Xirrus, a provider of long range Wi-Fi products that extend wired network capabilities to wireless, has announced the issuance of United States Patent Number US D526,973 S by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The United States Design Patent covers the physical housing of the Wi-Fi Array and was issued on Aug. 22, 2006.

“This patent is one in a series of applications that will strengthen our intellectual property portfolio and solidify our position as an innovator in the Wi-Fi market,” said Dirk Gate, CEO of Xirrus. “Our first design patent on the Wi-Fi Array will put us ahead of our competitors to deliver a high capacity wireless networking solution.”

The Xirrus Triple Play Wi-Fi Array, which packs four, eight, or 16 radios along with an onboard Gigabit switch into a compact, ceiling-mountable device, uses industry-standard wired QoS protocols -- 802.1Q and 802.1p -- in exactly the same manner as a Wired Ethernet network. Each Xirrus Triple Play Wi-Fi Array is capable of real-time, load-balanced discrete classification and prioritization between the wired and Wi-Fi network of 180 simultaneous voice calls per array; 45 simultaneous SDTV video streams per array; wireless fast Ethernet backhaul links between arrays; Gigabit Ethernet uplinks to the wired network; along with fast roaming between radios within an array and between arrays.