A new family of wireless IP security devices from SofaWare Technologies is based on Linux, Check Point firewall and VPN technology, and Cavium's Nitrox Soho Secure Communication Processors (SCPs). The [email protected] 400W security appliances feature a built-in 802.11b/g access point tightly integrated with firewall and hardware-accelerated VPN. They provide 802.11/g throughput of up to 54 Mbits/s and include a “Super G” mode that supports data rates up to 108 Mbits/s.

(Click for larger view of the [email protected] 400W security appliance)

The [email protected] 400W security appliances transmit in the 2.4GHz range, using dual diversity antennas to dramatically increase transmission range up to three times farther than typical 802.11g access points. The architecture delivers receive sensitivities of up to 105 dBm, which is over 20 dB higher than what's called for in the 802.11 specification. All in all, the appliances deliver ranges of up to 300 meters indoors and over 1 kilometer outdoors.

According to Cavium, router and gateway performance requirements in the SOHO (small office/home office) and SME (small and medium sized enterprise) markets are rapidly increasing “with the deployment of next generation technologies such as wireless 802.11n, FTTH, Broadband Ethernet and VDSL. Additionally, users are demanding full line-rate VPN/Firewall security,” Cavium said, “with support for multiple protocols such as IPSec, CCMP and easy to use SSL VPN technology at mass-market price points.”

Cavium's Soho SCP family, based on a MIPS32 core, is intended to address these demands, consisting of six software and pin-compatible parts providing between 10 and 200 Mbits/s of routing, firewall and VPN throughput with over 100 IKE or SSL transactions per second. The company claims that its SCPs can support multiple security protocols simultaneously “with no performance degradation.” Both Linux and VxWorks support are provided with the company's evaluation and development boards.

The [email protected] 400W, based on an SCP, supports a comprehensive suite of wireless security standards, including IPSec over WiFi; WPA/WPA-PSK (WiFi Protected Access), the latest 802.11 security standard which can be used in parallel with IPSec; the 802.1X authentication standard; MAC address filtering; SSID hiding; and legacy WEP at 64, 128 or 152 bits.

 
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