cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Descent Priced Smart Zone Controller

corey_britton
New Contributor II

Hello,

I am wanting to get around 8 access points and they need to be FIPS compliant. From what I've gathered I would need a SmartZone controller to run them in FIPS mode. Some of the controllers look like way more than what I need. I was just curious if there's a controller you guys would recommend for a small install?

Thanks

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

DarrelRhodes
Valued Contributor

My pleasure @corey_britton !

Here's an example BoM for 8x R650 APs managed by vSZ-E:

1x L09-VSCG-WW00 = Virtual SmartZone RTU  license
1x S01-VSCG-1L00 = End User WatchDog Support - VSZ-RTU, 1 YR
8x L09-0001-SG00 = AP management license for SZ
8x S01-0001-1LSG = End User WatchDog Support Per SZ/(v)SZ AP, 1 YR
8x 901-R650-WW00 = R650 dual-band 802.11abgn/ac/ax  Wireless AP

View solution in original post

7 REPLIES 7

syamantakomer
Community Admin
Community Admin

Hi Corey,

Only Ruckus SmartZone and virtual SmartZone are capable of FIPS, hence these are the only available options to deploy FIPS APs.


Syamantak Omer
Sr.Staff TSE | CWNA | CCNA | RCWA | RASZA | RICXI
RUCKUS Networks, CommScope!
Follow me on LinkedIn

@syamantak_omer thank you. I was just trying to see what the most affordable SmartZone controller would be.

@darrel_rhodes need your help on this one.


Syamantak Omer
Sr.Staff TSE | CWNA | CCNA | RCWA | RASZA | RICXI
RUCKUS Networks, CommScope!
Follow me on LinkedIn

DarrelRhodes
Valued Contributor

Hi Corey,

FIPS is supported by both hardware and virtualised RUCKUS controller platforms.

By far the most cost effective controller is the virtualSmartZone Essentials (vSZ-E).  The part number for this is: L09-VSCG-WW00

This is for the vSZ 'Right-to-Use (RTU)' license that includes a single AP license, for running on a VM Hypervisor such as VMWare, KVM or Hyper-V. You will also need additional AP and support licenses.

Once you have purchased the vSZ-E RTU you will need to download the FIPS version of the vSZ-E software from the Ruckus support site: https://support.ruckuswireless.com

It appears the lastest version of the FIPS compliant vSZ-E is: 5.1.2.3.1232 - this was released on the 26th of July 2021.

We have previously had FIPS-specific AP models but it appears this is no longer required for our latest Wi-Fi 6 APs as we do not have FIPS specific 802.11ax AP models on our price list.

I hope the above information helps.  I would highly recommend you contact your local Ruckus partner for further assistance:  https://extapps.commscope.com/howtobuy/RuckusChannelPartner

Best,
Darrel.