In the 26th in a series of Showdowns, Network World Editorial Director John Gallant today moderated a sometimes contentious Showdown session on enterprise wireless networking genre. Four wireless industry vendors participated: Alan Cohen from Airspace, Keerti Melkote from Aruba Networks, Ron Seide of Cisco Systems, and Vipin Jain from Extreme Networks. After each vendor stated their position within the enterprise networking marketplace, the panelists each pointed towards perceived flaws in Cisco's wireless networking architectures.
 
Said Aruba's Melkote in a question to Cisco's Seidi, "how can you get a complete system with layer 3 switching (ed note: layer 3 switching is needed for voice-over-IP) without using a Cisco Catalyst 6500 switch?"  Replied Seide, "We've heavily researched the problem, and believe that the client base we have that would want this type of subnet switching already has or is at the level of need for the 'Cat 6500'." Airespace's Cohen added, "but there's also a need to add router blades and license in addition to whatever the 6500 cost, as well."
 
The controversy over thick versus thin wireless access points also took hits, as each panelist took issue with Aruba's Melkote's contention that 'thin was in'. Melkote replied that the thinness or thickness doesn't really matter-it's actually a matter of how intelligent that the interactivity between access points can be controlled.