Ruckus WAN Gateway

Network Services in a Unified Platform for Enterprises and Service Providers

RUCKUS WAN Gateway (RWG) combines a powerful, comprehensive set of network services in a single unified platform for enterprises and service providers. RWG is purpose-built to deliver complete connectivity, robust security and efficient management. RWG provides tightly integrated network services required to deploy a secure zero trust network architecture (ZTNA) as the head-end border of an enterprise network, including:

• Routing with SD-WAN and traffic shaping
• Micro-segmentation focused Network Access Control (NAC)
• Unified Threat Management (UTM) with workload analysis
• Application layer firewall with Deep Packet Inspection (DPI)

RWG is an ideal broadband remote access server (B-RAS) edge platform for service providers delivering network services. RWG provides superior operational agility to customers at large scale, with a full spectrum of integrated data, control and management plane capabilities in a single platform with functionality typically found in:

• Border network gateway (BNG)
• Billing/operational system support (B/OSS)
• Network and element management system (NMS/EMS)
• Multi-access edge compute (MEC) virtualization server

RWG also integrates with other RUCKUS technologies, including SmartZone LAN controllers and ICX Switches, making it easier to provide services to a small enterprise, nationwide hospitality chain or tens of thousands of individual ISP subscribers.

How Are Networks Today

Today’s networks are composed of many disjointed pieces, often purchased from different vendors. The minimum requirements for a typical deployment might include switches, wireless controllers, access points, SD-WAN, firewall, NAC, RADIUS servers, NAT, DHCP servers and management. Those networks are difficult to configure and to scale.

If we combine all the requirements, there might be over 30 features required to run a network! An MSO (Multiple Systems Operators) has requirements like service providers. In many cases, the appliances are virtualized and chained together. That involves installing containers and running piles of VMs, then add cloud services and a cloud manager. It is also a hard environment to manage and to scale. All that functionality, especially some vertical-specific requirements, may lead to a giant, impenetrable mess.

The Solution

All the required network services are tightly integrated in RWG. SmartZone controllers and ICX switches can be adopted by RWG, greatly increasing the deployment speed for large and complex networks. RWG also offers a northbound REST API for configuration and monitoring.

Adoption of Devices and Services Integration

RWG adopts ICX switches and SmartZone controllers, then keeps their configurations in sync with its internal repository. When required, RWG can make configuration changes in SmartZone (using REST API calls) and ICX (using SSH). Also, RWG can create a topology map using LLDP.

The bottom line is that RWG integrates everything needed in one place, so there is no need to buy dedicated RADIUS servers, captive portal servers, routers, firewalls, NAC software, L7 filtering or SD-WAN devices for your branch office or property. Everything talks to everything. RWG is purpose-built to help enterprise networks and service providers to scale.

RWG Scalability

RWG can be installed to run on $400 hardware to bring unmatched functionality to even the smallest networks, and it scales up to run on redundant server clusters to handle ludicrous-size (100,000+ subscribers) large-scale deployments. Dell is a preferred brand to run RWG.

Pack Manager

Pack Manager is a console to manage and monitor multiple RWG instances from a central location. Using Pack Manager, you can monitor the RWG instances health, push config changes to multiple remote devices, or upgrade the RWG instances.

Microsegmentation

Microsegmentation is one of the basic features supported by RWG. RWG supports L2/L3 microsegmentation in several ways: Per unit, Per room and Per account.

PMS Integration

RWG can be integrated with the Property Management System (PMS) guest databases of many large hotel chains, like Marriot, Hilton, and Clarion. It also supports the popular MICROS FIAS specification and comes with a simulated guest database for tests.

Location-Aware Services

RWG supports location services by proximity to the access points (for connected wireless clients), without requiring any other software. RUCKUS SPoT integration is also supported. Using the RWG console, a guest can be instantly located by last name, room number, IP, or MAC address. Portals can also include tools to locate the guests, or for wayfinding. RWG’s location services can also be used to determine the guest’s geospatial location patterns, for real-time network changes or notifications due to crowding events, and for SMS marketing based on location.

Marketing Campaigns

RWG can use policies to configure marketing campaigns. In the example below, when the guest first connects, he needs to inform his mobile phone number. Then, RWG can send SMS messages to the guest mobile phone based on his location or other criteria.

Integrated SD-WAN and Billing

RWG supports basic SD-WAN functions including site-to-site and host-to-site VPNs using IPsec, link load balancing and link selection. For example, for trade shows RWG can use policies and usage plans to display a portal with several ISP options to connect to the Internet. The booth owner can decide which ISP to use – some may have more speed, while others might be cheaper. RWG also includes integration with popular billing systems.

Main Verticals - Use Cases