Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Rollout: DiVitas Networks Mobile Convergence Appliance and Client: Page 2 of 6

The environment for a complete MMC solution requires multiple pieces working together: the handset, a Wi-Fi access point, a wireless carrier and the PBX.

DiVitas recognized that the only way enterprises would adopt MMC en masse would be to work with the existing infrastructure and provide handset choice. So rather than dictate platforms to the customer, the solution only requires the purchase of DiVitas' MCA, a 1U rack-mountable device, and MCC. The MCA connects to the corporate PBX over a SIP trunk (a relatively new enterprise telephony interface), while the MCC loads onto several supported dual-mode handsets. DiVitas doesn't care what WLAN is deployed.

Our Wi-Fi infrastructure consisted of a Cisco 4402 Wireless LAN Controller with a 1130 AP. We used our lab's Asterisk PBX, which is tied to three POTS lines, and created a SIP trunk to DiVitas' MCA (also based on Asterisk). We assembled four dual-mode handsets: the HP iPAQ hw6940, HTC TyTn, Symbol MC70 and a Palm handset.

The first three handsets are GSM-based with service from AT&T, though with the DiVitas solution, they should work just as well with T-Mobile. The Palm uses CDMA with Verizon Wireless (though Sprint would also be OK). All these devices run Windows Mobile 5.0. True to its vendor-agnostic approach, DiVitas has a beta of Nokia's Symbian OS 9.1 E61 handsets in progress, and two Linux devices from G-Tek Electronics are on the road map.

When it comes to the software, the DiVitas solution lacks integration with existing directory stores, and installation was more complex than it should be. The MCC software can be installed on dual-mode phones using the Web or ActiveSync. Access requires entering the MCA's IP address and the appropriate user name and password, defined manually by the admin in the MCA. For now, there is no LDAP, RADIUS or Active Directory integration, but the company says such integration is in the works.