The partner guide to selling private area networks (PAN) for the ultimate ‘at-home WiFi experience’

Help your clients drive resident satisfaction and simplify IT operations

The goal for any multi-tenant environment—be it a hotel, university dorm, or apartment block—is to provide an "at-home" WiFi experience, but with enterprise-grade security.

Traditional shared WiFi networks fail at this dual challenge. They either expose all user devices to one another so your neighbor can see your smart TV, or they isolate them so completely that a user cannot connect to their own devices, like a printer or Chromecast.

Private Area Networks (PAN) solve this by combining simple connectivity with powerful micro-segmentation. This enables a highly marketable, premium service that drives resident satisfaction and simplifies IT operations.

What is a private area network (PAN)?

A PAN is a dynamically created "virtual bubble" (micro-segmentation) that is unique to a single user or resident. Users are placed in their own micro-segment (VLAN/Group). They can communicate with their own devices but are completely isolated from all neighbors and other employees.

To achieve this, the platform utilizes mDNS reflection. This allows service discovery—such as finding a Chromecast or Printer—within the user's private group while strictly maintaining Layer 2 isolation from others.

 

This means the resident can connect their smart devices and use AirPlay or Chromecast exactly as they would at home, but without the security risk of being exposed to every other user in the building.

The key components of the ultimate 'at-home experience'

To deliver a secure and seamless PAN, the solution requires two key pieces of technology working together.

First, there is Identity PSK (iPSK). This is a hybrid technology. To the end-device, it looks exactly like a simple WPA2-Personal password. But the back-end system uses that specific, unique password to identify the user and assign them specific permissions.

The great benefit here is that it allows residents to connect all their devices—including gaming consoles, smart TVs, and printers—easily using a passcode, solving the incompatibility problem that WPA2-Enterprise creates with "dumb" devices.

Your partner pitch: Business value and differentiation

When selling this to Multi-Dwelling Unit (MDU), student housing, or hotel operators, focus the conversation on these critical outcomes:

• Reduced IT support load: The most common complaints in these environments are related to connecting smart devices and printing. By providing a simple iPSK for all devices and isolating them with a PAN, you dramatically reduce helpdesk tickets and IT complexity.

• Premium residential offering: The ability for a resident to print to their printer without the neighbor being able to communicate with it is the gold standard for user experience in housing. This superior, secure network experience makes the property highly desirable and competitive.

• Future-proof security: Even though the user is typing a simple passcode, they are effectively getting Enterprise-like management, ensuring security, user isolation, and dynamic policy control on the network.

Purple support multi-vendor environments and vendor-specific PAN terminology (like Cisco Meraki's WiFi Personal Network or Ruckus’s Cloudpath).

How about scheduling a call to integrate the PAN solution into your MDU or hospitality offering?