Ruckus Wireless, has introduced the Ruckus ZoneFlex R300, one of the industry’s highest performing and lowest cost dual-band, two-stream 802.11n Smart Wi-Fi indoor access points (APs) capable of delivering an aggregate data rate of up to 600 Mbps. Aimed at the price-sensitive small business market, the R300 is also ideally suited for small venues and enterprises with many branch locations.

With cloud computing and the proliferation of embedded Wi-Fi in all types of devices, Wi-Fi has become a mission-critical utility for small businesses.  As a result, they are now replacing SOHO-class, standalone access points with more robust, enterprise-grade wireless LAN (WLAN) solutions that are simple to deploy and operate while meeting their budget requirements.

Developed to directly address these issues, the Ruckus R300 redefines Wi-Fi for the low end of the WLAN market by combining cost-effectiveness with a rich collection of enterprise functionality and enterprise-class service and support options.

“With the R300, we are enabling our channel partners and managed service providers to reach further into the ‘S’ part of the SMB market with a highly differentiated and compelling enterprise-grade solution at a disruptive price point,” said Selina Lo, president and chief executive officer of Ruckus Wireless.

“Combined with SAMS, our Cloud controller service, the R300 provides a whole new economics model to customers and partners.  They are the first in a comprehensive solution roadmap we’ve developed to expand our market reach,” Lo concluded.

U.S. Census data shows that there are more than 6 million businesses in operation today with less than 100 employees each in the U.S. alone, and according to the most recent report on the WLAN market from the Dell’Oro Group, WLAN revenues for the small business market in 2013 reached over $4.5 billion, with over 100 million APs shipped worldwide.

The Ideal Component for Cloud-Based Wi-Fi Access

The Ruckus ZoneFlex R300 is the only AP in its class to integrate patented adaptive antenna technology to extend the range, performance and reliability of Wi-Fi at one of the most attractive price points in the industry. Deployed as a standalone access point or part of a centrally managed Ruckus WLAN, the R300 is also an ideal access component for organizations looking to migrate to new Cloud-based Wi-Fi access services such as the recently announced Ruckus Smart Access Management Service (SAMS).

Supported across the entire range of Ruckus management platforms including the ZoneDirector and SmartCell Gateway (SCG), the ZoneFlex R300 gives organizations a wide range of flexible deployment options that best suit their specific requirements.

Key features of the product

The ZoneFlex R300 is a dual-band, two-stream 802.11n access point capable of supporting up to 256 active connections. Each R300 uniquely integrates Ruckus-patented BeamFlex, a software-controlled, high gain directional antenna array system that continually forms and directs each packet over the best performing signal path, automatically adapting Wi-Fi signals to constant environmental changes to ensure the highest levels of range, reliability and client performance.

Within a sleek, lightweight and low profile form factor that fits in the palm of your hand, the R300 is ideal for small business use. The R300 comes with a limited lifetime warranty and features a myriad of advanced capabilities not available in competitive alternatives, such as network address translation (NAT) and DHCP services, optimized video streaming, per-use rate limiting, band steering, client load balancing, standard Power over Ethernet (PoE) support and advanced quality of services support for automatic prioritization of delay sensitive traffic.

The Ruckus ZoneFlex R300 access point is priced at $395.00.