It began when last month announced its AP-105, a dual-radio, 2x2 802.11n enterprise-class AP for $695, a price that undercuts anything seen in the enterprise 802.11n market for a dual-radio device. At the same time, Aruba also dropped the price of its 3x3 AP-124 and AP-125 products from $1,295 to $995.

Aruba says it was able to create the $695 AP-105 radio 802.11n AP by making tweaks to design, construction and feature sets. For example, the AP-105 sports a single gigabit Ethernet port while the AP-124 and AP-125 have two.

The AP-124 and 125 (which differ in that the 124 uses external antennas, while the 125 uses internal ones) will achieve slightly higher throughput than the AP-105, acknowledges Mike Tennefoss, head of strategic marketing. One reason is that, while all three devices support two spatial streams, the more expensive 3x3 devices have an extra antenna for improved diversity in interference-prone environments. Also, the AP-124/125 feature faster processors than the AP-105, he says.

Not to be outdone, Cisco is running a pricing promotion on its 802.11n 1140 dual-radio APs that will run until July 2010. A 10-pack of controller-based APs is $9,950, or $995 each.