Aruba Networks Unveils Plans for Enterprise Fixed-Mobile Convergence

Aruba Networks Unveils Plans for Enterprise Fixed-Mobile Convergence

Lays Out Five-Phase Roadmap for Enterprise Evolution to Dual-Mode Services

Aruba Networks, the Mobile Edge Company, today announced comprehensive plans to enter the rapidly growing enterprise fixed-mobile convergence (E-FMC) market. E-FMC allows seamless handover of communications between Wi-Fi and cellular networks, promising greater mobility, user convenience, increased productivity and cost savings. Aruba laid out a five-phase plan to bring E-FMC capabilities to its user-centric enterprise mobility platform and will work with others across the E-FMC value chain including mobile handset manufacturers, IP-PBX vendors, FMC infrastructure vendors and mobile operators.

Aruba’s five-phase plan includes:

* Vo-Fi Awareness (December 2005): The first phase of the plan, bringing
voice-aware WLAN features to Aruba mobility controllers, was completed
in December 2005. (See press release, “Aruba Announces Mobile Voice Over
IP Enhancements to the Enterprise Mobile Edge”) These features were
enabled by the Aruba mobility controller’s integrated stateful firewall
and application-aware adaptive radio management.
* Vo-Fi Scalability (November 2006): Phase two brings new capabilities for
scalability, performance and reliability features based on the IEEE
802.11e standard. The new features being announced today (See companion
release, “Aruba Networks Turns Up the Volume on Vo-Fi”) include WMM,
TSpec, WMM-PS, and additional enhancements.
* Enterprise Integration (1st half 2007): In the third phase, Aruba will
add the WLAN/cellular network call handover function to its existing
mobility controllers. This function will be explicitly designed to
augment and scale the handover function being planned by IP-PBX vendors,
and an open application programming interface (API) will provide the
integration hooks necessary for easy integration. The API will also
deliver greater visibility into VoIP calls made over the mobile LAN,
enabling IP-PBX vendors to inject mobile LAN awareness into their
existing VoIP management systems. Phase three will also include the
release of a client behavior specification designed to help mobile
handset manufacturers deliver faster handoffs both within the WLAN and
between cellular and Wi-Fi.
* Carrier Integration (2nd half 2007): Phase four will augment carrier FMC
architectures based on the Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) standard with
managed WLAN and security services.
* Seamless Networks (2008): The fifth phase will focus on delivering
seamless interworking across enterprise-based IP multimedia services and
carrier-based IP multimedia services and will rely on the IP Multimedia
Subsystem (IMS) architecture being standardized in the 3GPP standards
body.

“This is a big deal for us,” said Keerti Melkote, co-founder and head of products and partnerships for Aruba Networks. “FMC is a megatrend that will accelerate the move towards a truly seamless mobile edge for enterprise users. We know we can’t get there alone, and are working closely with a number of partners. We invite VoIP vendors, FMC infrastructure vendors and mobile handset vendors to join us and build a standards-based approach that delivers value for enterprises and mobile operators alike.”

Aruba’s five-phase plan addresses both enterprise-centric and carrier-centric E-FMC architectures. In an enterprise-centric architecture, dual-mode mobility services are delivered as an enterprise-owned and operated service and in a carrier-centric architecture, they are delivered as a managed service by the service provider.

Phase One – Vo-Fi Awareness

The first necessary element for delivering enterprise FMC services is a Vo-Fi aware WLAN. Aruba fulfilled this requirement last year with capabilities such as Voice Flow Classification (VFC) and advanced Call Admission Control (CAC), enabled by the mobility controller’s integrated stateful firewall and deep packet inspection.

Phase Two – Vo-Fi Scalability

The second phase adds further scalability, performance and reliability features based on the IEEE 802.11e standard and enables the mobile LAN to “trust but verify”, an approach that prevents clients from abusing these new standards. Aruba today announced a number of new capabilities in these areas including WMM-based Quality of Service (QoS) with WMM enforcement, TSpec-compliant call admission controls (CAC) with strict accuracy for dense Vo-Fi deployments and WMM-Power Save (WMM-PS) and other enhancements for extended battery life on mobile handsets.

“I recently completed a series of Vo-Fi tests on Aruba’s Mobile Edge solution, including evaluations of call capacity, throughput, clients per AP, latency, jitter and roaming times, and can confirm that Aruba’s products are indeed able to support full voice deployments in large enterprises,” said Craig Mathias, a principal with the wireless and mobile advisory firm Farpoint Group. “The Mobile Edge architecture is very well-suited to support the evolution from single-mode Vo-Fi to dual-mode FMC implementations.”

Phase Three – Enterprise Integration

In phase three, Aruba is directly embedding the capability to provide seamless call handoff between the WLAN and cellular networks into its family of purpose-built mobility controllers. The location of Aruba’s mobility controller within the network make it ideally suited to provide this functionality in conjunction with a SIP capable IP-PBX or softswitch. The primary benefits of the integrated call handover function known as Mobile Voice Continuity (MVC) include WLAN aware seamless handoffs, non-disruptive integration with existing IP-PBX systems and increased scalability compared to PC-based solutions.

To achieve maximum interoperability with the IP-PBX, Aruba is developing an open application programming interface (API) that will deliver greater visibility to an IP-PBX in areas such as seamless handovers, call admission controls, mobile voice management, security, and E-911 integration, among others.

In addition, Aruba will be releasing a set of FMC Client Behavior Specifications and a standards-compliant reference code by which handset manufacturers can fully leverage Aruba’s Vo-Fi and FMC features and capabilities. The specification is based on IEEE 802.11 standards and delivers value in areas such as intra-WLAN handoffs, secure roaming, QoS and battery life, among others. Aruba is working closely with several leading VoIP and handset vendors to enable tighter integration between the mobile LAN, IP-PBX and mobile handsets.

Phase Four – Carrier Integration

Mobile operators such as T-Mobile, Orange, Telecom Italia and TeliaSonera are now trialing Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) services aimed at residential customers, and several are now looking to extend these services to enterprises. As this occurs, deployment of a successful service will rely heavily upon the WLAN implementation. Aruba will deliver feature integration between its Mobile Edge platform and a service provider’s UMA architecture. “Not only do we do this in a minimally invasive manner, but we can provide service providers with end-to-end visibility for troubleshooting without compromising enterprise network security,” said Melkote. Aruba is working closely with service providers and UMA equipment vendors such as Kineto Wireless to assure seamless interoperability.

“Successfully implementing enterprise UMA services will depend on both the UMA network controller installed in the service provider’s core network and the WLAN equipment and architecture installed at the customer’s site,” said Steve Shaw, director of marketing for Kineto Wireless. “Aruba Networks’ Mobile Edge architecture is particularly effective in this regard as it provides the mobile operators with the ability to effectively monitor, manage, and troubleshoot Vo-Fi traffic concurrently as the WLAN supports secure data traffic.”

Aruba is actively involved with a variety of organizations, such as MobileIGNITE, and several other partners to ensure Auba’s mobile VoIP solutions seamlessly integrate with leading carrier FMC products and technologies.

“Aruba was an early member of MobileIGNITE, demonstrating their vision and commitment to bringing mobility and convergence to the enterprise,” said Sanjay Jhawar, chairperson of MobileIGNITE’s Executive Steering Committee. “As a participant in MobileIGNITE, Aruba is positioned to accelerate FMC deployment through interoperability testing and development of best practices and use cases with 45 other leaders across the FMC value chain from carrier to client.”

Phase Five – Seamless Networks

As service providers evolve towards converged IP-based networks, a common architecture is emerging that enables secure, seamless connectivity not just for VoIP, but other IP-based multimedia services. The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), a 3GPP standard, will serve as the foundation for the delivery of multimedia services across any radio access network including cellular, Wi-Fi and WiMAX. With IMS, both enterprise and service provider core networks will be based on IP and seamless integration between private and public mobile networks supporting a rich set of IP services will become possible. The fifth phase of Aruba’s strategy for enterprise FMC involves integration with IMS- based approaches and delivers the vision of enabling rich multimedia services across both carrier and enterprise networks.

About Aruba Networks

Aruba Networks is a fast-growing enterprise infrastructure company enabling the Mobile Edge, an evolutionary network architecture that represents a new approach to transitioning enterprise networks from a fixed, port-based architecture to an architecture centered on secure, user-based mobility. The Mobile Edge simultaneously delivers mobile data and VoIP services, as well as a common user experience to mobile workers in the office, at home and on the road, by creating a secure mobility overlay that spans the LAN, the WAN and the Internet. To deliver the Mobile Edge, Aruba manufactures and markets a complete line of fixed and modular mobility controllers, wired and wireless access points, an advanced mobility software suite, and a mobility management system. Privately held and based in Sunnyvale, California, Aruba has operations in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and employs staff around the world. To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com.

NOTE: Aruba Networks and Aruba The Mobile Edge Company are trademarks of Aruba Wireless Networks, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders. Portions © 2006 Aruba Wireless Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. Specifications are subject to change without notice.