HPE Aruba Networking has rolled out a variety of new products for retailers that are aimed at boosting connectivity for in-store and IoT networks, improving analytics, and streamlining management.
New to the vendor’s retail-ready networking portfolio are the 100 Series Cellular Bridge, an 18-port Ethernet switch designed to fit into tight spaces, and the 750 Series wireless access point – all of which can be managed from the company’s HPE Aruba Networking Central platform.
Retail bundles can also include Aruba’s Private 5G package (P5G), introduced last year, that features an integrated 4G/5G core, HPE ProLiant Gen11 servers, SIM/eSIM cards, 4G/5G small cells, and a dashboard that enables the whole system to be managed via the cloud. The package is based on the 5G technology HPE acquired from Athonet in 2023, including CBRS and 5G starter kits with a mobile packet core, SIM cards, a choice of radio and other components needed to set up private cellular networks quickly.
The new 100 Series Cellular Bridge offers 5G fixed wireless access for remote locations, branch offices, and pop-up sites. It supports 4G/5G connectivity across major public and private cellular including CBRS. For retailers, that means they can offer backup connectivity for critical applications like curbside pickup and credit card processing, according to Gayle Levin, head of wireless product marketing with HPE Aruba Networking.
“Our new 100 Series Cellular Bridge provides backup or primary/secondary connectivity, enabling retailers to get up and running quickly without running fiber and ensuring business continuity for critical applications such as credit card transactions,” Levin wrote in a blog post about the new products.
The new compact switch, along with existing edge computing servers, supports AI inference at the edge. “For applications with real-time large volumes of data, the new high performance, half-width HPE Aruba Networking CX 8325H Switch enables low latency for retail branches,” Levin wrote. “In retail environments, the recently announced HPE ProLiant DL145 offers a small footprint to run AI retail applications at the edge.”
The 750 Series APs support up to 18.7 Gbps tri‑band aggregate data rates and can connect to a ton of IoT devices.
“Our flagship HPE Aruba Networking 750 Series Access Points go beyond the Wi-Fi standard to offer enhanced IoT capabilities,” Levin wrote. “They can connect to more IoT devices with twice the number of connections to support BLE, Zigbee, and USB port extensions. The APs themselves have extra horsepower so that the data can be pre-processed and sent directly to local compute for AI inference in near real-time.”
The Wi-Fi 7 APs also offer enhanced location capabilities for wayfinding, asset tracking, and targeted marketing promotions based on the latest Wi-Fi location standards, Levin stated.
On the management side, enhanced User Experience Insights are part of HPE Aruba Networking Central.
“With support for a wide variety of devices including Zebra and now 6 GHz support, IT gains real-user visibility into performance issues that can impact customer interactions, such as inventory visibility and fulfillment,” Levin wrote. “Because IT can monitor what happens from the device to the network to the application, the team can pinpoint where the problem is actually occurring and resolve issues much more quickly, even if the problem is on the device itself.”
With new recommendations in Networking Central, IT teams can better manage complex retail networks without site visits.
“New AI insights help detect IoT breaches by identifying large uploads or downloads of data by headless devices. Other insights, developed in conjunction with leading global retailers, improve customers’ and associates’ experiences in the store and curbside,” Levin wrote.
“In retail, IoT is literally everywhere — even in the refrigeration unit to manage temperature controls and protect against spoilage. In-store robots roam the aisles checking shelf inventory levels and replenish stock as needed. IoT devices are a rich source of data that can be used to drive AI insights for adaptive advertising, in-store analytics, personalized recommendations, and more,” Levin wrote.
Source:: Network World