Wireless leap forward
Seamless roaming among networks and fewer botched transmissions bode well for the future
WHEN WE LOOK back 25 years from now at all the things we got so excited about in 2002, they will seem quaint and maybe, to the unsympathetic mind, slightly pathetic. Nevertheless, things such as the ability to roam between a Wi-Fi and wide area network without losing a bit or having to reauthenticate are just now coming to fruition.
Even the simple act of reconnecting and seamlessly resuming a transmission after a split-second interruption in service or a seven-day interruption is pretty amazing to me.
NetMotion Wireless, in Seattle, does just that by using what Shelly Julien, vice president of marketing, calls a static IP address. The NetMotion server resides behind your firewall, tracks the IP address as the user roams, and acts as a proxy to the rest of the network which still “thinks” it’s talking to the original IP address.
By caching the data to the NetMotion server, you can begin downloading a file, get on a plane in New York, get off the plane in Paris, and continue the download.
One of the first commercial uses of seamless roaming will be seen thanks to Federal Express. The courier service announced a deal two weeks ago with Brisbane, Calif.-based ViaFone for wireless customer tracking. The ViaFone technology works at the application level rather than at the network level where NetMotion lives, but both offer users so-called state management. If you are tracking your package and get cut off, at least you won’t have to start over when you reconnect.
Now, take this seamless roaming to the next step and you can see where the wireless carriers, such as VoiceStream and Nextel, will be using technologies such as NetMotion’s as they roll out their internetworking capabilities.
VoiceStream, in Bellevue, Wash., will be the first early next year. The carrier will combine its T-Mobile Wi-Fi network it purchased when it bought MobileStar earlier this year with its cellular network. So, as you’re checking your e-mail using the cellular network while walking into the airport, a dual GPRS/Wi-Fi card in the handheld recognizes a better connection and switches you over.
My favorite wireless company, Santa Clara, Calif.-based WhereNet, has a more industrial-strength capability that will combine its location and telemetry chip technology (See “Tracking technology sheds light on shopping habits,” at www.infoworld.com/printlinks ) with Wi-Fi. Among the first companies to use it will be General Motors and Toyota in a joint venture called Nummi (New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.), a vehicle assembly plant in Fremont, Calif.
The WhereNet G2 System leverages the RTLS components for messaging and telemetry of WhereNet with the 802.11 components required to work with the backend applications. The combined system can now send the closest forklift operator to pick up a part, tell that operator where the part is located, pull a trip ticket, map the location of the part, and map where to bring it.
Ain’t life grand?
