Today we'd like to refer our readers to two papers posted on Webtorials that provide some excellent analysis. The first piece, written by Michael F. Finneran at dBrn Associates, is titled "Enterprise Options for Fixed Mobile Convergence and Mobile UC." It provides a structure for understanding and evaluating the various enterprise- and carrier-based fixed mobile convergence FMC solutions. The second paper comes from Fluke Networks and offers a discussion on the "Business Case for VoIP Readiness Network Assessment."

Finneran defines FMC as "the ability to integrate cellular and private network services allowing calls to be transparently handed off between them. While FMC is often portrayed as a mechanism to hand off calls between Wi-Fi-based wireless LANs and cellular services, in reality the "fixed" element in FMC can be any private network, wired or wireless." He also points out the need to extend FMC beyond simple voice calls to full-scale unified communications, collaboration and other tools that can work well when available both to mobile and fixed stations.

Finneran contends that the "larger U.S. cellular carriers have not embraced FMC for enterprise customers, though the smaller national carriers, Sprint and T-Mobile, have introduced FMC services in some form." He also points to enterprise infrastructure suppliers' options that "have developed a number of solutions that deliver many of the capabilities of FMC in spite of the cellular carriers' reluctance." Finally, Finneran describes and categorizes various services and products, identifying the benefits each can provide. You can read the entire analysis here.

The second resource we'd like to highlight is a white paper from Fluke Networks that reinforces "why readiness assessments are key for successful VoIP deployments." We haven't discussed this need in detail for several years, but absolutely agree with the paper's premise: "Pre-deployment assessments are the first step in a successful VoIP deployment, which also must include monitoring, management and optimization." The article not only looks also at the consequences of not doing a good predeployment assessment, but also details a variety of approaches to assessments.

Next time: Siemens upgrades the HiPath 3000.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick is a principal analyst at Current Analysis.