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May 29, 2006
Location, Location, Location
For the past 3 years, I have been pushing hard on location as one of the top mobility services WLANs can provide. One of our European partners, Appear Networks, has deployed a landmark location service in the Stockholm subway. For a write up and video on the service, try here: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/partners/news/2006/pr_prod_05-02.html
Posted by Alan Cohen at 08:37 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)
May 24, 2006
The Translation is Cool
The land of the rising sun has long been admired by the rest of the world for its innovation and relentless focus on improvement. The world has followed Japan's lead and embraced cultural phenomena like sushi, anime and those astoundingly funny reality game shows that seem to border on lunacy. But perhaps one of the most envied of all Japanese hallmarks is their use of mobile technologies.
Mobility is woven into every aspect of Japanese life. Businessmen access their email on the airport train into Tokyo. School girls swap pictures of their latest crush in lightening speed. Taxi drivers charge fearlessly through the maze that is Tokyo with the help of GPS.
It seems fitting that a country with such an ingrained understanding of the benefits of wireless and mobility should also think up some pretty interesting wireless applications. Here is a taste of some of the more interesting applications I’ve encountered so far on this trip:
1. Wireless video surveillance for the carriages of a Ferris wheel over 100 meters in diameter. Imagine the complexity of antenna design for a huge wheel that is continuously spinning!
2. Performance monitoring for security guards. One customer wanted to use our wireless location tracking capabilities to ensure that night security guards were completing their patrols (as opposed to sitting and watching TV).
3. Locating missing children in an amusement park. While there are some obvious liability concerns, location tracking could offer amusement parks an effective way of locating missing children, or even just service personnel.
While just a sample, these applications show that the Japanese understand the value of wireless.
Now let me close my laptop, lest this Teriyaki sauce jam up my keyboard.
Posted by Chris Kozup at 02:59 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
May 23, 2006
Mobility Flattens Barriers for the Hearing Impaired
Recently I have been following the news about Gallaudet University as it chooses a new President and it reminded me of our deployment there. Gallaudet is also one of the first large deployments of the centralized WLAN architecture, starting in the June/July 2003 timeframe. We are deployed in all 32 buildings, including the President’s home and the recent press reminded me of this customer who I stay in touch with on a regular basis.
For those who don’t know about this university, it is the National College of Deaf Studies, funded by the U.S. Congress. It was the first college of its kind and was chartered by Abraham Lincoln in 1864; to date, it remains the premier institution of its kind in the world, home to college students from all 50 U.S. States and over 60 countries. It is the Oxbridge of hearing-impaired world. The campus is serene, beautiful -- much of it a vintage snapshot of Civil War era architecture.
I toured the campus several years ago with then President, Dr. King Jordan, and spent most of the day with him. Lots of folks using the network (we reviewed usage patterns in WCS – the big jump is right after dinner). IM is big. Video CAMs are big. Walking by the student center, you can see the students logged on and blogging.
Gallaudet leads the world in both study programs as well as using technology for hearing-impaired and deaf education. They have pioneered video-relay of signed conversations to translators to make voice phone calls (they would be a great Beta for candidate for Cisco Unified Messaging). The campus is stuffed with PCs and video screens.
What grabbed me on that visit, what grabbed my heart, was seeing these students in action. I received my first guided tour from a graduate student studying linguistics (Tranformational Grammar, Noam Chomsky anyone?). She signed me (and another student translated) how technology allows her to understand and model how speech, thought/cognitive process works in the human mind. She pointed out students flirting with each other, wirelessly, with Instant Messenger. It was amazing and eerie: the student center was quiet and hands were flying through the air, signing with passion and with verve, visual expressions communicating as well as words. Then it hit me like 36" Louisville Slugger: technology, our technology, helps flatten the barriers for these gifted, wonderful young people, to participate and advance our society. Our network helped give them some advantages to their career and life development.
And they thanked us for it.
It was quite overwhelming and should stroke a passion in what we in the technology industry do. We will likely sell a lot of WLAN gear, but imagine the satisfaction of improving the lives and work of our customers like are at Gallaudet. Then we will be a great company that people will remember for a long time.
"Even though I am nearly deaf, I seem to be gifted with a kind of inner hearing which enables me to detect sounds and noises which the ordinary listener does not hear."
- Thomas Edison
Posted by Alan Cohen at 03:39 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)
May 20, 2006
Why Not Cisco?
And now for a lack of modesty -- while others try to imitate, we seem to be handling this wireless/wired unification thing rather well ...
Posted by Ben Gibson at 05:20 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
May 16, 2006
A Unified Form of Flattery
For several years now the industry has accepted the fact that it's no longer a question of why wireless, rather a question of when wireless. The user demand for mobility and wireless connectivity has outpaced that of many other technologies, including IP telephony, personal storage and desktop video.
Of course mobility doesn't imply that we cut the cord forever, rather that we have the ability to access resources in a uniform way irrespective of where or how we're connected. This need for seamless mobility across a variety of network types (wired / wireless, voice / data / video, local / wide) is not without its challenges.
A necessary deliverable on the path to true mobility is the unification of networks. Cisco has been actively working on integrating its wired and wireless product portfolios as a way of achieving this.
But, don't just take our word for it. Even our competitors have realized this is the way to go. Check it out here.
After all, imitation IS the highest form of flattery!
Posted by Chris Kozup at 03:29 PM Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
The Wi-Fi Comes in (on little cat feet)
In 1878, Poet Laureate of Chicago, Carl Sandburg, wrote his Haikuish poem, "The Fog"
"THE fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on."
FINALLY, thanks to our good friends at Concourse Communications, Chicago O'Hare Aiport finally has Wi-Fi in the terminals (maybe its called O'Hare because it took so long to get Wi-Fi to this place?!>!)
People keep taking broadband outdoor wireless connections as a given. Well, its not. There is a LOT more to do, but mobility is inevitable. One of my other favorite adopted sons of Chicago, Michael Jordan, was also something of philospher. In his own words: "Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen. "
Posted by Alan Cohen at 12:28 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
May 12, 2006
Unlicensed Bandwidth and IP driving the next generation of wireless networks
While most people are aware of WiFi technology and it’s growth, fewer are aware of the growing amount of unlicensed bandwidth available around the world and the migration to an end to end IP architecture in wireless networks . Both of these trends along with wireless routing technology are significantly driving down the cost of delivering a wireless data bit which is needed for truly ubiquitous wireless broadband data.
In addition to the 80 MHz of unlicensed 2.4GHz bandwidth available around most of the world there is a growing amount of unlicensed 5 GHz bandwidth being made available around the world. In the US we currently have 325 MHz of unlicensed 5GHz bandwidth and just recently the FCC opened another 255 MHz in the 5470 – 5725 MHz band with its Report and Order FCC 03-287[3] for a total of 580 MHz unlicensed bandwidth in the US. In Europe, ETSI standard EN 301 893 V1.2.3 [1] harmonized unlicensed devices operating in the 5150 - 5350 MHz and 5470 - 5725 MHz frequency bands across the European union. This 100’s of megahertz of unlicensed bandwidth is the foundation for delivering cost effective wireless broadband data. The cellular voice networks were built upon 5 and 10 MHz chunks of licensed spectrum. Wireless broadband data users want 10 times or more data than a voice user driving the requirement for 100’s of megahertz of bandwidth in the next generation of wireless networks. In the past, tier 1 service providers have been reluctant to use unlicensed bandwidth but they are now realizing that they need to incorporate unlicensed bands into their strategy if they want to remain competitive with the new emerging challengers. The combination of licensed WiMax and unlicensed WiFi is good example this next generation of end to end IP wireless network that will allow wireless networks to deliver both the QOS of the licensed bands with the capacity of the unlicensed bandwidths. Interestingly in the next generation of high speed high capacity IP wireless networks it may will be that voice is a free low bandwidth feature.
Posted by Bob Friday at 08:52 AM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Mobility and the Human Condition
The more I think about mobility, the more it becomes apparent that it encompasses more than wireless or portable technologies. Indeed, you can say everything is mobile on some level. Here are my top 10 mobility paradigms for the human condition:
Mobility of ideas (democracy)
Mobility of leadership (elections, coups)
Mobility of people (immigration, travel)
Mobility of information (wireless internet, data systems)
Mobility of capital (financial markets, private equity)
Mobility of national risk (terrorism)
Mobility of national borders (war)
Mobility of messages (media)
Mobility of natural and man made global risk (plate tectonics, disease, pollution)
Mobiliy of social station (education, career, human achievement)
Everything is mobile
Posted by Alan Cohen at 06:25 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
May 05, 2006
"Change is the handmaiden nature requires to do her miracles" - Mark Twain
Time to Call Myself on Some Predictions
About 3 years ago, I made some predictions about how the Enterprise Wireless Market was going to shape up.
In the spirit of reflective self-improvement (and more, venally, self-promotion), I thought it would be worth giving myself a report card
Here is the link to the original blog http://wirelessinnovator.com/index.php?articleID=1639§ionID=3
Here is the opening thoughts and the predicitons
"The force propelling WLANs into new business segments are productivity gains associated with extending a real-time, always-connected information architecture. WLANs are creating a new communications and collaboration model for all users. Yet, as Clayton Christensen reminded us in The Innovators' Dilemma, when a market grows rapidly, when it inflects, it tends to morph and reset the rules of competition."
Inflection Points for the WLAN Marketplace:
1. Wired to Wireless:
The first inflection point is the shift from wired to wireless networks. When wireless networks equal the reliability of wired networks, and meet the requirements of 90%+ of user applications, a new generation of network access will take off.
Today, the predictability and reliability of WLAN systems are dramatically better, as we see a wide range of industries using these systems in business critical situations, from stock exchange trading floors to a range of supply chain applications. Interesting, I think the major shift here is that there is a major fusing of the the concepts of wireless and wired. At Cisco, today, over 43% of all employees use Wireless as the principal access method
2. Consumers/SOHO to Enterprise/Service Provider:
The WLAN revolution started in the home but is going to finish in the enterprise and carrier market segments, perhaps even blurring some of those distinctions along the way. With this business shift, new control and performance requirements are emerging for the people who operate WLANs.
Yep
3. Convenience to Business Critical:
Today, WLANs are relatively ad hoc and are unpredictable (unlike your wired LAN or phone network). Increasingly, as end-users depend more and more on WLANs, they will change from convenience networks to production networks to, ultimately, business-critical networks, networks that operate as reliably as wired networks. To make this transition, WLAN platforms must evolve in terms of reliability, performance, and mobility.
Yep
4. Proprietary Clients to Heterogeneous Clients:
One of the dirty little secrets of the WLAN industry is that while most industry players adhere to standards and operability (e.g., WiFi), most of the advanced security and performance features are handled by proprietary clients loaded with - you guessed it -- proprietary software. While this paradigm worked in the last phase of the industry, control of the WLAN client is lost, gone forever as PC, PDA, cell phone and other device manufacturers bundle WLAN chipsets in all kinds of devices. Going forward, all business-critical WLANs must live and thrive in a world of heterogeneous, standards-adherent clients.
Absolutely true. If you look at our CCX program, much of what we are pushing is the more rapid adoption of the standards. Take a look at Dave Molta and James Blandford's column CCX plays by the rules http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?site=unstrung&doc_id=90378&page_number=5
5. Stand-alone APs to Switched APs:
WLANs, like the first Ethernet networks before them, were designed as flat, peered networks, where the end-nodes on the network operated as independent entities. When there is a little traffic or no requirements for predictable performance, this program works fine. However, for WLANs to scale and support the new requirements outlined above, they will need to associate, to work together. Increasingly, intelligence and coordination will be handed by a centralized intelligence source, a WLAN Switch.
The history has been written on this one
6. Shared Media to RF Management:
The other dirty secret of the WLAN industry remains the industry's lack of attention to the RF environment, a fixed resource with associated statistical problems. Business-critical WLANs will require network operators to implement self-optimizing radio resource systems that compensate for the frequent shifts of the RF environment - without forcing IT staff into becoming RF engineers.
More true today than ever. Lightweight APs are not the same as RF-insensitive devices.
7. Ad Hoc to Self-Managed:
WLANs have grown virally, with APs hanging off ethernet jacks like power cords off of a power strip. As wireless networks grow in size and usage in the office, attention to network design and optimization is becoming a first-order priority for network managers, building on the emergence of self-optimizing radio resource systems.
Ditto 6
8. Throughput-Constrained to Throughput-Rich:
Almost ten years ago, George Gilder started predicting "bandwidth will be free." But he was talking about fiber optics, not spectrum. Increasingly, however, as Moore (versus Gilder)'s Law embraces the WLAN world, new RF paradigms like 802.11 and UWB will provide a rapid uplift in throughput, from today's 11/54 Megabits per second (Mbps) systems to 100Mbps or even 1000 Mbps.
I am passionate about the pending spectrum crisis at 2.4, and much like today's alternative energy evangelists, i think we need to better conserve the free airwaves through continuous improvement in RF management as well as take advantage of the addtional bandwidth available in the UNII band at 5 Gig (i.e., the oil sands of free spectrum). We love the coming capabilities promised by 802.11n, but it is later than the hype but definitely on the horizon
9. WEP Problem to Rogue Problem:
The first stage of the WLAN industry was characterized by a serious security flaw in the link layer, the failing of the WEP protocol. The advent of WPA and AES look like they will address this problem. The bigger problem most network operators face today is the Rogue problem, where evildoers and your own employees ( with no malicious intent) can now access the network by plugging in a $59 AP into the nearest Ethernet jack, hence punching a security hole into your network and computing environment Darth Vader could fly into to.
Sure enough
10. Data Apps to Voice and Data Apps:
Most WLANs today either support general office applications (email, file transfer, etc.) or some productivity applications in specific verticals (patient records in hospitals, supply chain in distribution). Increasingly, next generation WLAN platforms will also carry voice applications. Business-critical WLANs, we believe, must underpin real-time applications like voice (and video) on the same infrastructure.
The next wave of Mobility Applications are driving the market Check out Ben Gibson's Voice-Ready Wireless Webinar with Abner Germanow and partners from Intel and Nokia.
http://tools.cisco.com/cmn/jsp/index.jsp?id=51155&redir=YES&userid=(none)
Posted by Alan Cohen at 05:48 AM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
May 03, 2006
Tradeshow Tales
Gone are the former days of glory for the once flagship networking tradeshow, Interop. Still, having spent the day working the floor yesterday I was pleased to see that a healthy enterprise interest still exists. Of course most of my discussions were with existing Cisco customers, but at least the show is serving as a conduit for sharing the latest on our product strategy.
From a day of data points, the following three points summarize the main issues that our customers, partners, fans and spies are interested in:
1. WCS and Location - most passer bys are drawn into the booth by the cool looking heatmaps that we have running in the demo. These heatmaps show our capabilities in Radio Resource Management and Location services. Everybody leaves impressed.
2. How to migrate towards a unified architecture - most of our existing wireless LAN customers have heard the message about the benefits of unifying their wired and wireless networks through a controller based architecture, but are not completely sure about the steps to take to get there. We have been talking to a lot of customers about how they can LWAPP enable their existing IOS based APs and add a controller to take adavantage of the full benefits of mobility.
3. Future product plans - many folks are asking about Cisco's plans for 802.11n and WiMax. Most are looking for Cisco to take a leadership role in these areas. Of course, since neither technologies have reached maturity in the standards cycle Cisco has yet to deliver products. Of course the obvious answer is that Cisco is dedicated to meeting the technology needs of its customers and building solutions that deliver business value.
As I head into day two, I hope to spend a bit more time walking the show floor to see what's out there and how our solutions are positioned with respect to those of our competitors.
From Vegas,
Chris Kozup
Posted by Chris Kozup at 09:33 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
May 01, 2006
Metropolitan Mesh: Better Be Secure
Back from a week in the Big Apple
EVERYONE is talking mesh.
Then there is the wireless security initiative in Westchester County.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/04/21/wireless.security.ap/
"The more things are forbidden, the more popular they become"
Mark Twain - Notebooks 1895:
No stopping mobility.
Posted by Alan Cohen at 03:24 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
