Cellular + Wi-Fi: A Heavenly Match
Cellular telephony is robust and a lasting success story in the marketplace. So why so we need dual-mode phones? While the outdoor infrastructure is pervasive, and works, about a third of all cellphone calls are made indoors, where service is spotty and where cost-efficient Wi-Fi technology is widely available (and inexpensive to deploy where it is not). So from a cost and quality standpoint, dual mode looks like the way to go.
This session will examine the new protocols and performance requirements for adequately supporting VoWi-Fi and Wi-Fi-to-cell roaming. It will cover the latest standards initiatives within the IEEE and the Wi-Fi Alliance, and it will discuss the specific requirements for the Wi-Fi infrastructure, Wi-Fi handsets, and Wi-Fi to cell roaming.
Speaker: Fanny Mlinarsky, CTO and Founder, Azimuth Systems
Striving for Standards: Another story of rival factions
Just when we get used to the taste of the latest brand of 802.11 alphabet soup, along comes another group of acronyms to chew on. This new group covers the convergence of wireless networks and cellular/3G, from published standards like UMA, to groups like the IPCC, to protocols like SIP. Advocates for these constituencies will gather to talk about what these new standards are meant to do, and where and how they will converge themselves in a future of dual-band 3G/VoWi-Fi voice communication.
Moderator: David Anderson, Director of Technology Development, Quiconnect Speakers: Michael Khalilian, Chairman and President, International Packet Communications Consortium (IPCC) Steve Shaw, Director of Marketing, Kineto Wireless Richard Watson, Director of Product Management, Persona Software (Formerly LongBoard)
12:30pm - 1:30pm
Lunch Break
1:30pm - 2:30pm
The Quest for Seamless Mobility: A progress report
In the world of WI-FI/Cellular Convergence (WCC) -- where do we stand? Overseas countries, particularly Japan, already have combo Wi-Fi/3G phone handsets—but do they work? When are these products coming to North America? And again, most importantly—will they work? The hand-off from a cellular base station to a Wi-Fi hotspot of more than a few milliseconds could spell disaster to this fledgling work. Those laboring to perfect the technology for flight will discuss the challenges companies and individuals face in trying to get ubiquitous connectivity for voice communications. Moderator: Ben Frankel, Ph.D., Editor in Chief, FierceWiFi Speakers: Stephen Durney, Solution Director, Avaya, Inc. Tim Gore, Technical Consultant, WiFi and WiMax, Lucent Worldwide Services, Lucent Technologies Vish Raju, VP – Product Line Management, SIPquest Ognjen Redzic, Director of Product Management and Business Development, PCTEL's Mobility Solutions Group
2:30pm - 3:00pm
Afternoon Break
3:00pm - 4:00pm
Reserved for late-breaking topic Speakers: TBA
TRACK: TECHNICAL TOPICS
9:00am - 10:00am
DisasterNets - Ad-Hoc WiFi Networks Delivering Vital Services to Emergency Workers
It's 2 AM and a sudden building collapse brings dozens of police, fire fighters, medical, and rescue personnel from all corners of the city together within minutes. Along with their spotlights, the first responders on the scene deploy a wireless network around the building's perimeter and establish a broadband feed to a local OC-48 node. As the rescue crews arrive, they pull down floor plans, occupancy charts, and other vital information from the web. Meanwhile, medical crews coordinate their efforts with trauma specialists miles away via wireless telemedicine hookups that feed audio, video, and data across the rapidly-improvised network.
While the above scenario might sound like science fiction, WiFi technology is rapidly maturing to the point where all this, and more will be possible, and equally important, affordable by most municipal, state, and local agencies tasked to respond to emergencies. Join our panel of experts as they explore exciting possibilities opened up by WiFi-powered DisasterNets, as well as the technical, logistic, and business challenges they face.
Speakers: Walt Henley, COO, Camvera Networks, Inc. Rizwan Khaliq, Global Public Sector Wireless Solutions Leader, IBM Janet Laylor, Tactical Liaison, National Library of Medicine
Infrastructure Deep Dive Part I - Maximizing WLAN Capacity and QoS in Enterprise Networks
Running an enterprise network was a tough, thankless task, even before your management decided that the company needed to "go wireless." This session is devoted to MIS managers, WLAN VARs, and other folks who face the unique "challenges" involved with adding a wireless component to enterprise data and voice services while maintaining wireline-equivalent availability and quality.
In this technically-oriented session, we'll take you on a "deep dive" into some of the technologies, design and test issues, and management techniques you need to insure that data and voice traffic can peacefully co-exist in a crowded, high-density environment. We'll also help you understand what it takes to support roaming between access points, the essentials of seamless WAN/WLAN bridging, and how to maximize call capacity in VoWiFi systems.
Moderator: Lee Goldberg, Sr. Editor, analogZONE Speakers: Tom Alexander, VeriWave Patrick Kelly, VP of Silicon Engineering, Bandspeed Dvir Oren, Director of Product Management, Extricom Inc.
12:30pm - 1:30pm
Lunch Break
1:30pm - 2:30pm
Infrastructure Deep Dive Part II – Maximizing WLAN Capacity and QoS in Public Networks
Whether you're a hot spot operator, a WISP, or a far-sighted municipality, operating a public access WiFi network, has its own set of technical and logistic issues not found in SoHo or enterprise environments. For one thing, your network has to work reliably in a congested, noisy, and ever-changing RF landscape. And then the problems multiply when you add the complexities of roaming between access points and supporting IP telephony.
In this session, we'll explore some of the critical, and less obvious issues that will help you get the most out of your network. We've assembled a panel of experts who will take a detailed look at the hardware, software, and management issues you can use to tame the unruly airwaves and deliver reliable, high quality voice and data services. Topics to include traffic management techniques, QoS strategies, coping with non-WiFi interferers, and technologies for deployment of integrated WiFi/Cellular voice services.
Moderator: Lee Goldberg, Sr. Editor, analogZONE Speakers: Tom Alexander, VeriWave Greg Murphy, Chief Operating Officer, AirWave Joel Vincent, Director of Product Marketing, Meru Networks Brian Wangerien, Director, Product Management, Newbury Networks, Inc.
2:30pm - 3:00pm
Afternoon Break
3:00pm - 4:00pm
Taming The Tiger: Cost-Effective Wireless Management
For many IT managers, deploying and maintaining enterprise WLANs has proven cumbersome and costly. Without central management and monitoring capabilities, many organizations do not realize that WLAN problems exist until it is too late and users encounter problems with RF interference, coverage, security, or other issues.
In this session, panelists will tackle a diverse set of WLAN management issues, recommending how to tame this tiger with less effort and expense. Topics to be covered include architectures that automate RF management by automatically configuring and maintaining the radio network, workable approaches for offering authenticated/controlled/monitored guest access, and methods for managing integrated security that spans both wired and wireless networks.
Moderator: Lisa Phifer, Vice President, Core Competence Inc. Speakers: Patrick Kelly, VP Silicon Engineering, Bandspeed Harry Simpson, Sr. Vice President, Roving Planet Inc. John Gmuender, Vice President of Engineering, SonicWALL
TRACK: MUNICIPAL WIRELESS
9:00am - 10:00am
Does My Town Need Wi-Fi? Business and other cases
Municipal WLANs have been with us long enough to be recognized as part of the landscape. Different architectural and ownership models have been tried. And there seems to be some agreement that such installations bring benefits. This session will dig deeper into the specifics of what benefits are offered, and to who. It will explore examine various strategies municipalities are undertaking to provide wireless broadband access on a single network to various user groups, including public safety officials, city employees, residents and visitors. Also tackled will be broader issues of specific, quantifiable economic benefits, questions of ownership and management, and the impact these have on the design, architecture, and capacity of muni Wi-Fi nets.
Speakers: Phil Belanger, Vice President, Marketing, BelAir Networks Carol Singh, Director of Business Development, Pronto Networks Elizabeth Zucco, Director of Marketing, Camvera Networks, Inc.
The Legal/Legislative Battle over Muni Wi-Fi
As the city and county governments of the USA look at big hot-zone/cloud deployments, which are sometimes funded by tax payer dollars, critics are crying foul, claiming it's intrusive, coercive, and, worst, it will be bungled by the bureaucrats. Defenders say it has to be done, and if private companies and carriers could do it (or cared), it would already be working. As the debate rages, many states have passed or are considering legislation that would make it illegal for municipalities to get into the broadband business, whether wireless or otherwise. Get the facts (and opinions) from both sides about what promises to be the biggest fight wireless has ever seen.
Moderator: Eric Griffith, Managing Editor, Wi-Fi Planet.com Speakers: Jim Baller, Founder, Baller Herbst Law Group, P.C. Braden Cox, Technology Counsel, Competitive Enterprise Institute Bill Gurley, Venture Capitalist, Benchmark Capital David P. McClure, President and CEO, US Internet Industry Association Sascha Meinrath, Co-founder and Project Coordinator, Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network
12:30pm - 1:30pm
Lunch Break
1:30pm - 2:30pm
Triple-Play: Voice, video and data in Metropolitan Area Networks
As networking functions and communications technologies continue to converge, expectations change. One of today's bolder visions—commonly referred to as 'triple play'—is WLANs that carry not only data and phone calls, but video as well. Can such networks be successfully built in metropolitan areas? Will 802.11-based equipment do the job? What special features are required to effectively support these mixed-use networks? What would be the benefits? These and other questions will be explored.
Speakers: Nathan Bourgoine, University of New Hampshire Interoperability Labs Matt Holdrege, Director of Business
Development, Strix Systems
2:30pm - 3:00pm
Afternoon Break
3:00pm - 4:00pm
Reserved for late-breaking topic
TRACK: SPECIAL INTERESTS
9:00am - 10:00am
The Wireless ISP Vision
Building a WISP to serve residential customers is all about getting the most out of the technology -- for the lowest price. This panel will focus on the technology issues facing those building a network on a budget, but will also cover other key issues, such as inventory management and marketing, that WISPs need to focus on early.
Moderator: Alex Goldman, Managing Editor, ISP-Planet.com Speakers: Ken DiPietro, Founder & Co-owner, New-ISP Tim Sanders, President, The Final Mile Doug McDonald, President, Branch Run Enterprises
Using Wi-Fi to Expedite Workflow Process
Those who are aware of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology tend to think of it as a way to keep track of the contents of all the palettes in a warehouse. But active tags coupled with a Wi-Fi network can follow assets as they move and help in their logistical management. Accurate real-time location information on those assets in the "mobile supply chain" can also help a business optimize workflow. Effectively monitoring and managing the movement of inventory, equipment and/or key personnel results in increased enterprise visibility by enhancing project management, scheduling, forecasting and other business processes which collectively boost profitability. With active RFID asset-tracking systems in place, companies can better utilize human and capital resources, that's something the standard passive RFID can't handle.
Speakers: Wolf Bielas, CEO, RSI ID Technologies, Inc. Michael Campbell, Executive Vice President of Business Development and the founding President & CEO, PanGo Networks
12:30pm - 1:30pm
Lunch Break
1:30pm - 2:30pm
Wireless and Open Source: Work for the Masses
While based on standards, wireless technology generally ends up in the hands of businesses that use it in a proprietary way. However, some select groups -- particularly in the public access space—have toiled in the background for years to create truly open methods that anyone can use to build wireless networks. The leaders in some of projects will be on hand to discuss how you can use their open solutions to benefit your networks—and how you can get involved.
Moderator: Eric Griffith, Managing Editor, Wi-Fi Planet.com Speakers: Sascha Meinrath, Co-founder and Project Coordinator, Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network Larry Rhea, CEO, StarNet Online Systems, Director of Mercury Computer
2:30pm - 3:00pm
Afternoon Break
3:00pm - 4:00pm
Provisioning and Delivering Wireless Services over Common-Use WLANs
Something to consider about any big WLAN deployment: No two users are alike. Some need just Internet access. Others need access to company servers. Some need full power for voice mobility. Yet others might only want to use it for security purposes (think wireless surveillance cameras). How you set up your networking and segregate the traffic can depend upon the equipment you use or the tools you use to manage it. Experts in provisioning different kinds of access in both enterprises and public access will address the methods (VLANs, multiple ESSIDs, etc.), protocols, and architectures you can use to prevent co-mingling of the masses.
Speakers: Richard Snyder, Sr. VP, Concourse Communications Bruce Van Nice, VP of Worldwide Marketing, Trapeze Networks
For information or complete details on exhibiting or any sponsorship opportunity,
please contact:
Tim Walsh at wifi@jupitermedia.com or (203) 662-2838.
Registration questions please contact:
Our Registration Department at
registration@jupitermedia.com or (203) 662-2857.
