Mist Expands Industry's First Artificial Intelligence-Driven Wireless LAN with New Wi-Fi Innovations

CUPERTINO, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 25, 2017) - Mist, the pioneer in self-learning wireless networks using artificial intelligence, announced today several unique innovations to its award-winning WLAN platform that make it even easier to setup, manage and troubleshoot Wi-Fi as a managed service. After gaining acclaim for delivering unprecedented visibility into the mobile user experience and proactive automation for seamless operations, Mist has raised the bar even higher with several new Wi-Fi firsts including client service levels, new machine learning algorithms for proactive anomaly detection, personal WLANs for micro-segmentation of traffic, and an expanded portfolio of Access Points (APs) for Wi-Fi, BLE and IoT convergence.

Client Service Level Expectations (SLE)
 Mist is the first WLAN platform that makes Wi-Fi predictable, reliable and measurable. With the Mist learning WLAN, you can set, monitor and enforce Service Level Expectations (SLE) for both pre-connection (time to connect, failed connection attempts and roaming) and post-connection metrics (coverage, capacity, throughput and AP uptime). These SLEs can then be monitored in real-time and tracked over a period of time to provide ongoing insight into the operational health of the Wi-Fi network.

Not only can these SLEs be set at a site and AP level, but they can now be defined at an individual client level, allowing IT administrators to track and optimize the experience of every single Wi-Fi user. Client level SLEs are an industry first, and a unique feature of the Mist platform. They are possible because the Mist platform uses a customized microservices wireless control plane that tracks hundreds of client states in real-time from pre- to post-connection, combined with the latest technologies for collecting and processing huge amounts of data at scale. 

Anomaly Detection for Self-Learning Networks
The Mist platform also lets you baseline SLE metrics to determine what is "normal" for your environment. This data is aggregated and analyzed using machine learning to proactively detect major deviations before they have an adverse impact on the user experience. With Mist's new geospatial baselining and anomaly detection, you can proactively spot trends across device types, operating systems, WLANs and applications, pinpointing which areas need immediate attention and which are interesting but not critical. This information is then ingested by the Mist self-learning network to take action and proactively recommend remediation options to prevent similar anomalies in the future.

Patent Pending Personal WLANs Provide Virtual Network Segmentation
Mist has extended its patent-pending WxLAN policy engine to now allow secure onboarding and segmentation of users and IoT devices. Traditionally, the only way to segment groups of wireless users and provide secure access to shared resources that don't support 802.1x was to create unique pre-shared key SSIDs for every group. Mist is the first in the industry to break free from this model with patent-pending Personal WLAN technology. Personal WLANs allow the secure onboarding and segmentation of multiple user or device groups on a single common SSID using personalized pre-shared keys (across all APs). Users can create their own private keys that can then be applied to the devices of their choosing and shared within a controlled group. People outside the group cannot access these devices or services. 

Personal WLANs put control in the hands of the wireless user, while preserving security and ease of connection without requiring expensive segmentation or Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) services. At the same time, they keep wireless spectrum utilization efficient and clean by minimizing the number of SSIDs that must be setup and managed. They are perfect for environments where users need private access to shared devices, such as hotels, retail stores, malls, public venues and school dormitory rooms.

Expanded Access Point (AP) Portfolio
Mist is leading the convergence of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth® LE and IoT. Our enterprise-grade APs include the best Wi-Fi 802.11ac range and performance, a dynamic vBLE 16 element antenna array for the industry's most accurate location services, extra radios for collecting data and enforcing policies in conjunction with the Mist cloud, and an expansion port for Internet of Things (IoT). 

The Mist family of Access Points (all of which are managed by the Mist cloud) include:

AP41 - the highest performance enterprise-grade Access Point for converged 802.11ac Wave 2 4x4 Gigabit Wi-Fi, BLE and IoT environments.

BT11 - an industry-first Access Point for enterprise grade BLE.

New to the Mist family are:

AP21 (available now) - a high performance converged Wi-Fi and BLE access point. The AP21 supports 802.11ac 2x2 Gigabit Wi-Fi for dual-band data services (2.4GHz and 5GHz.) and a directional 16-element BLE antenna array that supports Mist's vBLE location services.

AP61 (available Q3 2017), is the industry's first outdoor access point that converges 802.11ac Wave 2 4x4 Gigabit Wi-Fi with a directional 16-element BLE antenna array that supports Mist's vBLE location services.

Helpful Links:

• Mist website: www.mist.com
• Mist platform: www.mist.com/platform
• Mist products: www.mist.com/products/
• Mist services: www.mist.com/services

About Mist
Mist built the first AI-driven wireless platform, designed specifically for the Smart Device Era. The Mist Learning Wireless LAN makes Wi-Fi predictable, reliable and measurable by providing unprecedented visibility into the user experience and by replacing time consuming manual IT tasks with proactive automation. In addition, Mist is the first vendor to bring enterprise-grade Wi-Fi, BLE and IoT together to deliver personalized, location-based wireless services without requiring battery-powered beacons. All operations are managed via Mist's modern cloud architecture for maximum scalability, agility and performance.

The Mist team consists of leading experts in wireless, machine learning and cloud, who are responsible for building the largest and most advanced networks in the world. Founded in 2014, the company is based in Cupertino, CA and funded by top investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Cisco Investments. For more information, visit www.mist.com.