MobileAccess melds cellular, WLAN nets

Single infrastructure supports VoIP, wireless, data and cellular transmissions.

By John Cox, Network World
June 16, 2003 12:02 AM ET

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MobileAccess Networks has come up with an offering that at first glance seems counterintuitive: You lay fiber-optic and coaxial cable to distribute wireless signals within a building or campus.

But upon closer inspection, the gear makes a lot more sense. You install a single infrastructure once and use it to carry any kind of wireless signal: cellular voice or data, paging, wireless voice over IP (VoIP) and wireless LAN (WLAN) traffic. By running the traffic across fiber and coax, customers can avoid wireless interference issues that crop up, for example, where walls are thick.

The basic idea has been around for several years to improve cellular telephone reception. MobileAccess, formerly known as Foxcom Wireless, has a global business in this market. But with new products introduced last week, the company now handles IEEE 802.11 WLAN signals as well.

The new product portfolio is based on the company's original product, Modulite. The new MobileAccess line includes a Modular Base Unit, which conditions different types of cellular traffic; Remote Units that aggregate traffic from WLANs and assorted wireless clients; and simple ceiling-mounted antennas that take the place of antennas found on typical WLAN access points and that work with cell phones, wireless PDAs and other wireless clients.

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MobileAccess products have been running since November at Rice Memorial Hospital, which replaced an aging portable phone system.

The hospital wanted to let physicians, nurses and other staff receive voice calls, while using such features as conferencing, through one number that could be routed to cellular, desk or IP wireless phones, says Jon Barber, telecommunications coordinator for the Willmar, Minn., hospital.

Systems integrator Norstan installed one MobileAccess Base Unit at Rice with about 10 Remote Units and 40 antennas. The setup distributed cellular and WLAN signals even into areas typically problematic for wireless networks, such as underground facilities. Linked to the base unit is the hospital's internal phone system: a Mitel PBX, an IP switch, an Ericsson gateway, and a SpectraLink VoIP server. Phone calls can be directed to desktops or redirected to come in through the 850-MHz cellular signal from MidWest Wireless, a local carrier. The MobileAccess system distributes these cell calls.

"Now I can keep control of the phone call," Barber says. "I can conference with others at the hospital, forward and transfer calls, call other extensions. This is all new."

Barber also has plugged into the Remote Units about 16 Symbol Technologies 802.11b WLAN access points. These provide a medium for wireless VoIP calls with SpectraLink phones. But the 11M bit/sec WLAN now also supports notebook computers wheeled on carts to patient bedsides for a wireless patient charting application.

Pricing for the MobileAccess gear can start at $50,000 for a midsized building with a single wireless service and reach more than $1 million.