Enterprises don’t need to be convinced that making their workforce more mobile with wireless technologies is a good thing. What they do need is a way to make these technologies work together seamlessly and with a level of performance that will let enterprise users “feel” like they’re getting service as good as their wired compatriots.
Enterprises don’t need to be convinced that making their workforce more mobile with wireless technologies is a good thing. What they do need is a way to make these technologies work together seamlessly and with a level of performance that will let enterprise users “feel” like they’re getting service as good as their wired compatriots. Proxim, Avaya, and Motorola are working on a cool integrated Wi-Fi/VoIP/Cellular platform that bodes well for solving a lot of the issues plaguing widespread integration of these services.
We’ve been on the cusp of this for a while. For example, there’s been a lot of talk about the coming integration of Wi-Fi (and VoIP) into cell phones and other handheld devices. Wi-Fi enabled mobile phones make sense for several reasons. First, Wi-Fi can be used for higher-bandwidth data transfers whenever a user is in range of the office network or a hot spot. Second, an enterprise Wi-Fi network can provide the infrastructure to extend in-building mobile coverage. Finally, Wi-Fi VoIP can be a money saver when compared to traditional cellular voice calls – saving valuable spectrum for the carrier, and offering cheaper minutes for the enterprise.
But Wi-Fi VoIP isn’t without its shortcomings. A big underlying issue is the nature of Wi-Fi itself. Wi-Fi gear is cheap, easy to use and provides abundant bandwidth. But Wi-Fi, at least until 802.11e is ratified and hits the market, doesn’t offer any kind of built-in QoS mechanism that can guarantee packet priority (and the related benefits of guaranteed bandwidth and low latency). So congestion in a Wi-Fi network can result in voice calls that don’t sound like anyone’s idea of toll quality.
Network handoffs are an issue too, both between base stations within a Wi-Fi network and between the Wi-Fi and cellular network. For most data communications, the small amount of time required to “switch” between different network segments can be almost unnoticeable to the end-user; but for a voice call, even a few hundreds of milliseconds can adversely impact call quality.
Another missing element is some central intelligence that can control call routing – sending calls over the VoIP or the cellular network based upon enterprise or carrier rules about location, network availability and traffic patterns. Such a device is essential from the mobile carrier point of view, allowing the carrier to move towards Wi-Fi VoIP without giving up control of customer’s calls.
Three vendors teamed up over a year ago to work on these very issues – Proxim, Avaya and Motorola. Some of the first fruit of this partnership has made it to market in the form of the Proxim ORINOCO Switching System. This switch performs all of the “must have” functionality that any enterprise would expect from a switch: user authentication, load balancing, centralized management, etc.
The interesting part of this switch revolves around its voice support. For example, the switch supports a pre-standard version of 802.11e, providing the QoS mechanism that 802.11 currently lacks. Perhaps more importantly, the system has been designed to minimize the impact of network handoffs by pre-authenticating users to adjacent access points in the network. So a voice user walking down the hall (or across the campus) can switch between access points without losing their connection, and with minimal handoff time so calls are not dropped or impacted by user mobility.
The switch is also designed to work hand-in-hand with forthcoming VoIP gear from Avaya, and cellular infrastructure from Motorola. These partners’ vision is to provide a soup-to-nuts Wi-Fi/VoIP/Cellular platform that will enable a mobile carrier to offer a tightly integrated Wi-Fi/Cellular offer to customers. This platform could work in the enterprise premises itself providing enhanced mobile phone coverage without the expense of cellular microcell deployments in-building; or in mobile carrier-owned hot spot locations.
Either way, this announcement is a good first step to providing an infrastructure that makes sense for mobile carriers looking to get into Wi-Fi and VoIP. It checks the necessary performance boxes on a carrier’s wish list while keeping a measure of control in the carrier’s hands.
