Sierra Wireless now offers an IPsec VPN to protect the software in its AirLink series of wireless gateways, company officials said today.

IPsec is a standard method of authenticating and encrypting data packets.  The technology will be integrated into Sierra’s AirLink Embedded Operating System (ALEOS).

The new IPsec support can be downloaded now by existing customers and will ship with Sierra’s hardware by June.  Previously, only a packet filter and firewall protected Sierra-based networks.

System administrators can make changes locally or remotely using Sierra’s AceWare utility programs.  Other features include a setup wizard and over-the-air updates for the existing products such as AirLink Raven X, AirLink PinPoint X and AirLink Raven XT, officials said.

IPsec is already included in some products from CradlePoint, a supplier of mobile broadband networking and docking hardware that Sierra acquired for $30.2 million last month.