Aerohive at WFD2 Part 1: Devin Akin, Matthew Gast, Founders

Devin Akin introduces the company and panel content, then Matthew Gast walks through his vision for Wi-Fi. Next up is Aerohive founder and CTO, Changming Liu. Finally, Abby Hassel Strong presents a review of Aerohive’s progress in 2011 and gives a special gift to Chris Lyttle.

At Wireless Field Day 2, Aerohive showcases their latest innovations by highlighting the evolution of wireless technology and their unique architectural approach. Their presentation covers the company’s direction, developments from the past year, and insight into the future of gigabit wireless networks, especially in relation to 802.11ac. Key executives, including Devin Akin, Matthew Gast, and company founder Chia-Ming Liu, discuss the technical progress and strategic vision driving Aerohive’s distributed controller-less architecture forward.

During the presentation, Matthew Gast delves into both the technical progression of the wireless industry and challenges that new standards bring. He cleverly compares traditional wireless controllers to dinosaurs—relics of the past—as 802.11ac and beamforming technologies reshape the landscape. Gast explains critical limitations in existing security protocols such as CCMP and suggests GCMP as a necessary evolution due to higher data rates and the need for parallel encryption. He emphasizes the importance of having up-to-date hardware capable of meeting the advancing specifications. Additionally, he discusses the complexities of 256 QAM modulation, the need for clean radio design, and improvements in performance through features like multi-user beamforming.

Founder Chia-Ming Liu reflects on the vision behind Aerohive’s architecture, conceived to handle gigabit Wi-Fi well before 802.11ac formally arrived. Inspired by a 2005 IEEE demo of fast wireless speeds, Liu deliberately steered away from centralized controller-based designs, opting instead for a distributed model similar to Ethernet’s evolution. Acknowledging the technical challenges posed by distributed architecture, particularly with roaming and RF management, he credits his engineering team for overcoming these hurdles. Wrapping up the session, Aerohive discusses their 2011 product launches, such as the BR100 branch router, Cloud VPN gateway, new access points, and enhanced management software, along with support for features like rogue mitigation, spectrum analysis via iPad, and student management integrations.