AirTight Network's SpectraGuard product family provides RF coverage, monitoring, and intrusion detection/prevention capabilities for wireless LANs.

The core entry in the product family is SpectraGuard Enterprise, which itself consists of two primary components: The SpectraGuard Sensors, several of which are deployed throughout the WLAN infrastructure and which provide the RF monitoring, data collection, and policy enforcement capabilities (such as detecting/blocking unauthorized access to rogue APs or DoS attacks including authentication floods, association floods, etc.); and the central SpectraGuard Server appliance, which provides the management and policy definition capabilities for multiple SpectraGuard Sensors. The Sensors are delivered as hardware devices; while the Servers can be purchased as hardware appliances provided by the vendor or as software (Windows). The vendor states that the platform architecture is such that each Server can handle "tens of thousands" of SAFE clients (see below), with the platform supporting thousands of sensors and millions of WLAN devices.

Beyond its ability to detect and classify APs (automatic classifications include authorized, rogue, external, misconfigured, and soft APs), block traffic based on those classifications, and block potential DoS attacks, SpectraGuard Enterprise additionally supports real-time RF coverage mapping and location tracking, which enables administrators to physically locate detected APs (optionally integrates with floor plans from SpectraGuard Planner); integration with existing SNMP management systems; selectable prevention levels from "Deter" to "Complete Blocking;" a "Network Detector" feature that enables visibility of the wired network without requiring a Sensor on each subnet; and drillable reporting features including pre-defined compliance reports and support for customizable reporting and delivery frequency.

Additional products in the SpectraGuard family include:

- SpectraGuard MNC, or Managed Network Console. The MNC provides the ability to centrally manage multiple SpectraGuard Enterprise Servers, even those that are distributed to remote locations.

- SpectraGuard Sentry: A single-sensor version of the platform targeted to SMB deployments. The SpectraGuard Sentry is accessed/managed via a Web (SSL) console, and provides the AP detection/classification and blocking capabilities of SpectraGuard Enterprise but without the central management of multiple sensors, RF coverage and location tracking, and compliance reporting features.

- SpectraGuard SAFE: Actually a software client (Windows XP+) for end points. SAFE (Security Agent For Endpoints) provides policy-based access controls that are centrally managed via a SpectraGuard Enterprise Server and enforced on the endpoint even when the endpoint is disconnected from the corporate network.

- SpectraGuard Planner: A WLAN planning tool that allows admins to input their floor plans and model potential RF coverages via the drag and drop placement of APs or Sensor devices on the map. The Planner supports the inputting of floor plans via TIF, JPEG and BMP images, and can model 802.11a, 802.11b, or 802.11b/g protocols with available views including indoor RF coverage, outdoor RF coverage, link speed, channel allocation, AP placement, sensor placement, sensor coverage, and spillage. A site calibration tool is included that can be used to take real-time RF measurements to calibrate the floor plan.

New features in the latest release of SpectraGuard Enterprise include:

- Integration with Cisco WLAN Controller, including the ability to leverage Cisco data including device inventory, and Cisco AP background scans for threat location tracking

- Location-based policy management and regional administration, which allows both the delegation of management to local administrators and the definition of policies to be applied to specific locations such as an individual site, or even an individual location (such as a floor) within a site (location-based policy management is a separately priced upgrade)

- Enhanced 802.11n threat detection

- "WEPGuard," for the detection and blocking of WEP cracking attacks and blocking of intruders using spoofed identities and compromised WEP keys

SpectraGuard Enterprise is available now; a starter kit with a Server and two Sensors is priced at $9,995. The upgrade license for location-based policy management is priced at $4,995.

Visit the AirTight Networks Web site for further information.

product submission by EITPlanet Staff

E-Mail this page to a colleague
send info about SpectraGuard

Suggest a link
for the SpectraGuard fact sheet