Airespace

Airespace, Inc.

Company type	Private
Industry	Networking hardware
Predecessor	Black Storm Networks
Founded	2001
Founder	Pat Calhoun, Bob Friday, Bob O'Hara, Ajay Mishra
Defunct	2005
Fate	Acquired by Cisco Systems
Successor	Cisco Systems (Aironet product series)
Headquarters	United States
Area served	Enterprise Wi-Fi market
Products	Wireless access points, controller technologies, AP-Controller design, Lightweight Access Point Protocol
Parent	Cisco Systems (from 2005)

Airespace, Inc., initially known as Black Storm Networks, was a company specializing in networking systems, established in 2001 with a focus on wireless access points and controller technologies. Among its innovations was the AP-Controller design aimed at swift deployment, as well as the Lightweight Access Point Protocol, which served as an early foundation for the CAPWAP standard.

Corporate history

The inception of Airespace took place in 2001, founded by Pat Calhoun, Bob Friday, Bob O'Hara, and Ajay Mishra. The company secured funding from venture capital firms including Storm Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Fidelity Investments, and Battery Ventures. Starting in 2003, Airespace began providing OEM products to NEC. By the following year, it had broadened its OEM partnerships to include Alcatel and Nortel.

Airespace was a trailblazer in embedding location tracking within wireless network infrastructures and rapidly ascended to a leadership position in the enterprise Wi-Fi market within a year and a half. In 2005, Cisco Systems purchased Airespace for $450 million, marking Cisco’s largest acquisition out of thirteen deals made that year. Following the acquisition, Airespace’s technology was incorporated into Cisco’s Aironet product series.

External links

• Official website (archived)