Hive AP Operating System upgraded by Aerohive

WLAN experts, Aerohive have released the newest version of its Hive AP operating system (HiveOS), which offers a range of enhancements to enable its customers to take comprehensive control of their wireless networks. As per the words of Stephen Philip, Aerohive's VP of marketing, there are more than 50 new features that are being offered in the latest version.

Philip highlighted the introduction of a feature called client health score. "It's the visual representation of statistics," said the VP. He added that, "We use a traffic light approach of red, yellow and green to warn our customers. We did have detailed statistics but we found that our clients wanted both."

He continued saying that one of the most critical parts of the new system was the fact that it dealt with actual transmissions both successful as well as unsuccessful. "The color coding is the effective data rate, taking into account the capability the of client as well as performance of the products.  That's the power of the system, we adjust it for the environment", exclaimed Philip. This means that the same performance in two different organizations can be assessed in different ways, taking the differences in setups into account.

The second new element that Aerohive has introduced is an improvement on its SLA offering to provide real time monitoring of Wi-Fi networks. The idea is to introduce a level of automation into the process so as to spot problems in their early stages. "Call it self-healing if you like," he added. In addition all this, the company has also launched TeacherView, a way for teachers to control a class WLAN.

Philip said that, "The evolution of Wi-Fi has created a new generation of reluctant administrators – schools have gone from having no access layer, to teachers being required to manage that access layer without having any tools." He said that TeacherView would help teachers to manage their students better, leaving them free to concentrate on teaching rather than on LAN administration.

The TeacherView interface allows teachers to monitor client connections, control student usage and ensure that students aren't looking at inappropriate websites. Philip said that teaching was the first vertical that the company was developing specific products for, but was looking at others. The new operating system is available now, while TeacherView will be available in September.