Cisco Expanding the Possibilities of Wi-Fi Voice Communications

April 25, 2006

by Charles Waltner, News@Cisco

Cisco Systems is answering the call for wireless voice communications.

The Internet protocol (IP) networking leader is focusing on building advanced capabilities into its products to support high-quality conversations over wireless, or "Wi-Fi," networks. To achieve its goal, Cisco is actively working with a wide-range of companies that make phones and other mobile voice devices.

Under its Cisco Compatible Extensions (CCX) program, Cisco is ensuring that participating products can use the advanced features available in its wireless local area network (LAN) and wired voice-over-IP (VoIP) technologies. The features are special software enhancements based on existing communications standards. Participants in the program must implement all elements of the Cisco specifications and undergo extensive testing at an independent third-party lab. The program has attracted the interest of some of the industry's leading companies, including Nokia Corp., Research in Motion Ltd., and Intel Corp.

Tom Libretto, Nokia's director of marketing for mobility solutions, says his company has been working with Cisco over the last year to integrate such capabilities into some of the company's cellular phones. Libretto says the new phones are "business-class" and aimed squarely at corporate users whose companies already operate, or plan to soon establish, wireless LANs. As a key Cisco partner and an early participant in the CCX program, Intel has integrated support for Cisco's wireless voice features into its Centrino brand chip sets, making it possible to use laptops for Wi-Fi voice communications.

Cisco originally created the CCX program to address the specific needs of wireless LAN networks and is now incorporating into the program voice-specific enhancements, such as seamless routing of traffic among access points, especially as users "roam" or move through a network and their calls transition from one access point to another. Cisco's software enhancements also provide even more security protections for wireless voice traffic.

If a mobile voice device does not support Cisco's software enhancements, Cisco wireless LANs cannot provide the dependability and fidelity that business users require in voice communications. "It's all about ensuring the network and the client device work in unison to support the necessary quality," says Brett Galloway, vice president and general manager for Cisco's Wireless Networking business unit.

Thanks to the growing popularity of wireless LANs, vendors are quickly developing a wide array of products that can use Wi-Fi networks for voice as well as data communications. "Six months from now there will be an order of magnitude more Wi-Fi voice devices on the market," Galloway says.

Cisco hopes the program opens up new ways organizations can take advantage of their existing or planned wireless networks. Cisco and its partners in the CCX program recognize that the wireless voice market is nascent, but because of the rapidly growing popularity of Wi-Fi networks, they believe it is just a matter of time before many businesses and other organizations use these infrastructures for voice communications as well.

"This is a young but quickly emerging market," Galloway says. "Thanks to our CCX program partners, our customers now have many options for quality voice communications over their wireless LANs. Each organization has its own operational needs. The idea of the CCX program is that it helps make many different types of devices available, so our customers can find the ones that best address their business issues."

Nokia's Libretto says his company estimates that of the 914 million cell phones it expects to sell in 2006, approximately 100 million of those will be dual-radio "smart" phones with wireless LAN voice capability. He expects 20 to 30 percent growth for the category over the next few years.

Libretto says the dual-radio phones will provide organizations a way to consolidate their communications systems. Employees, for example, are able to use one of the Nokia phones to receive calls coming in on their cellular phone number that are delivered over the cellular operator's network, as well as calls to their office phone delivered over an organization's wired and wireless network. Such streamlining will increase productivity while reducing management costs, he says.

Brian Tucker, marketing manager for Intel's Mobile Digital Office group, says his company joined the Cisco CCX program early on because mobility is clearly a growing priority for organizations of all stripes. "Businesses are recognizing the value of mobility, and wireless voice on the laptop is one more way to achieve that," he says.

Tucker notes that consumer adoption of technology often foreshadows business adoption. With the worldwide build-out of Wi-Fi networks and the growing array of consumer VoIP offerings, Tucker anticipates a burgeoning market for business-oriented Wi-Fi voice products.

Brian Hoepner, a networking specialist with the Luther Midelfort hospital in Eau Claire, Wisc., says such capability would be a "huge opportunity" for streamlining communications among his organization's employees. The hospital already uses 500 Cisco wireless LAN phones for mobile communications within its buildings. But as part of the Mayo Health System that serves Wisconsin, many doctors and other employees of Luther Midelfort travel among the healthcare provider's 40 clinical sites, some which are more than an hour away.

Hoepner says the dual-mode phones with one number would make it easier to contact doctors as they traveled while still maximizing the cost-savings and convenience of running voice calls over the hospital's wireless LANs. He adds that the wireless-voice capable laptops from Intel would also help traveling or home-based workers keep in touch with the organization.

"Right now, the benefits of our wireless LAN phones stop at the door," Hoepner says. "This would be a way to further expand those benefits. We've been in the endless pursuit of one device for all communications and the Cisco CCX program can get us a lot closer to that goal."

Charles Waltner is a freelance journalist in Oakland, Calif.