In a deal expected to help boost its profile in the wireless networking
sector, NetMotion Wireless, a software provider for enterprise networks, has
been tapped by AT&T Wireless to provide VPN
services for its GPRS
The deal places the Seattle-based NetMotion Wireless at the center of a
number of vertical industries that are grappling with wireless local and
wide area networking problems as companies try to hold down costs while
upgrading to speedier new digital networks.
In this case, AT&T Wireless has dubbed NetMotion Wireless a “preferred
provider” of software and hardware clients that help customers build bridges
in their wireless networks between “dead” spots that can crop up from one
networking protocol, such as Wi-Fi
CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data) protocol
standard uses cellular phone frequencies to transmit data packets at data
rates of up to 19 kilobits per second or lower.
As major carriers shut down their CDPD networks to switch
customers to faster networks such GPRS and CDMA2000
NetMotion Wireless is one of the software companies helping clients, such
as municipal and public networks, manage the switch.
Under the deal, AT&T Wireless is making the company’s NetMotion Mobility product the centerpiece of its recommended VPN. The NetMotion Mobility product is a layer of software that helps mobile device users roam between different networks such as from Wi-Fi-enabled access, to an older CDPD network to a GPRS network.
Shelly Julien, a vice president for strategy at NetMotion Wireless, said
although health care is a key industry for wireless networking services, the
public safety sector has also become one to watch.
She said one reason the sector is in the wireless spotlight is because of
the
legacy problems municipalities and public safety networks are experiencing
with their wide area data networks, which for years have run on the CDPD
networking standard. These organizations have used these networks for
applications such as computer-aided disptach
for police and fire safety.
AT&T Wireless, for example, has announced plans to shutter its CDPD
network by next June as it upgrades customers to faster networks. But as
public safety networks move to upgrade to GPRS, they are finding that their
computer-aided dispatch applications are marooned on a CDPD technology
platform that used static IP
to the dynamic IP addresses that faster networks deploy in newer
data-over-cellular networks.
“These are very expensive systems that only deal with static IP
addresses,” said Julien. As a result, she said, the company is aiming its
products at enterprises that are looking for help running applications
across
a hodge-podge of IP-based wireless networks.
The products are built to take advantage of the economics of Wi-Fi, but
also deal with the lack of range that bedevils Wi-Fi networking, while
helping users to hang onto their data as their devices pass from, say, a Wi-Fi
network to a 3G network.
The deal means AT&T Wireless customers get security, increased
performance, and roaming for their applications, the company said, across
multiple IP-based networks, wired or wireless, and through coverage gaps,
while offering end-to-end VPN security, including 128-bit AES
encryption.
