After a pre-conference of tutorials and in-depth security sessions, the
conference’s day one began with an address by Aris Melissaratos, secretary of
business and economic development for the State of Maryland, who congratulated
attendees on helping network people, creating jobs and business opportunities
around the world (although most attendees were from the U.S. and Canada, we met
one attendee from Cameroon, two from Mexico, and one from Singaporeand
exhibitors were from all over the world too, from Taiwan to Finland).
Then James Keegan, vice president for global pervasive/wireless e-business
for Armonk, NY-based IBM provided the first keynote, an overview of the
needs of the wireless enterprise. He spoke of “converging convergences” where
the needs of the individual mesh with the needs of the organization, and the
cellular, LAN, and telephony networks become one.
He said that this is the transition from the Internet revolution to the
pervasive computing revolution, which will make even more demands on IT, from
security to wireless networking to supporting an ever-growing number of devices.
Devices are already proliferating in certain vertical industries that are
ahead of the technological curve. Whereas, in the past, healthcare lagged behind
industries such as finance in the deployment of IT, the HIPAA law
is forcing all the industries touched by healthcare to join the new network.
Brad Rosen, vice president of business development for Waltham, Mass.-based
Cognio, a
wireless systems consultancy, said that his company identified 25 different
systems that could be emitting RF in any one hospital room. For example, a nurse
could be using a Wi-Fi laptop or tablet, the IV drips could be communicating
with one prescription system, and the nurse could also be using a handheld
scanner to register any other medicine being administered.
The enterprise may soon become as complex. Leigh Chinitz, Chief Tecnnical
Advisor for Sunnyvale, Calif.-based wireless hardware and software developer Proxim, said
that devices will need to hop between access points and to do so they will need
to be able to calculate which AP is better. He said the 802.11k protocol is
beginning to work on this intelligence, but that the devices could do more than
is currently being envisioned.
Alain Mouttham, CEO of Kanata, Ontario-based SIPQuest, a SIP He added that the handoff delay has been decreased from 400 to 600 ms down to Stephen Salzman, director strategic investments in the broadband and wireless Equipment vendors and service provides alike are eagerly anticipating the However, the usual concerns remain. Such a network needs open standards. It In the pre-conference day, Richard Rushing, CSO of Alpharetta, Ga.-based WLAN Rushing’s session complemented the day-long security tutorial run by Continuing education to handle constant change is what the conference was
countered that SIP can provide true mobilityindependent of session, service,
and even device. “It’s tied to you. Your address goes with you.”
about 10 ms.
industries for Intel Capital, complained that SIP
devices from different manufacturers lack interoperability. As far as we know,
this remains a real problem with all of the leading edge technologies that will
be used to deliver advanced services over IP.
sales bonanza that a converged network would bring. They anticipate selling
Wi-Fi and cellular dual mode devices, building out networks that can hand off to
each other, from private corporate WANs to public hotzones to profitable WISP
networks.
also needs better security.
security provider AirDefense, demonstrated several tools that
can be used against wireless networks. The bottom line, his presentation noted,
is that the tools are becoming increasingly sophisticated while requiring less
expertise to use.
ISP-Planet author Lisa Phifer, vice president of Chester
Springs, Pa.-based Core Competence, a consultancy, and Diana
Kelley, security strategist for Islandia, NY-based Computer Associates.
Although standards and protocols are constantly improving, which is good, that
also means they are constantly changing, which means wireless security experts
require continuing education.
for. As the wireless network continues to grow, security threats probably will
get worse. But the world is going wireless, and there will be great business
opportunities for all of the companies working on the Internet’s frontier.
Reprinted from ISP Planet.
