NEW YORK — Cisco and Nokia
are
working together on a dual-mode device that will support a hand-off between
Wi-Fi and cellular networks.
Dual-mode handsets in the enterprise would allow users to shift seamlessly
from network to network without worrying about dropped calls or degraded
speeds of data transmission.
Alan Cohen, senior director of mobility solutions for Cisco, told a panel
here at Interop New York 2006 that the two companies are testing a handset
that will give users the ability to stay connected even as they move, for
instance, from their offices to the parking lot.
Cohen told internetnews.com that the devices are already in use
internally and will be released to market within the next six to 12
months.
Dual-mode devices are already available by the boatload, but Cohen explained
that the Cisco-Nokia iterations will include important features that have thus
far kept enterprises from adopting dual-mode handsets.
These include call admission control, enhanced security and power-save
features.
Call admission control prevents VoIP networks from becoming over-saturated,
and improves quality of service.
Cohen said that this type of solution is already being pushed aggressively
in Japan, where Cisco has a partnership with NTT DoCoMo .
One out of five cell phones produced in Japan next year will have dual-mode
capabilities, he said.
But Cohen also noted that NTT is the exception among carriers, whom he
blamed for inhibiting the development of this type of device.
“Carriers perceive it as lost minutes,” he said.
That’s because when users walk into their office buildings, their
dual-mode devices would switch from the carriers’ networks to an enterprise
Wi-Fi or other wireless network.
Craig Mathias, principal of Farpoint Group, agreed that carriers see
dual-mode devices as a threat.
But Mathias also told internetnews.com that while carriers are
currently resisting dual-mode, they will ultimately come around to it
because they do not have enough spectrum to meet all the demands of voice
and data transmission.
“They have no choice, but they think they do [now],” he said.
However, not everyone is convinced that enterprises will adopt this solution
all that quickly
Vanessa Alvarez, an analyst with the Yankee Group, said that enterprises
will need to see a compelling value proposition in order to switch from
their current handsets.
Handset manufacturers like Nokia “will have to take a vertical approach,”
she said.
Ben Guderian, vice president of market strategy for IP telephony solutions
provider Spectralink, identified some of those vertical markets at an
earlier session.
“Large retailers, manufacturing distribution centers, and health care are
verticals that have a compelling need for mobility,” he said.
Mathias said that the pairing of market leaders Cisco and Nokia will
accelerate adoption.
Cisco had also been working with Motorola  , but that
relationship didn’t come to fruition, noted Alvarez.
Mathias noted that a lack of standards is also inhibiting adoption of
next-generation devices.
He said that IEEE standard 802.11n will be released by the middle of 2008.
Mathias said that “politics is playing a huge role. That’s why it’s taking
so long to get a standard.”
He noted, however, that the market is not waiting around.
Another organization, the WiFi Alliance, is issuing an interim standard next
year, he said.
Mathias believes that IEEE standard will be backward-compatible with the
interim standard.
