WLANs (Wireless LANs) are still in the experimental phase at most companies. Why? Because wireless security standards remain in flux. But a more obvious obstacle to wholehearted adoption is the lack of a compelling need for wireless in the average office, which already has a perfectly functional, wired LAN in place.
Well, here’s a thought: How about replacing or supplementing your current phone system with a VoWLAN (Voice over WLAN) system? Just take an ordinary wireless network and add a VoWLAN server along with laptops, PDAs, or newfangled Wi-Fi phones to run the client. Instead of workers wasting time playing phone tag, they can field calls wherever they roam on campus — or even on the road, if there’s a Wi-Fi cloud nearby.
VoWLAN is a natural extension of VolP (Voice over Internet Protocol), a technology that has already taken root in enterprise telecommunications. (Today, more IP-based PBXs are sold than conventional models.) Yet VoWLAN presents its own unique QoS (quality of service) challenges relating to fluctuating wireless throughput and roaming among APs (access points), which is why most of today's local wireless voice systems are bundles of proprietary wireless network hardware and software.
Industries with highly mobile workers — such as retail, manufacturing and healthcare — can justify the premium for a proprietary network. (One of the most popular solutions, SpectraLink's Wireless Telephone System, costs between $400 and $700 per seat.) Yet the proliferation of Wi-Fi and its increasing reliability opens the possibility of deploying VoWLANs across commodity WLAN setups at much lower costs.
Technical hurdles remain. But on the hardware side, at least, everyone seems to be getting in the game. Cisco recently introduced its first VoWLAN handset and a slew of vendors including NEC, Qualcomm, Motorola and Dell promise hybrid phones next year that use both Wi-Fi and mobile phone networks.
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“It’s just a matter of time before [VoWLAN] catches on in the mainstream enterprise,” says Ben Guderian, director of marketing for SpectraLink. SpectraLink recently introduced a new, lightweight, less rugged handset designed for mainstream enterprise users. Its lowest priced handset costs $399, which compares to around $350 for many desk phones with standard wiring.
Proprietary wireless voice vendors such as SpectraLink and Symbol have been among the first to release VoWLAN solutions for commodity wireless infrastructure. But there’s a new breed of VoWLAN provider as well: the softphone developers. These companies, such as TeleSym, IP blue, and VLI have built software that can be loaded onto PDAs or laptops, enabling users to initiate and receive voice calls over WLANs.
Basically, VoWLAN systems work in two different ways. Offerings from SpectraLink, Symbol, and Cisco route calls from the phone to the WLAN AP to a VoIP gateway — one that may already be in use to deliver VoIP over the wired network — which translates calls between the IP network and the PBX. That setup allows all regular PBX functions that are available on workers’ wired desk phones to be available on the VoWLAN phones. Calls that are made to phones outside the enterprise go through the PBX to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network).
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