Symbol foresees a single management infrastructure
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 9/1/2006 6:00:00 AM
The expanding use of wireless technology in the workplace introduces new network-management challenges. Chief among them is the need to manage all kinds of wireless devices that can be deployed to accommodate different activities.
For instance, office workers typically rely on wireless LANs to tap into applications via laptop computers or personal digital assistants, while warehouses and factory floors constitute the primary domain of RFID networks and devices.
The different requirements of—and the potential for conflict between—these technologies inspired Symbol Technologies to develop what it calls a new generation of wireless networking architecture. Symbol claims this architecture, dubbed Wi-NG (Wireless Next Generation), will allow companies to consolidate and manage wireless networks based on multiple protocols—e.g, Wi-Fi, RFID, mesh, WiMAX, and VoWLAN (Voice over Wireless LAN)—through a single RF switching platform.
This type of consolidation offers considerable cost and time benefits, says Sam Lucero, senior analyst for Oyster Bay, N.Y.-based ABI Research. Lucero believes this capability will be especially attractive in industries such as manufacturing and retail, where RF terminals, RFID tags, and readers support core business functions.
"[Projected growth in RFID applications] raises the perennial problem of effectively managing proliferating systems," Lucero says. "A solution that offers centralized control of multiple RF networks will resonate in vertical markets [that are adopting this technology]."
Chris McGugan, Symbol's senior director of marketing, says the Wi-NG architecture will encourage the use of wireless networks in support of even more critical business processes. "Wi-Fi has been a convenience network, deployed so that employees could go from the conference room to another area and still have access to instant messaging or other applications that were not core to business functionality," McGugan says. "Now, deploying VoIP over Wi-Fi—or simply enabling access to business systems and data—[are signals that] the uses of wireless are growing."
Symbol says it soon will offer a new operating system for the Symbol WS5100 wireless switch. This modular, Linux-based operating system should allow the 5100 to control other Symbol wireless switches making up wireless mesh networks.
Wireless experts contend mesh networks are more reliable because each node in such a network is capable of both sending and receiving signals. So if a signal is not received by one node, it merely goes to the next one in line—an arrangement that allows all signals to reach their intended destinations without disruption.
In 2007, Symbol is slated to introduce the new RF switch, which is the centerpiece of the Wi-NG concept. That switch is expected to enable integating RFID with other wireless networks. According to McGugan, this will bring to RFID many of the enterprise-class capabilities that customers expect in a wireless network today—including security, manageability, configuration control, and monitoring.
"Symbol has a history of innovation in enterprise wireless dating back to 1989 when we introduced the first wireless LAN, and again in 2002 with the industry's first wireless switch," says Sujai Hajela, VP of engineering in Symbol's Wireless Infrastructure Division. "The layered Wi-NG architecture is an engineering concept leap that takes advantage of multiple hardware platforms and multiple-processor systems to enable scalable, high-performance wireless solutions required by the next generation of enterprise mobility."
