SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwired - Mar 31, 2014) - Meru Networks® (NASDAQ: MERU), a leader in intelligent Wi-Fi networking, is implementing open standards-based SDN to enable application-specific service level agreements and unified management of wired and wireless networks. Meru's approach to SDN goes a step further than offerings from other Wi-Fi vendors by providing both northbound and southbound APIs in its mobility controllers.

"Meru's approach to augmenting the programmability and flexibility of wireless networks embraces the spirit and goals of the open networking community and the transition to SDN-enabled networks," said Rohit Mehra, vice president, network infrastructure, IDC. "By fully supporting open, standards-based management and control all the way to the access point, Meru intends to provide support for SDN with an eye to meeting the needs of enterprise IT and network managers."

Existing unified access management platforms are costly and closed, typically providing visibility and control of LAN switching as well as WLAN controllers and access points only when the entire solution is supplied by a single vendor. By taking the information exposed by application vendors' SDN APIs and using it to their own advantage -- optimizing performance of those applications without enabling management of both their controllers and access points -- these vendors' SDN implementations are incomplete.

Meru's SDN-enabled Wi-Fi solutions will help ensure consistently high performance of critical business applications and simplify unified management of wired and wireless networks, giving customers immediate benefits without additional training or a "rip-and-replace" of their existing controllers and access points.

"SDN enables application performance, ease of management and simplicity of use for the unified wired and wireless access network," said Ajay Malik, senior vice president of engineering and quality assurance at Meru. "Meru is working toward truly open, standards-based networks where best-in-class solutions win, removing complexity from access network deployment and management -- without requiring additional training and equipment replacement."

For more information on Meru 802.11ac and SDN solutions, join Meru and guest Rohit Mehra of IDC for a webinar on April 26. Register here: http://ubm.io/1lkB7vr.

For more information on Meru's SDN strategy, visit the web site here: http://bit.ly/PadF71.

About Meru Networks
 Meru Networks (NASDAQ: MERU) is a leader in intelligent 802.11ac Wi-Fi solutions, delivering uninterrupted user experience for education, healthcare, hospitality and enterprise. The Meru MobileFLEX architecture is designed to enable seamless roaming with traffic separation for critical applications, providing top performance and high capacity in high-density environments. Visit www.merunetworks.com or call (408) 215-5300 for more information.

©2014 Meru Networks. Meru and Meru Networks are registered trademarks and the Meru logo is a trademark of Meru Networks, Inc. in the United States. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.