The company’s so-called Univerge Assured Mobility platform is based a new software architecture designed to optimize VoIP applications. NEC’s goal is to reduce network congestion and management of feature-rich application such as voice, video or multimedia or an enterprise network, said Paul Lopez, general manager of marketing at the Texas-based company.
NEC’s wireless infrastructure takes a different tack than its vendor’s latest versions, which are based on a centralized architecture in that most IP packets go to a centralized controller.
Instead, NEC’s wireless VoIP-optimized architecture promises to intelligently control packets so that voice packets go peer-to-peer, while only management packets — those that manage the network — go through a centralized controller.
The most notable piece of its new portfolio is a WLAN access point that double as a controller.
The big debate is about thick or thin access points … but what we’ve done is different, Lopez said. We’ve taken a lot of the controller functionality and pt it into the access points, so when you install these access points they organize themselves into a network without the need for a controller.
NEC’s forthcoming Univerge WL1700 AP is the dual controller-AP, and is able to handle as many as three of the company’s new WL1500 APs. The devices are SIP-based and 802.11a/b/g compliant.
The WL1700 means companies can set up a wireless network without the need for on-staff engineers or wireless specialists, Lopez said. Moreover, it enables SMEs or remote branch offices to assemble an ad hoc network that is scalable.
Jean Kaplan, WLAN research analyst at IDC, said this is particularly useful given wireless IP communications apps continue to evolve.
We’re not yet at the stage where we understand all the applications that will live on the wireless LAN, Kaplan said, pointing to security as an example.
NEC’s W1700 is among its chief differentiator compared to technology from rivals such as 3Com, Kaplan said. The main part is that you can have a distributed system without having controller appliances since the controller is built into one of the APs, he said.
This is, therefore, more scalable from the perspective that at any given level of branch deployment you might need less planning ahead of time or when you’re not 100% sure of what the final shape of your wireless LAN network is going to look like.
NEC also is introducing dual-mode roaming capability with its new architecture. That is, a software client that runs on a PDA or mobile phone that switches calls to the WLAN when the user is on the enterprise campus and then off-campus turns it back over to the cellular network.
The software gives the mobile device all the typical desktop-phone features while the user is on campus. It works on any device that runs on Windows Mobile 5, Symbian or RIM operating system, but requires an NEC PBX.
It can be outfitted on any NEC SV7000 or SV700 MPS appliance, which are both pure IP PBXs, as well as the NEC SV2400 hybrid PBX via a line card. The software also is built into the WL1700 controller-AP and, therefore, doesn’t require a card.
Really we have distributed intelligence throughout the network, Lopez reckoned.
We are the only provider right now that we know of that has the solution from the converged device through the network through the access points through the switch through additional capability, he added.
Indeed, NEC is going after a fixed-convergence market largely ignored by Avaya, Cisco and Nortel, which tend to target larger enterprise deployments. Kaplan said because of this, NEC’s new platform particularly competes with 3Com.
However, being a large, diversified company whereby wireless is only a small sub-component of its portfolio might challenge NEC’s ability to penetrate the market, Kaplan said. It has been the case that they have not been able to leverage the fact that they have wireless, he said.
After all, from a technology standpoint, most of the current WLAN technologies on the market are quite capable and much of the time a vendor’s success depends on customer relationships, marketing and how a vendor interacts with its channel.
It doesn’t always work out that the best technological solution becomes the leading solution, market share-wise, Kaplan noted.
Lopez said NEC would offer its new platform through both its indirect and direct sales channels, and will also target remote installations for enterprises.
Components of the platform will be released in the US, Europe and Australia next month. But the WL1700 won’t be available until the first quarter of next year. Some of these products began shipping earlier this month in Japan, however.
