Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Adding Wi-Fi to Network Traffic

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 19:44:14 -0500

Adding Wi-Fi 
To Network Traffic 
 
 By Brad Smith
January 1, 2003
Wireless Week

Think adding 2.5G and 3G infrastructure to a wireless network was complex? How about also
integrating Wi-Fi hot spots so that data users can have a seamless experience? And maybe
throw voice into the equation as well?

"Most U.S. mobile operators have seen Wi-Fi as a threat in the past but increasingly they
see it as an opportunity," says Ted Hunting, marketing director for the communications
mediation company Narus.

Narus, based in Palo Alta, Calif., recently added Wi-Fi support to its MobileSight and
prepaid data products and is working with a large U.S. carrier on a mediation product that
integrates Wi-Fi and wireless wide area data, Hunting said. He declined to identify the
carrier, saying it likely will be announced in January.

Mediation is one piece of the WLAN/WWAN puzzle for mobile operators. A number of companies
are working on other pieces, such as the ability to provide handoff capability between the
two air interfaces. Others are providing billing solutions and still others are interested
in integrating Wi-Fi voice and the 2.5G/3G networks seamlessly.

Narus' new version of MobileSight, as well as its prepaid solution, was added for Wi-Fi
hot spot providers but looks ahead to the integration of 802.11 technologies and the wide
area data being offered by GSM/GPRS, cdma2000 1xRTT, UMTS and other packet data networks. 

MobileSight allows value-added services to be deployed by service providers with the kinds
of data measurements that permit different pricing schemes for value-based services,
Hunting says. The Wi-Fi capability was developed with Japan's KDDI, which is using it now.
Among Narus' other mediation product customers is T-Mobile USA, which offers Wi-Fi public
access through its T-Mobile HotSpot business.

MobileSight gives service providers the ability to charge their users based on the service
used, content accessed or Web sites visited. Hunting says a hot spot provider might want
to give free access to its own Web site, but charge for other access, or charge for each
e-mail sent and received rather than a blanket fee.

The prepaid data mediation product allows providers to shut off access if a user has run
over the usage limit, but with the provision of a "soft landing" that sends such users to
a Web site to replenish their prepaid balance. Hunting says Wi-Fi service providers are
particularly interested now in preventing service abuse because 802.11 is such an open
technology.

MobileSight also allows service providers to personalize their Wi-Fi hot spot offerings by
customer type, location, discounts for heavy users, creation of cross-marketing
opportunities, or deliver levels of bandwidth based on users.

For instance, Hunting says, e-mail has high value to most users but requires little in the
way of network resources. Providers could charge based on the value rather than on the
amount of data.

The carrier Narus is working with for a WLAN/WAN offering could use MobileSight as a way
of reselling its Wi-Fi access to another provider, setting up different levels of service
for its own customers and the reseller's customers, Hunting says.

That leaves the business case. Narus believes that MobileSight will help answer that
question for Wi-Fi hot spot providers. These companies haven't shown a profit yet, but
tools like MobileSight can change that, Hunting says.

Working on the seamless roaming piece of the puzzle is Padcom, which recently introduced a
new version of its Connectivity Suite that allows handoffs between CDMA 1xRTT and Wi-Fi,
as well as CDPD, private radio and propriety networks.

Mark Ferguson, marketing director for Padcom, says the Connectivity Suite would work well
with a wholesale Wi-Fi network being set up by Cometa Networks, the hot spot company set
up by AT&T, IBM and Intel. Padcom's solution could provide the link between the WLAN and
the WWAN, while Cometa would handle the billing.

One advantage that Padcom's software has is that it solves problems created by changing IP
addresses when a subscriber goes from one network to another, Ferguson says. The
Connectivity Suite allows a static IP address to be assigned so that the network provider
can link the address to a specific user.

A "port routing" feature of the software allows network administrators to specify which
networks can be used for which applications, with detailed rules to prioritize the routing
characteristics of application packets. Different priorities could be assigned to
different applications, Ferguson says.

Another company, Winphoria, is looking to the day when voice traffic might be handled
seamlessly between a Wi-Fi network and a cellular operator, according to Steve Kish,
marketing vice president. He believes that after carriers add Wi-Fi access to their data
offerings, they will start looking at adding voice probably about 2005.

Winphoria has a switch that works with multiple access points and air interfaces in a
voice over IP world. "If you're on a CDMA handset and walk into a (Wi-Fi hot spot)
network, how does the handset know which access point to deliver the handset to?," he
asks. "We understand which of 11 different APs is a neighbor to the cell site and can
determine which network to deliver the call to. We can sense which one to hand off to for
the strongest signal."

For this to happen, however, chipsets supporting the negotiation between the two kinds of
networks will have to be built into handsets. Kish says he believes those handsets will be
available in about 18 months.

It's obvious the WLAN/WWAN networks of the future promise to increase network complexity.
But solutions like these may provide some help for stressed administrators. 
 
http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=story&articleid=CA268431&spacedesc=Departments&stt=000

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