Aerohive Networks (http://www.aerohive.com), which specializes in cloud-enabled enterprise networking infrastructure, has announced a new feature that enables management and control of Apple’s “Zero-Configuration Networking” technology, called Bonjour, to make services such as AirPrint and AirPlay usable across large, multi-subnet networks regardless of the underlying topology.
Aerohive’s new patent-pending Bonjour Gateway, will be delivered as a software upgrade for existing customers and as an out-of-band device compatible with customers’ legacy wireless and wired networks. With the increasing prevalence of Apple devices on both enterprise and education networks, particularly with new bring your own device (BYOD) initiatives, it’s necessary for the network infrastructure to be natively aware of Bonjour, Apple’s service advertisement and configuration technology, according to the folks at Aerohive.
Bonjour (or Zero-Configuration Networking) is used to configure services like printing, file services, and remote display with Apple TV. Multicast DNS-based Bonjour is a layer 2, non-routable protocol so doesn’t work across subnets.
For legacy wireless and wired networks, a single Aerohive device with Bonjour Gateway functionality could be connected out-of-band via a VLAN trunk and provide Bonjour advertisements across each of the associated subnets. This is designed to simplify the deployment of Apple devices into networks without any change to the current network topology.