Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Hospital Cures Wireless LAN of Dropped Connections

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 07 Jan 2003 05:24:16 -0500

Business Case:
Hospital Cures Wireless LAN of Dropped Connections
St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital prescribes an application
 persistence and roaming solution for a wireless network
 suffering from lost connections and poor coverage.
by Andrew Conry-Murray
Network Magazine
01/06/03, 1:13 p.m. ET

Business Profile: ST. LUKE'S EPISCOPAL HOSPITAL

Location: Houston, TX

Web Address: www.sleh.com

Project Leader: Gene Gretzer

Technology in Focus: Mobile application persistence and roaming

Size: 270 mobile devices in three buildings

Project cost: $175,000

Business Challenge: St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital's wireless
network is an essential component of its patient care system.
Doctors and nurses use handheld wireless devices to access and
update medical data as they work with each patient. Immediate
access to hospital applications is essential for the medical
professionals who rely on patient data to provide the best care
possible.

Unfortunately, wireless signals were often dropped as the users
moved from floor to floor or among the campus's three buildings.
Even entering a patient's room could cause the signal to drop. In
all cases, the user had to move back within signal range,
reconnect to the network, restart the application, and re-enter
any data that might have been lost.

Solution: To remedy this problem, St. Luke's turned to NetMotion
Wireless. The company's Mobility server and client agents maintain
the state of a user's application even if that user moves out of
range or places the wireless device in standby mode. This
application persistence means that users don't have to log into
applications or reconnect to the network when roaming between
floors or buildings.

The product also lets users roam between different wireless
network segments. When a user roams to a new segment, the device
is assigned a new IP address, which often causes the connection to
drop. Mobility maintains the connection across network segments.

Lastly, Mobility provides several security features, including
encryption and basic firewall functions, to help protect sensitive
patient data.

For rest of the story and all the details, follow this link:
http://www.networkmagazine.com/article/NMG20021223S0001

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