Wireless LAN-maker Colubris Networks says it is en route to unifying wireless and wired networks, first at the services level and, next year, at the infrastructure and management levels. First on the agenda of the company, which makes intelligent access points with a centralized WLAN management system, is to introduce a multiservice controller in June.

The controller will be open to third-party application development for services that will span both wired and wireless segments of the enterprise, according to Colubris executives.

For instance, the controller could open up application development whereby WLANs and IP PBXs could finally share information (applications, in my opinion, that beg to be written and written fast). Much fanfare has been made about VoIP over Wi-Fi, but, to date, little has been done to integrate WLANs with the IP-based voice switches in enterprise environments that perform the call routing.

Integrating WLAN status info with PBX status info, for example, would alert IP PBXs about when to send a busy signal to a VoIP-over-Wi-Fi phone, Colubris Vice President of Marketing Michael Welts says.

Such integration, in general, is also important to extending E911 emergency call-tracking to IP-based WLAN handsets in corporate environments. Many WLAN vendors tout their ability to use triangulation methods to isolate the location of wireless devices to within a few meters; however, without the integration work required to communicate that information to an IP PBX, this capability can't be leveraged for the benefit of an emergency calling service.

The step after the multiservice controller for Colubris is slated for the first half of 2006. Then, the company plans to partner with incumbent switch vendors to create a LAN switch with ports that can support traditional computing equipment or Colubris intelligent access points. The move will also unify what are now separate LAN and WLAN network management systems and will reportedly enable the central deployment of QoS and security across both wireless and wired environments.

In essence, the idea is to eventually merge wired and wireless infrastructure, management and services. The multiservice controller will remain in the picture both as a multiservice development platform and to provide dedicated control-plane processing resources, says Carl Blume, Colubris director of product marketing.

Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology writer/editor in Silicon Valley.