Wi-Fi Equipment Vendors and Their Products

How Green are the Keyplayers?

This vendor matrix evaluates the "greenness" of Wi-Fi access points and controllers as well as the greenness of the vendors themselves. Criteria used for this evaluation include specific value-add "green" features associated with these products as well as a power efficiency score for controllers. Criteria used to evaluate the vendors include the scope and granularity of their carbon footprint studies and subsequent quantifiable carbon footprint goals; the degree of their regulatory compliance; their recycling efforts; their overall internal efforts to reduce power use, water use, etc.; their use of telepresence and video conferencing to reduce employee travel; their efforts to encourage telecommuting; and their membership on industry environmental organizations and the degree of their participation. ABI Research believes that this is the most comprehensive evaluation of the greenness of Wi-Fi equipment ever conducted.

Motorola emerged as the winner in the Implementation category, which represents the greenness of a vendor’s product portfolio. There are several reasons for Motorola’s ranking. While its controller was not the greenest using ABI Research’s capacity/power consumed metric, the company scored very heavily on value-add green features including, but not limited to, software enhancements to boost battery life, very long product lifecycles, support for 802.11n under 802.3af using load balancing, the ability to integrate intrusion-detection sensors into its access points, remote operations, very green power supplies, and the use of recycled materials. Motorola was just a fraction of a point behind Cisco in terms of a vendor’s internal green initiatives, but scored high enough on its product features to achieve the overall greenest of the green honors. Perhaps because of its European corporate location, Siemens is very much involved in environmental concerns. That focus is reflected both in its internal green initiatives as well as in its products. Siemens’ WLAN equipment is distinguished by its ability to handle full 802.11n power requirements without the need to turn off any radios. While other vendors claim to have duplicated Siemens’ accomplishment, the vendor argues that none of those competitors have been able to demonstrate that capability under independent lab conditions.

Hewlett-Packard is poised to assume leadership in the green WLAN equipment market. Its corporate internal green efforts are already ranked number 1 (tied with Cisco). It has acquired Colubris’ WLAN equipment, which already has the highest score for being the most power efficient controller. That honor is due in large measure to Colubris’ architecture, which does not need to send large amounts of data back to a centralized controller. Colubris, as a relatively small company, fell to the same level as competitors Aruba, Meru, and Trapeze when it came to Innovation, ABI Research’s category that examines a vendor’s internal green initiatives. These companies have initiated some internal programs to reduce energy, encourage telecommuting and video conferencing, and use recycled goods, but they have not undertaken carbon footprint studies nor developed comprehensive quantifiable carbon footprint goals. Similarly, they have not been as active in green organizations as much as larger companies such as Cisco, HP, Motorola, and Siemens. These very areas where Colubris failed to score significant points are precisely the areas where HP is very strong. Once HP assumes full control of Colubris, it is likely to enforce the same environmental policies regarding use of recycled material in manufacturing and recycling of customer equipment that it now has in place for its switches, servers, and PCs.