Strata8 Approach Unique, Not Without Business Risks
Posted By Frank Bulk at 10:52 PM

J. Gerry Purdy, VP and chief analyst at Frost & Sullivan, recently wrote a short article about Strata8 Networks. The basic concept of Strata8's system is that it's a microcellular operator within a wireless carrier's larger network. The other important component is its PBX integration, delivered by Tango Networks.

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Cisco's 'Enhanced Power Over Ethernet': Intentional Design Or Happenstance Feature?
Posted By Frank Bulk at 09:58 PM

To understand it as Cisco tells the story, you might presume that its "Enhanced Power over Ethernet" was designed on the drawing boards many moons ago. For those not familiar with "Enhanced PoE," it's Cisco's nomenclature for the ability of some of its switches to provide power beyond the IEEE 803.3af standard of 15.4 W.

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Siemens' PoE Claims Validated
Posted By Frank Bulk at 09:46 PM

At first blush it would seem as though the enterprise Wi-Fi vendor community has become a trend-follower and gone green, focused on saving power at every turn. But the potential power demands of dual-radio 802.11n Draft 2.0 access points have sent engineers back to the drawing board. The current PoE (Power over Ethernet) standard, IEEE 803.af, only delivers 12.95 W at the end of a 100-meter Cat5E cable, but without optimization, power consumption can easily be in the upper teens.

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Lower-Powered 802.11n Chipset Makes Necessary Compromises
Posted By Frank Bulk at 11:23 PM

Powering the new enterprise-grade 802.11n access points continues to be one of the necessary talking points for vendors and an item of concern for enterprises. That's interesting because, before 802.11n, powering APs hasn't really been a significant discussion item. Some dual-radio APs (i.e., Cisco's 1200 series) have pushed the limits of some PoE (power over Ethernet) switches, but the AP always was well within IEEE 802.3af specifications.

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No 5 GHz-Capable 802.11n USB Dongle In Sight
Posted By Frank Bulk at 01:54 PM

Although mobile WiMax is as new a technology as any other wireless standard, there are at least two different vendors that have WiMax-capable USB dongles available on the market (Wavesat being one of them). Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case with 5-GHz 802.11n, even though SOHO manufacturers have been pumping out 802.11n-like product for over a year.

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Meru's Debut 802.11n Customer Now Using....802.11n
Posted By Frank Bulk at 01:08 AM

I couldn't help but take notice of the choice of words another publication used to describe the status of Morrisville State College's implementation of 802.11n Meru access points: "shakedown phase".

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Aruba Target Ship Date For 802.11n AP Slips
Posted By Frank Bulk at 12:17 AM

When Aruba announced its 802.11n product just over a month ago, it shared with reporters and analysts a shipping date of the end of November.

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Cisco Powers Up Switch Support For Their Dual-Radio 802.11n APs
Posted By Frank Bulk at 11:17 PM

When Cisco made its 802.11n 1250-series AP announcement a few months ago, one of the more interesting aspects was its claim that the PoE capabilities in some existing desktop switches and blades for its chassis-based solutions would be able to power all the radio chains in its dual-radio 802.11n access points and that it would only need a software upgrade to access them. Cisco was intentionally vague in its communications and presentations. It wanted to present to the public the greatest degree of backward compatibility and support even while it was verifying the hardware capabilities and coding the software.

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HP Treads Slowly?
Posted By Frank Bulk at 10:31 PM

I've only read this in a mailing list and not confirmed this with HP's public relations folks, but it appears that HP will not release an 802.11n compatible access point until after the standard is ratified, which most anticipate will not be until the end of 2008, early 2009. If this is true, that means Nortel, who plans to have 802.11n gear available the second half of 2008, very late by their competitor's standards, would be in the game ahead of HP.

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Legacy Equipment And 802.11n
Posted By Frank Bulk at 10:23 PM

Organizations apprehensive about 802.11n have pointed to the lack of IEEE ratification and interoperability with legacy devices as two significant concerns. While the first concern won't likely be satisfactorily addressed for another year, thankfully the IEEE has made interoperability a key component of the IEEE 802.11n draft. But it's one thing for engineers to agree to something on paper; the rubber doesn't really hit the road until the devices are installed into production systems and put into everyday use.

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Cisco Boasts Strong Enterprise WLAN Market Share
Posted By Frank Bulk at 10:11 PM

Possibly because Cisco stated in its Nov. 7 earnings call that "Wireless and Networked home growth were both relatively flat," its wireless business unit made a point of highlighting the numbers from two analyst firms suggesting a much more positive picture, at least in terms of market share.

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Corporate America Dropping Their Pants With The Apple iPhone
Posted By Frank Bulk at 10:52 PM

We've been exchanging some e-mails regarding iPhones in the enterprise, and Stephen Wellman wrote:

Oh, I don't disagree with any of these points. But we're seeing a different attitude toward these risks than we would have in years past. That's what I find interesting.

Plus, if I am not mistaken, close to 90% of mobile devices in most companies were brought in by the employee, and almost all the security risks you outline below apply to these devices, too. Yet, they're still storing company info. Is this a bomb waiting to explode? Probably so. But it's not stopping this trend, which is what is interesting.

Is it even feasible to manage risk from this paradigm anymore? That's the question I want to explore and continue to explore.

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Is The iPhone Enterprise Ready?
Posted By Sean Ginevan at 04:53 PM

The discussion as to whether or not the iPhone is ready to be brought within the walls of the enterprise has heated up again in recent weeks. First, Apple announced the forthcoming release of its software developers' kit, which is slated for release in February. The SDK should lay the necessary groundwork for software developers to create applications for the iPhone in addition to the Web services applications Apple envisioned with the iPhone’s release. Next, Synchronica, Visto, and most recently Sybase iAnywhere released support for secure push e-mail for enterprise e-mail systems such as Exchange. These services all do roughly the same thing: create a secure IMAP relay server that interfaces with Exchange and allows iPhones to retrieve e-mail without the need for running IMAP services on the Exchange server itself. Add forthcoming support by Avaya for fixed-mobile convergence services on the iPhone and the question has to be asked: Is the iPhone primed to be a part of the enterprise?

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Re-examining 802.11n Greenfield
Posted By Frank Bulk at 01:00 PM

In my last blog I reviewed the rising use of 802.11a, despite pessimistic predictions and less than complete market acceptance of the standard. Organizations deploying Wi-Fi gear several years ago may have compared 802.11g to 802.11a and decided not to purchase dual-radio, 5-GHz capable APs, based on the fact that even though both offer the same data rates, 802.11a support added cost, had slightly less coverage, and there were many less client cards that supported the standard. And 802.11a was not picked up by all enterprise and SOHO vendors and there was much fumbling around. But 802.11n appears to be considerably different: it’s seriously regarded as the next major phase in the enterprise WLAN market offering significantly better performance, extended coverage, greater reliability, and vendor support on all fronts.

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From B/G to N: is A getting in between?
Posted By Frank Bulk at 11:50 PM

In discussions with vendors and users regarding possibly migration strategies to 802.11n, the question has come up more than once how to deal with 802.11a. For organizations that never deployed dual-band access points this won’t be a problem, but surveys and anecdotal reports suggest that perhaps up to 50% of enterprises have a dual-mode deployment (802.11b/g at 2.4 GHz and 802.11a at 5 GHz).

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Viral Video of the Week: Rise of the Android
Posted By Tom LaSusa at 11:44 AM

There's been alot of buzz about Android -- Google's open-source mobile phone platform. Now we get to see it in action. In this video, Google's Sergey Brin and Steve Horowitz discuss the availability of the SDK and demo applications on the Android platform.

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Wi-Fi Alliance 802.11n status report means little for enterprises
Posted By Frank Bulk at 09:41 PM

The Wi-Fi Alliance issued a press release today touting the certification of over 4000 devices, of which 140 received 802.11n draft 2.0 certification. While this bodes well for the consumer shopping at their local big box electronics store, those in the enterprise space have a little less to get excited about.

A quick glance at the current list of 802.11n draft 2.0 products show that only two enterprise WLAN vendors are represented: Cisco and Meru. Colubris and Trapeze, both which announced products months ago, are missing. Colubris announced product in May. Trapeze, in a press release around the same time stated that their 802.11n AP is “Wi-Fi certifiable when the Wi-Fi Alliance launches its 802.11n certification program in June”, but that was almost half a year ago.

Two vendors can be given a little reprieve: Aruba and Xirrus. Aruba demonstrated some restraint by announcing their 802.11n products just last week and general availability at the end of November. Even though it hasn't yet been submitted, they are anticipating certification by the end of the year. Xirrus very recently shared some news regarding ongoing beta trials of their 802.11n product, having previously only shared an outline of their upgrade program. Xirrus’ PR representative shared that they are aiming for certification in the first quarter of 2008.

There’s no doubt that the vendors mentioned above, plus 3Com, Extricom, Motorola, and Siemens, will eventually get their product certified, but the Wi-Fi Alliance’s announcement this week is another data point that despite the years of anticipation through the IEEE committee and the months of vendor announcements, 802.11n is still in the very earliest of stages. Its one thing to go ahead with 802.11n product before the IEEE ratifies the standard, but to skip the Wi-Fi Alliance’s certification would appear unnecessarily risky. Even if you don't put much stock in the Alliance's certification process, it provides, at a minimum, a small indication of the vendor’s own confidence that their product market ready.

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Help Wanted: Site Planning And Surveying
Posted By Frank Bulk at 01:08 PM

It's not often that vendors alert me of feature gaps from supporting products in their ecosystem. Many times vendors partner with them to build out a feature or functionality that will more effectively leverage their own products.

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3Com Promises 802.11n Products Later, Not Earlier
Posted By Frank Bulk at 01:02 PM

Networking vendor 3Com has not often been a technology leader and innovator, but more often considered a fast follower. In the enterprise wireless space the hot topic is 802.11n, and 3Com is in pursuit.

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HP's Mobile SOA Vision: Consumers Developing Location-Based Apps
Posted By Andy Dornan at 12:41 AM

HP has just announced its Service Delivery Platform 2.0, a SOA bundle aimed at telcos. The interesting parts are its intended applications, and how similar the telcos are to other enterprises.

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Aruba Reveals 802.11n Lineup
Posted By Frank Bulk at 10:01 PM

Aruba Networks made its first 802.11n product announcement this week by adding new wireless controllers and 802.11n access points, as well as incrementing its controller software.

Although rumored about weeks ago, there wasn't doubt in any customer or competitors' minds that Aruba had 802.11n product under development. Unlike many product announcements from technology companies, where there is a measurable element of innovation and ingenuity, the 802.11n product announcements to date, including this one, are in many ways merely the tangible culmination of several years of IEEE task group work. With standards the ultimate equalizer, vendors have emphasized their architecture, performance, and implementation flexibility as key differentiators. Aruba follows much of the same formula.

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The Towering Heights of Wireless Backhaul
Posted By Frank Bulk at 12:12 AM

For those who haven't mentally stepped through the process of building a wireless PtP or PtMP link, let me give you a heads up, literally: if your building isn't tall or the terrain doesn't lends itself to some kind of unnatural elevation, you're going to have to seriously consider building a tower.

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Wi-Fi Security Hysteria Promulgated by UM
Posted By Frank Bulk at 10:58 AM

It's distressing enough when a lay person mistakes the facts surrounding Wi-Fi security, but it's even more painful when an institution of higher learning, in this case the University of Maryland, leads people further astray.

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What's Xohm? Sprint gives more detail on WiMAX
Posted By Sean Ginevan at 03:13 PM

While all of Sprint's services from push to talk (CEO Gary Forsee announced that Sprint's PTT services both iDEN and CDMA will be marketed as Nextel Direct Connect) to Sprint's Pivot quad-play product got their moment in the sun, it was clear that the day was dedicated to WiMAX. Sprint's new service will be marked as Xohm (pronounced Zohm) and Sprint expects to have 100 million people covered by Xohm service by 2008. The tone of Sprint's briefing was interesting, particularly given the interactions I've had with the company on WiMAX before. In previous discussions WiMAX just seemed like another access medium and myself and colleagues at Network Computing struggled to figure out the answer to: "If WiMAX is the answer, what is the question?"

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RIM goes dual mode with 8820
Posted By Sean Ginevan at 06:45 PM

Arguably, you can say that RIM has had Wi-Fi in its portfolio since 2004 when it introduced the Wi-Fi only 7270 into the market. However, where the real rubber meets the road for Wi-Fi and handheld devices is in the "dual mode" category that incorporates both Wi-Fi and cellular technology in the same device. Competitors like Nokia and HTC have offered dual mode devices for some time; today, RIM has finally provided its answer: the BlackBerry 8820

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The Wireless Edge: 3GPP Technologies Make Impressive Strides
Posted By Peter Rysavy at 03:43 PM

As the wireless industry plays an ever larger role in the global communications infrastructure, the level of development effort going into the evolution of different wireless technologies is remarkable. On June 12 in Dallas, I chaired a Portable Computer and Communications Association (PCCA) meeting on HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) sponsored by 3G Americas. On June 13, AT&T hosted an HSPA workshop under an NDA arrangement where attendees were able to get hands-on time with forthcoming services and devices. The meeting provided the perfect crystal ball experience to see how wireless networks will be able to deliver speeds almost one hundred times faster than current 3G systems by early next decade. That's remarkable when you consider that current 3G systems are a hundred times faster than the first wireless IP systems such as CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data).

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Here's mud in your iPhone
Posted By Mike Fratto at 06:44 PM

I don't care about the iPhone. Unless Apple wants to buy out my current contract with Verizon Wireless or Verizon Wireless wants to start carrying the iPhone, I know that I won't be buying one any time soon. I plunked down a pretty penny for my Treo 700P and I use the messaging and calendaring features daily.

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What the Heck is a 'Mobile Companion' Anyway
Posted By Rich Karpinski at 01:34 PM

Network Computing's technology editors love shiny new gadgets. The Foleo -- Palm's new "mobile companion" created instant discussion among their ranks on the system's usability, use cases -- and future. Follow their debate and then let us know what you think.

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IEEE 802.11n and Architecture Redux at Interop
Posted By Frank Bulk at 11:49 AM

All the major enterprise WLAN vendors made their way to Interop Las Vegas 2007 last week, and I had the opportunity to meet with the majority of them. Top on my list: IEEE 802.11n and enterprise WLAN architecture providers. While previous briefings sketched out the key issues, these one-on-one meetings fleshed out some of the details (live demos didn't hurt, either).

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Interop 2007 - 3G in Sin City
Posted By Sean Ginevan at 01:40 PM

Put 20,000 techies into Las Vegas for Interop 2007, add 50,000 BlackBerry addicted real estate professionals (attending the 2007 ICSC show) and you get a perfect storm for cellular carriers. During this year's Interop show myself and Contributing Editor Jameson Blandford brought a variety of 3G equipment so we could still be productive while on the road. While we were able to use 3G to stay engaged with the office, the performance differed than in past trials.

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RIM's Puzzling BlackBerry Windows Play
Posted By Frank Bulk at 03:39 PM

Today, Research In Motion said it is developing a new software application suite that will let BlackBerry applications run on Windows Mobile-based devices.

RIM said they would begin offering the new software suite later this year. Once installed, the software will provide Windows Mobile users with an experience virtually identical to what they would receive on BlackBerry hardware, including BlackBerry e-mail, phone, calendar, address book, tasks, memos, browser, instant messaging and other applications developed for the BlackBerry platform. The devices would also be able to connect to BlackBerry services using BlackBerry Enterprise Server as well as BlackBerry Internet Service.

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The Wireless Edge: Leveraging QoS and VoIP with 3G: Not an Easy Marriage
Posted By Peter Rysavy at 10:36 AM

There's lots of confusion out there about QoS, VoIP, and 3G, especially as these don't work quite the way many people think. This is an area I've been studying intently as it pertains to various projects, and after hearing QUALCOMM speak recently on the topic in a technical presentation on EVDO Rev A, I thought I would take the opportunity to clear some misconceptions, and organize my own thoughts.

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The Wireless Propagator: The Dual-Mode Choke Hold
Posted By Frank Bulk at 10:33 AM

Conspiracy theories abound regarding a variety of topics, from alien crash sites in Roswell, N.M., the true perpetrator of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, and Microsoft's domination in the consumer and enterprise desktop market. So it should come as no surprise when telecom watchdogs start banging their drums concerning the relative dearth of cellular handsets with integrated Wi-Fi--also called dual-mode phones--in the U.S. marketplace. For all the success of home Wi-Fi sales, publicity surrounding metro Wi-Fi networks, and the customer base of both pure-play VoIP providers such as Vonage and Packet8 and 'digital phone' providers such as Time Warner, Cox, and Comcast, it's somewhat ironic that dual-mode handsets haven't seen greater success in the United States.

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Air Time: Let the Most Scalable Wireless Network Win
Posted By Dave Molta at 10:32 AM

As the movers and shakers in wide-area wireless converge on Orlando for the CTIA conference and exhibition this week, much of the hype will focus on new wireless devices that run over cellular broadband networks, new mobile services and the emerging market for mobile WiMAX. In one corner, you have a mature oligopoly of cellular carriers catering to the impulsive desires of consumers. In the other corner are members of a renegade WiMAX ecosystem, high on promise but slow to get out of the gate.

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He Said/He Said/He Said: Cracking on WEP
Posted By Rich Karpinski at 06:03 PM

Our tech editors debate the security flaws -- and competitive alternatives -- to WEP, the much-derided security protocol for wireless local area networks (WLANs) defined in the 802.11b standard.

We start with this note from Sean Ginevan:

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Wireless Propagator: When Wi-Fi Clients Meet Infrastructure
Posted By Frank Bulk at 11:07 PM

If you follow this column regularly you know that I don't cover the software aspect of wireless and mobility very often, but recently when user posted a question about managing client Wi-Fi profiles in a listserv I follow I thought that perhaps some enterprise wireless IT managers and admins might benefit from some of the responses that were posted in regards to that question and in previous threads.

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The Wireless Edge: Disconnect!
Posted By Peter Rysavy at 11:05 PM

Being always connected may be good for productivity, but it can wreak havoc with peace of mind.

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Who Gets The Cellular Bill?
Posted By Sean Ginevan at 04:18 PM

According to soon-to-be-released research from In-Stat:

The most effective way for an organization to manage its telecommunications resources is to treat wireless the way most organizations treat wireline services and other business productivity services. This means that users contract for centralized billing for business lines and allow for some incidental personal usage.

Surveying 1023 business users, In-Stat found only 44 percent of employers used this approach. The slight majority let individuals negotiate a contract with a wireless carrier and submit it as an expense. According to In-Stat, however, "the administrative time spent completing expense reports and reviewing bills, etc. exceeds the costs of the personal calls that employees would have made if the employer."

The truth is, enterprises really need to get better at figuring out what their policy is going to be when it comes to billing for wireless services.

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He-Said/He-Said: WiMAX vs. Landline Broadband
Posted By Rich Karpinski at 05:38 PM

Over in our News Analysis section today, we have a story on the IEEE working to boost WiMAX speeds. That led a couple of our editors, Frank Bulk and Sean Ginevan, to debate the prospect of a wireless technology overtaking wired options as a primary wide area data option.

Read their debate now:

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New Meaning to Expensive WiFi
Posted By Dave Greenfield at 08:46 AM

I'm here at the Alcatel-Lucent user forum on the day of love in the city of love getting a brain dump on Alcatel-Lucent's

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The Wireless Edge: 802.11n for the Enterprise--Not a Trivial Upgrade
Posted By Peter Rysavy at 02:46 PM

Six hundred megabits per second! That is the highest theoretical speed of IEEE 802.11n if a product implements all the mandatory, as well as optional, capabilities of the standard. The same core radio technology that enables these high rates also extends range, which results in increased AP (access point) coverage. Although speed and range are generally good things, there are ramifications, along with various other things to consider, with this standard. I bring this topic up now for two reasons. First, IEEE is planning to release the second draft (draft 2.0) of the IEEE 802.11n standard this quarter, with compliant products available shortly thereafter. Second, I'm teaching a course on Wi-Fi technology evolution and integration at Portland State University on January 26 (see http://www.rysavy.com/training.html for more details), so I've been busily creating and updating 802.11n slideware.

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The Week of the iPhone
Posted By Tom LaSusa at 05:59 PM

It was a whirlwind, roller-coaster week for cell phone users, gadget buffs and curious onlookers as Apple's CEO Steve Jobs introduced the world to the iPhone. With its futuristic, flat screen panel and promises of music playing, phone service and internet connectivity, the iPhone was the talk of CES. But as the week passed, there was a bevy of interesting developments including concerns about the iPhone's performance and (gasp) a possible lawsuit by Cisco over the product name.

Here's a recap of some of those news stories. No doubt there will be plenty more in the weeks ahead.

Apple Reinvents The Phone Apple's CEO Steve Jobs introduces the iPhone, which he says is an iPod, a mobile phone, and an Internet communication device.

iPhone is Beautiful, But it's Also Slow
Cingular is working on technologies to speed up its network, but no significant breakthroughs are expected in time for the formal delivery of the iPhone in June.

Cisco Sues Apple Over iPhone Name Cisco, which recently introduced its own Wi-Fi phone with the iPhone brand, says it's owned the trademark since 2000.

Apple Unlikely To Go To Court In iPhone Trademark Dispute, Experts Say By going to court, Apple would have to spend a lot of money defending what appears to be a weak position, lawyers argue.

NWC Editor Art Wittmann's Initial Take on the iPhone

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Wireless Propagator: BT: FMC Across the Pond
Posted By Frank Bulk at 11:47 AM

Over the holidays I kept busy reading the news reviews of 2006 and predictions for 2007. Don't worry, I won't subject to you to my own top-10 list, but I will confirm that FMC (fixed-mobile convergence) is on it. If your e-mail inbox is anything like mine, there won't be a day this year on which the term 'FMC' won't pop up in some newsletter.

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Airgo(ne) to Qualcomm
Posted By Tom LaSusa at 04:05 PM

Qualcomm announced last week its purchase of two companies, RF Micro Devices for its Bluetooth and Airgo Networks for its pre-802.11n chipsets and intellectual property surrounding MIMO. Although both companies have received little attention in the enterprise, if Qualcomm has its way, Airgo's technology would find its way into every handset and laptop.

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Air Time: Cisco vs. Meru: You Make the Call
Posted By Dave Molta at 11:59 AM

The past three weeks have been quite a rollercoaster ride for my co-author, Jameson Blandford, and me as we've dealt with feedback on our November 9 Network Computing article entitled "The Meru Chronicles." This article was the culmination of a six-month project involving the analysis of WLAN gear from Meru Networks.

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The Wireless Edge: Using VPNs With Wireless Networks
Posted By Tom LaSusa at 01:48 PM

I've been involved with multiple projects to assess the use of VPN (virtual private network) technologies over wireless networks. The most recent is pulling content together for a Webcast I'll be doing on December 5 for Cingular Wireless titled "Optimal Use of VPNs Over Cellular Networks." (See http://developer.cingular.com/ for details.) The good news is that an increasing number of effective options result in improved performance, reliability and control. The bad news is that all the options and tradeoffs are complicated.

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The Wireless Edge: Ditching the Laptop
Posted By Peter Rysavy at 11:40 AM

Symbian executives at the Symbian Smartphone Show in London last month spoke about the increasing role of smartphones, even suggesting that with the advances in smartphones, people may wonder soon why they need PCs at all. They pointed out that in developing countries where wireless penetration is far outpacing wireline penetration, a phone is a more logical connectivity appliance than a PC. The execs noted that in India the PC market is growing at 5 million units a year, while mobile phones are growing at that rate each month.

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Wireless Propagator: T-Mobile Catches Lucky 3G Break
Posted By Frank Bulk at 10:48 AM

I don't normally cover the cellular space, deferring to co-columnist and 3G expert Peter Rysavy, but it's impossible for me to pass by this past week's biggest wireless news story: T-Mobile USA's joint announcement with German parent company Deutsche Telekom to roll out nationwide 3G.

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Air Time: Mobile ESPN: A Blowout Loss
Posted By Dave Molta at 11:53 AM

The idea seemed compelling. ESPN as a brand dwarfs all other providers of sports content, in both scope and breath. With the emergence of broadband cellular networks and smartphones, the delivery of rich content to sports nuts had become a viable possibility. Virgin Mobile had achieved significant success as an early MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), buying cellular capacity at wholesale prices and reselling it at retail to consumers. However, after making a big splash with a well-publicized Super Bowl launch last February, Mobile ESPN attracted far fewer subscribers than expected. Imagine if the first Super Bowl was held in an 80,000-seat stadium and only 10,000 fans showed up. It might have been one and done for that idea as well. That was the scenario facing managers at ESPN Mobile. In July, Merrill Lynch analysts recommended that the plug be pulled. Last week, Mobile ESPN subscribers were informed that they had until the end of the year to find a new provider.

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The Wireless Edge: Mobile Computing Policy and De-Perimeterization
Posted By Peter Rysavy at 11:23 AM

On September 20, I chaired a meeting of the Portable Computer and Communications Association on the topic of "Mobile Computing Policy and Network Access Control." The PCCA meets quarterly to address developments in wireless and mobile computing, and meetings have good representation from operators, device vendors, computer vendors and wireless middleware providers. This meeting, hosted by NetMotion Wireless, proved quite illuminating, making me realize that mobile computing is simultaneously maturing and becoming an evermore complex field, with new aspects to consider. Policy management is one aspect. De-perimeterization (not an English word, but used at the meeting and a descriptive nevertheless) is another.

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On the road to 4G
Posted By Sean Ginevan at 04:12 PM

In announcing that they had decided to deploy a WiMAX network using their 2.5GHz spectrum, Sprint proclaimed that their decision marked their commitment to building a 4G wireless broadband network. Several commentators, including Network Computing's own, Peter Rysavy, were quick to point out that WiMAX did not mark the development of a 4G network if only because there was no 4G standards effort at the time.

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The Cable-less Console
Posted By Jameson Blandford at 06:15 PM

Serial based console ports have long been the lowest common denominator when it comes to configuring routers and switches. Although in-band management solutions such as telnet, SNMP and SSH allow for far greater flexibility, the physical nature of a serial connection ensures an administrator has a configuration backup plan when devices malfunction and configurations go awry. Despite this advantage, few administrators look forward to carrying around bulky serial cables but up and coming Bluetooth SPP (Serial Port Profile) devices such as BlueConsole2 bring the promise of console configuration without the wires.

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Yankee Group Study Reveals Attitudes Toward Mobile Data Among Small and Medium Sized Businesses
Posted By Sean Ginevan at 04:41 PM

Last week, the Information Technology Solution Provider Alliance (ITSPA) put out a press release about the adoption of mobile data solutions amongst small and medium sized businesses (SMBs). The release cited a study, conducted by the Yankee Group, that surveyed SMBs about their attitudes toward mobility. The study had some interesting conclusions which I went into more detail about with the Yankee Group's Gary Chen on a conference call today.

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Wireless Propagator: A Wireless Repeater to Switch Transition? -- Part 4
Posted By Frank Bulk at 01:58 PM

In my last three columns I discussed the challenges of dense wireless deployments and some of the ways they can be addressed. In the first column, I focused on channel design and selection. In the second column, I looked at the poly-radio APs (access points) from Meru and Xirrus that facilitate dense deployments by dramatically increasing the number of radios available for clients. In the third column, I examined some non-metro Wi-Fi antenna and radio technologies more applicable to the consumer space, with some possible enterprise applications. In this fourth and final column, I'll touch on what some radio and receiver vendors that target the metro Wi-Fi space are doing to decrease deployment costs, enhance coverage and increase throughput and link stability.

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The Wireless Edge: Sprint Nextel, WiMAX and the Mobile Broadband Conundrum
Posted By Peter Rysavy at 11:05 AM

Sprint Nextel announced on August 8 its choice of WiMAX technology for its mobile broadband network that will operate in its 2.5 GHz Broadband Radio Service (BRS) spectrum. Every other wireless pundit is going to have something to say about this, and I have so much to say that the constraints of this column will be a challenge. First, I'm going to make some general comments about the company's technology choice and early claims. Then I'm going to zoom in on the crux of the challenge that Sprint Nextel will have to address: managing capacity and performance expectations while finding a way of charging for service that enables a successful business model. This will be a conundrum, which according to one definition I just read means "a paradoxical, insoluble or difficult problem."

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Air Time: Enterprise 802.11n: How Fast?
Posted By Dave Molta at 01:56 PM

If you have any doubts about the likely market success of 802.11n, check out the early numbers. In its first four months of availability, Broadcom has shipped over 1 million of its Intesi-fi chipsets. That's a million chipsets based on an 11n draft standard that is likely to see considerable change before it is passed. That's 1 million chipsets in a highly competitive market where Atheros, Marvel and Airgo are also enjoying considerable success. Business is good.

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The Wireless Edge: Wide-Area Wireless--The Next Five Years
Posted By Tom LaSusa at 01:53 PM

Recently, I concluded the research phase of a large project to assess the future direction of all the major wide-area wireless technologies, including 3G and WiMAX. There is so much going on that it has left my head spinning. But at the same time I'm quite excited, because the future of mobile data just keeps getting brighter. As an IT manager, you won't be able to immediately take advantage of many of these enhanced technologies, but it may be helpful to know what will be available in what timeframe. It's also interesting to see how the 3G vs. WiMAX battle is shaping up.

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Protects Your Brain...But Not Your Milk Money
Posted By Tom LaSusa at 04:50 PM

Cell phone radiation: Maybe it's bad for us...maybe it's not so bad. But until we know for sure, the nice folks at Handy-fashions.com don't want you taking any chances.

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Air Time: Location, Location, Location
Posted By Tom LaSusa at 03:44 PM

Ask a real-estate agent for the three factors that most significantly influence the price of a property, and you're likely to get a somewhat tongue-in-cheek response: location, location, location. In the world of wireless networking, location-based services are emerging as one of the battlegrounds as wireless equipment manufacturers and service providers wrestle to differentiate their products and services.

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The Wireless Edge: Integrated Voice/Data in 3G
Posted By Peter Rysavy at 03:52 PM

One of the promises of 3G cellular has been integrated voice and data.In this column I examine what this means, why and where it's important,to what extent the different cellular technologies support it, and howthis capability will evolve over time. I'm bringing it up now because Cingularis currently rolling out an enhanced version of Universal MobileTelecommunications System (UMTS) that includes High Speed Downlink Packet Access(HSDPA), which supports integrated voice and data. Meanwhile, Sprint and Verizonhave recently made announcements about an upgrade to CDMA 2000 Evolved DataOptimized (EV-DO), called Revision A, that provides a key building block forintegrated voice and data, a capability currently not available for EV-DO.

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A Cell phone in Your Mouth -- No Tooth to That!
Posted By Tom LaSusa at 11:05 AM

Do you remember 2002? The Angels beat the Giants in the World Series. Mozilla 1.0 debuted. Star Wars fans saw Clones Attack. And two British engineers were close to debuting a cell phone embedded within a tooth. The hype became so feverish that the product-to-be landed on Time Magazine's 2002 Best Inventions list.

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