Ubiquiti Networks

Not to be confused with UniFi.
Ubiquiti Networks
Public
Traded as NASDAQ: UBNT
Industry Computer networking
Founded June 2005 (2005-06)
Founders Robert J. Pera Rammohan Malasani
Headquarters San Jose, California, USA
Products Computer networking devices
Website www.ubnt.com

Ubiquiti Networks is an American technology company started in 2005. Based in San Jose, California Ubiquiti manufactures wireless data communication products for enterprise and wireless broadband providers with a primary focus on under-served and emerging markets. They are best known for the UniFi series of managed wireless networking products, focussing on long-range WiFi access points.

History

Ubiquiti entered the wireless technology market in June 2005, after announcing its "Super Range" mini-PCI radio card series. The SR2 and SR5 cards were adopted by original equipment manufacturers and wireless Internet service providers. Customers included Wireless Router Application Platform (WRAP), Soekris, and Mikrotik. Operating at the 2.4 and 5.8 GHz bands, the "Super Range" modules used the Atheros integrated circuits.[1]

In January 2006, Ubiquiti announced Freedom Frequency, which used frequencies as high as 60 Gigahertz (GHz) on its radio modules. This encouraged the release of the SR9, a separate card operating at 900 MHz non-standard IEEE 802.11 band.

After extending the supported frequencies to the 4.9 GHz band with the SR4 card, Ubiquiti announced the "Xtreme Range" series featuring two more mini-PCI cards, the XR2 and XR5. Robert J. Pera, CEO of Ubiquiti, attributed improvements to sensitivity, temperature rating and noise immunity to the "customer interactions and shared field testing experiences" as well as "real world scenarios using the Linux kernel MadWifi driver."[2][3]

Ubiquiti introduced the PowerStation in May 2007, its first product to feature an integrated radio/antenna design, In the same year, Ubiquiti released more XR cards for the licensed bands to deal with congestion seen in the 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz bands. The company received attention in August 2007 when a group of Italian amateur radio operators set a distance world record for point-to-point links in the 5.8 GHz spectrum. Using two XR5 cards and a pair of 35 dBi dish antennas, the Italian team was able to establish a 304 km (about 188 mi) link at data rates between 4-5 Mbit/s.[4]

In 2008, Ubiquiti announced additions to its 802.11 b/g lineup, including the Bullet, NanoStation, NanoStation Loco, PicoStation and RouterStation. The following year gave rise to airMAX, Ubiquiti’s proprietary MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output) Time division multiple access (TDMA) polling technology. The new protocol presented an entire lineup of radio/antenna systems, building on the 802.11 b/g series, including the Rocket M. Shortly before the end of 2009, Ubiquiti announced the NanoBridge M and AirGrid M.

Over the course of 2010, airMAX World Conferences (AWC) were held in Europe, Asia, and North and South America, including San Jose, California, where Ubiquiti headquarters are located. More products, including the AirWire, WifiStation and Power AP N, were released. Ubiquiti also began supporting airMAX products for the 900 MHz and 3 GHz bands. In the fourth quarter, Ubiquiti announced its TOUGHCable, AirSync technology and UniFi indoor wireless system. Using GPS technology, AirSync effectively eliminated AP interference experienced by co-located APs. Nominated by other wireless companies at WISPAPALOOZA 2010, Ubiquiti was awarded as Manufacturer of the Year.[5][6] as well as for product of the year.[5]

In 2011, Ubiquiti released new antennas for its M series devices as well as new models for the NanoBridge series. In August, outdoor and mini UniFi APs were announced, as well as AirCam/AirVision, an IP camera/NVR software. For a second consecutive year, Ubiquiti received the WISPA Manufacturer of the Year award. During October, Ubiquiti announced: Rocket/Bullet Titanium, a Rocket M5 with Gigabit Ethernet ports, TOUGHSwitch, a POE switch, EdgeMAX powered by EdgeOS, a routing platform based on Vyatta, UniFi and AirCam Pro series, as well as AirControl, management-software for Ubiquiti equipment.

At its 2012 Chicago AWC, Pera unveiled a new 24 GHz radio platform called AirFiber. AirFiber is able to achieve speeds of up to 1.4 Gbit/s of aggregate speed.

In 2015, Ubiquiti revealed that it lost $46.7 million in a scam.[7]

Voice over IP

In July of 2014 Ubiquiti announced its entry into the Voice over IP business by unveiling new UniFi systems. This new line of phones will come in three varieties: a basic model starting at $149 set to ship in late 2014 and -Pro and a -Executive models to ship shortly after. The systems will run a version of the Android operating system. All of the phones include a 5-inch (12.7 cm) touchscreen that allows for videochatting and access to the Google Play Store. The -Pro and -Executive models are Wi-Fi equipped enabling them to operate without having to run Ethernet cables to all phones, but are not wireless because power cables are still needed. All are Power over Ethernet enabled. All of the phones can be managed in the UniFi controller that already manages the Uni-Fi Wireless Access Point line.

Stock market

On October 13, 2011, Ubiquiti Networks had its initial public offering (IPO) at 7.04 million shares, $15 per share.[8] Most of the shares were from existing stockholders, so the company raised only $30.5 million.[9]

Software

AirOS is the firmware maintained by Ubiquiti Networks for its products. It is Linux-based but features a modified MadWifi Linux kernel device driver for Atheros-based Wireless LAN devices, rather than the free and open source Atheros-based ath5k or ath9k drivers, the drivers accepted into the Linux kernel. The PicoStation M2, Bullet M2/M5, NanoStation M2/M5, Rocket M2/M5, and UniFi AP models are also used as a basis for Commotion Wireless networks, with the customized Commotion software installed.[10]

Security

In 2013, it was discovered that there was a security issue in the version of the U-Boot boot loader shipped on Ubiquiti's devices. It was possible to extract the plaintext configuration from the device without leaving a trace using Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) and an Ethernet cable, revealing information such as passwords.[11] While this issue is fixed in current versions of Ubiquiti hardware, despite many requests and acknowledging that they are using this GPL-protected application, Ubiquiti refuses to provide the source code for the GNU General Public License (GPL)-licensed U-Boot.[12][13] This made it impossible (in practical terms) for Ubiquiti's customers to fix the issue.[12]

It was reported by online reporter, Brian Krebs, on June 15, 2015, that [14] "Recently, researchers at the Fujitsu Security Operations Center in Warrington, UK began tracking [the] Upatre [trojan software] being served from hundreds of compromised home routers — particularly routers powered by MikroTik and Ubiquiti’s AirOS." Bryan Campbell of the Fujitsu Security Operations Center in Warrington, UK reported, "“We have seen literally hundreds of wireless access points, and routers connected in relation to this botnet, usually AirOS,” said Bryan Campbell, lead threat intelligence analyst at Fujitsu. “The consistency in which the botnet is communicating with compromised routers in relation to both distribution and communication leads us to believe known vulnerabilities are being exploited in the firmware which allows this to occur.”

References

  1. ↑ "Ubiquiti Networks announces hi-power SuperRange2 and SuperRange5 mini-PCI modules | Ubiquiti Networks, Inc". Ubnt.com. 2010-03-09. Archived from the original on 9 March 2010. Retrieved 2012-12-22.
  2. ↑ "Ubiquiti’s 600mW WiFi cards". dailywireless.org. 2007-02-08. Retrieved 2012-12-22.
  3. ↑ http://madwifi-project.org/ MadWifi
  4. ↑ "World Record 304km Wi-Fi connection". Gizmag.com. Retrieved 2012-12-22.
  5. 1 2 http://web.archive.org/web/20111108031214/http://www.wispa.org/?p=5138
  6. ↑ http://goarticles.com/article/Wireless-Solutions-Ubiquiti/7118730/
  7. ↑ "Fraudsters duped this company into handing over $40 million". Fortune.com. Retrieved 2015-10-19.
  8. ↑ "Ubiquiti Networks IPO Priced To Work At $15?". Seeking Alpha. Retrieved 2012-12-22.
  9. ↑ "Annual report for fiscal year ended June 30, 2012". Form 10-K. US Securities and Exchange Commission. 21 September 2012. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  10. ↑ "Supported Devices". Commotionwireless.net. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
  11. ↑ "AirOS and Security DUMP of configuration files with TFTP or other thing"
  12. 1 2 "GPL archive missing components"
  13. ↑ "Four ways Ubiquiti Networks is creatively violating the GPL". Retrieved 28 October 2015.
  14. ↑ "Crooks Use Hacked Routers to Aid Cyberheists".
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