* A basic comparison of DiVitas and Siemens gear
Enterprise gear that supports fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) for Wi-Fi-to-cellular roaming recently came on the market from start-up DiVitas Networks, and a competing system is scheduled to ship from Siemens in April. How do their solutions basically compare?
Well, both DiVitas and Siemens say their equipment works with any cellular network. DiVitas says its system is handset-agnostic, too, working with any dual-mode Wi-Fi/cellular smart phone. Luc Roy, Siemens Mobile Enterprise vice president of product planning, says the Siemens forthcoming MobileConnect gear supports two mobile operating systems — Symbian and Microsoft Windows Mobile — and that the company has specifically certified two handsets to work with its system: the voice-centric Nokia E60 series and more data-centric Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket LOOX device.
In the case of the DiVitas system, you can use the open source IP PBX, instant messaging and presence capabilities built directly into the company’s MCA, or Mobile Convergence Appliance (let’s say, if you are a “Greenfield” business that hasn’t set up a phone system yet). Alternatively, you can use the MCA just for signaling, handoff, and roaming with any existing Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based IP PBX and associated applications you already have in place, DiVitas President and CEO Vivek Khuller says.
The Siemens system has been certified for use with its own 8000 IP PBX, if you want the Siemens suite of SIP calling features and already happen to have a Siemens call server installed. But the FMC will work with other call servers where Siemens full-function SIP capabilities aren’t needed, Roy says.
The DiVitas system accommodates roaming to hot spots and homes, as well as to the office wireless LAN. A special inspection packet and security plug-in in the company’s mobile client software continually communicate with the MCA and, as underlying networks change, make decisions about which network to use and take care of reauthentication, Khuller explains.
At this juncture, the Siemens MobileConnect system doesn’t support seamless roaming to Wi-Fi networks in a hot spot or at home, says Roy. Rather, “you need to fire up your VPN and [tunnel] back to the enterprise” from these places, he says. But he indicated that this could change in the near future.
