The wired world is no longer the only place to apply converged technologies following an announcement made Tuesday by three major communication solutions providers who plan to jointly offer convergence to the wireless space.
Basking Ridge, N.J.-based Avaya Inc. has teamed up with Arlington Heights, Ill.-based Motorola Inc. and Sunnyvale, Calif.’s Proxim Corporation to create and deploy converged cellular wireless local area network (WLAN) and Internet Protocol (IP) telephony solutions that they say will bring mobile computing to a whole new level.
The jointly developed 802.11 (Wi-Fi) standards-based solutions will support voice and data services to users across enterprise networks, public cellular networks and public hotspot WLANs. The solutions will bring forth new products including a Wi-Fi/cellular dual-system handset and network Mobility Management components from Motorola, that will facilitate the hand off between WLAN and cellular nets; Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-enabled IP telephony software from Avaya through its MultiVantage communications software; and voice-enabled WLAN infrastructure, including quality of service (QoS) software and centralized management systems from Proxim.
Through the solutions, the companies say users are offered greater accessibility to business networks along with greater mobility via wireless access to business networks, applications and information – inside or out of the office. On-demand conference calling and speech access to business applications including e-mail, calendars and corporate directories are also enabled through the new solutions.
“Companies are demanding increased business results from their communications networks,” said Michael Thurk, group vice-president for Avaya’s Converged Systems and Applications Group in a statement. “Together we will bring unprecedented value to an organization’s network by expanding employees’ desktops beyond office walls to virtually wherever an employee happens to be working.”
Proxim echoed these sentiments adding that with its already-integrated voice-over IP (VoIP) wide area network offerings, the converged wireless solution is the next logical step.
“Businesses will enjoy increased employee productivity and the opportunity for significant cost savings through convergent networks that can scale to their needs,” said Angela Champness, senior vice-president and general manager of Proxim’s LAN division.
According to Motorola, tying together WLANs, IP telephony and cellular technologies in a single handset extends the mobility of cellular networks inside the enterprise and offers more efficient access to the user.
Proxim’s voice-enabled Wi-Fi WLAN infrastructure and Avaya’s SIP-enabled communications applications are expected for release early this year, and trials of the joint solution are set to begin in the second half of 2003. For details visit www.avaya.com. Motorola can be found at www.motorola.com. Proxim is on the Net at www.proxim.com.
