Startup NextHop Technologies, which makes software for wired and wireless local area networks, announced it scored $4.8 million in its third round of venture financing. The company has raised a total of $41.8 million over the course of its three VC funding rounds.

NextHop says they’ve got the world’s first turnkey, enterprise-class software solutions for unified wired and wireless LAN switching. NextHop’s wireless controller switching software, was the first 3rd party wireless switch stack to be certified for WPA by WiFi Alliance. It supports layer 3 connectivity between switch and access points. Their GateD NGC is a complete control-plane solution, with all requisite protocols packaged together for next-generation carriers.

Their Access Point provides translation between the radio domain (IEEE 802.11) and the wired network domain (IEEE 802.3). In effect, says Nexthop, it provides a bridging function. The AP can also enforce policies such as QoS and Fast Roaming.

What does it mean for users? We’re not sure. But $41 million seems like a lot of dough.

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Sam Churchill and Don Park run the DailyWireless.org website which summarizes the news from Community Lan and other industry related sectors with detailed updates from around the world. It is full of sausy talk, viscious rumors and tantilizing tidbits.

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