. It assists with user authentication and assignment of IP addresses and dynamically applies per-user policies for bandwidth, traffic routing, and security.
Multiple deployment options
Within the WAG family of products, Ciena has affordable options based on network scale and desired entry point. Our virtual Business Access Gateway (vBAG) is a low-scale version of the vWAG. It is primarily for gateways up to 14 Gb/s bandwidth and 1,000 tunnels, but licensing does allow for higher capacities. Both the vWAG and vBAG can be deployed in Virtual Machine (VM) environments or as a bare metal appliance. In both cases, x86 Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) servers are used for the hardware. The flexibility in design enables Ciena’s vWAG to be used in several use cases.
Multi-vendor WiFi aggregation via GRE, L2TPv3, or Virtual LANs (VLANs) from CPE access points
Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) proxy and load balancing
Carrier-grade Network Address Translation (CGNAT) and stateful firewall
Mobility across WiFi APs as well as different WiFi networks
Content filtering and malware/phishing protection
Policy enforcement per access point, per VLAN, or per subscriber
