Why Ruckus?
An Executive Comparison with Aruba Networks
The Aruba Position
Aruba is a security company that uses wireless to sell firewalls
and other security products. Their basic premise: “Wireless
is insecure and you need an entire security infrastructure to
deploy it.” A secondary focus is the concept of secure mobility.
This encompasses both wired and wireless LANs.
The Ruckus Position
Unlike other Wi-Fi vendors, Ruckus is a best-of-breed solution
that is laser focused on Wi-Fi reliability, robustness, ease of use
and performance. Ruckus is the only Wi-Fi vendor that builds
their APs and controllers from the ground up to deliver incred-
ible performance for all clients. Everything is tightly coupled –
the hardware, radios, antennas and software. This tight integra-
tion makes no compromises.
Solution Analysis
Whether this central argument makes sense or not depends on
the state of your organization’s current infrastructure. The key
question to ask is, “Do I care more about security than Wi-Fi
performance?”
Aruba spreads its focus on a wide variety of products – several
of which have very little to do with Wi-Fi – such as Ethernet
switches, intrusion detection, VPN servers and firewalls.
“At the heart of Aruba MOVE, Mobility Controllers deliver a single
set of network services to manage security, policy and network
performance for every user and device on the network, regardless
of access type.”– Aruba Networks web site, June 2011
Why Ruckus?
Ruckus believes it has a better solution: make Wi-Fi an in-
credible experience. Unlike other Wi-Fi vendors, Ruckus is a
best-of-breed solution that is laser focused on Wi-Fi reliability,
The Bottom Line
• Aruba, as a company, is not focused on Wi-Fi – it wants
to be a security company instead
• Ruckus has proven performance in both clean and the
toughest RF environments and high density
• Offers very little interference avoidance or mitigation
robustness, ease of use and performance. The entire product
line is designed around these tenets and it shows.
Ruckus is the only Wi-Fi vendor that builds their APs and
controllers from the ground up to deliver. Everything from the
antennas, AP hardware, software and management is designed
by the same engineering group with the same goals. This tight
integration makes no compromises.
Bi-Directional Aggregate TCP Throughput
(75% uplink, 25% downlink)
104 Mbps
Ruckus 7363
Aruba AP125 84 Mbps
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Mbps per second
Figure 1 - Bi-Directional Throughput with 60 Clients
(Data courtesy of Tom’s Hardware)
Lower TCO – With a lower acquisition price per AP, return on invest-
ment and TCO happen far quicker. Because Ruckus APs cover ap-
proximately twice the footprint of an equivalent Aruba you can get full
coverage with up to 40% fewer APs. This reduces total AP cost, control-
Page 2
Why Ruckus?
ler cost, licensing and support as well as few CAT-5 cabling runs and
Ethernet switch ports.
Ruckus is also regarded as one of the easiest enterprise Wi-Fi
solutions to deploy, manage and support. Contrast Aruba,
which is widely known as one of the most complex Wi-Fi solu-
tions to install, manage and support. Typical Aruba training
easily goes into week or even a month to cover all topics.
Competency – Ruckus does Wi-Fi and is not distracted by
other, unrelated technologies or conflicting business require-
ments. It is a best of breed solution backed by a level of serious
Wi-Fi expertise seldom seen.
Performance – Ruckus equipment has been tested and proven
again and again – by analysts, 3rd party reviewers and custom-
ers.
TCP Throughput with Interference
(Single 2.4 GHz client at 100’ LoS uplink)
Ruckus 7363 76 Mbps
Aruba AP125 33 Mbps
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Mbps per second
Figure 2 - Single Client Performance w/Interference
(Data courtesy of Tom’s Hardware)
Stability – With year over year revenue growth doubling,
Ruckus is not cash-strapped or resource poor. It is profitable
and putting those profits into development of even better
products.
Unmatched video – Ruckus knows video like no one else and
holds several patents on IP-based streaming video. Ruckus has
customers using its solution to deliver flawless 1080p HDTV to
90 set top boxes in a single facility. This is simply not possible
with any other solution.
Reliability – Much is made about whether the WLAN control-
ler is in or out of the data plane. Ruckus is committed to the
highest possible performance and uptime. Tunneling all data
through a WLAN controller is simply not feasible. With dual-
band APs capable of pumping out 600 Mbps of traffic, even
the largest WLAN controller becomes a bottleneck. Ruckus can
tunnel traffic if required, but in general, it polices traffic to make
sure it’s permitted and then “gets out of the way”. This deploy-
ment model is so compelling Aruba has recently offered an
local data forwarding solution, but without the WLAN control-
ler a large number of capabilities are lost.
Ruckus understands everyone already has firewalls, Ethernet
switches, VPN servers, and so on – equipment from vendors in
the Gartner Magic Quadrant for their class and have decades
of development and experience behind them. There is no
compelling reason to ditch these products for new solutions
that are more about convenience than best of breed.
The LAN is not dead. There will always be wired networks,
servers, Internet connections and more. Wi-Fi technology is at
a fantastic point:
• It boasts unbroken security and encryption – standard in
every Wi-Fi client sold.
• Virtually all laptops and smartphones are Wi-Fi enabled.
• iPads and similar ultra-portable tables are fast replacing
much laptop usage and functionality – and like smartphones,
there is no wired connection option.
• Wireless speeds that can provide equivalent wired user
70 80 experience.
• Even older, legacy Wi-Fi devices interoperate seamlessly
with the latest technology.
All of these points demand superb, reliable Wi-Fi that quickly
gets wireless clients access to wired resources every time.
Without fail. That kind of functionality requires a company that
knows Wi-Fi inside and out:
By the time you finish reading this document, there will be
more Wi-Fi devices on your network or operating nearby
than there were yesterday – and more next week, next month
and next year. If there is one guaranteed prediction for Wi-Fi
it’s this: Wi-Fi will never get better on its own; through fewer
clients or less interference. Every day will demand even smarter
WLANs dedicated to keeping performance high and reliable
while steering around the every growing RF population.
Get Ahead of the Wi-Fi Crunch
By the time you finish reading this document, there will be
more Wi-Fi devices on your network or operating nearby than
there were yesterday – and more next week, next month and
next year. If there is one guaranteed prediction for Wi-Fi it’s
Page 3

Why Ruckus?

this: Wi-Fi will never get better on its own; there will always be
more clients, more interference and less free channel spec-
trum.

Only Ruckus Wireless gives you the tools you need:

• Performance optimized for every client and every environ-

ment (not a one size fits all solution)

• Airtime Fairness

• Band steering

• Adaptive RF optimization

• Client load balancing

• Active interference mitigation – not just detection

Figure 3 - RF Coverage for Aruba AP125
• Intelligent support for demanding application such as
(Data courtesy of Tom’s Hardware)
streaming IP video and voice

Ruckus is the only Wi-Fi company that delivers on the promise

Hardware)
of wireless LANs without compromise and without excuses.
ZoneFlex APs are typically 50% faster at range and provide at
least twice the coverage. The end result is outrageously good
Wi-Fi at a fraction of the cost.

Figure 4 - RF Coverage for Ruckus 7363

(Data courtesy of Tom’s Hardware)

Additional Reading

Tom’s Hardware Part 1 - performance testing - http://tinyurl.com/toms-hardware1

Tom’s Hardware Part 2 - performance testing - http://tinyurl.com/toms-hardwarep2
Wired Magazine - Ruckus Wireless in the carrier market - http://tinyurl.com/ruckus-wired1
Network World - Ruckus BeamFlex technology review - http://tinyurl.com/ruckus-nw
Chip-based Beamforming vs. BeamFlex - a comparison of different beamforming techniques - http://tinyurl.com/68ddohp
ZoneDirector Demo on Demand - quick, easy demonstrations - http://tinyurl.com/ruckus-demos