Nortel, Trapeze diverge on Smart Mobile recommendations

Wireless in the Enterprise This newsletter is sponsored by Blue Coat Make mobile users more productive More users are going mobile. With all this business on the road, you can't afford to have road warriors suffer from sub-par application delivery or security. Join a panel of experts as they detail how you can deliver improved productivity and protection for all mobile workers, regardless of location. Network World's Wireless in the Enterprise Newsletter, 05/30/07 Nortel, Trapeze diverge on Smart Mobile recommendations By Joanie Wexler Trapeze and one of its primary OEMs, Nortel, don’t quite see eye to eye on their recommendations for customers’ use of distributed wireless switching. Last fall, Trapeze announced its Smart Mobile architecture, a twist on its centralized wireless LAN system that lets customers move select traffic forwarding out to distributed access points to alleviate back-end bottlenecks and associated latency. The idea was to combine the benefits associated with both centralized and distributed architectures onto one WLAN platform. “We saw that the pure centralized architecture wasn’t going to scale for voice,” David Cohen, director of product marketing at Trapeze, told me last week at the Interop trade show, where he was demonstrating the company’s 802.11 Draft N access point, to ship late this year. Make the most of your Mobile Gear Download our Free Executive Guide and learn how Network IT professionals are getting the most out of their mobile devices and improving mobile security. You'll also get the scoop on upcoming mobile tools and technologies and how they may impact your enterprise. Click Here to download today! But Kyle Klassen, in the enterprise wireless marketing group at Nortel, which OEMs Trapeze WLAN gear under the Nortel brand, countered, “We’re not fully endorsing Trapeze Smart Mobile for all implementations.” He pointed to Nortel’s long-heavy emphasis on business voice systems and said it chose to resell Trapeze WLANs largely on the merits of its voice support with the centralized architecture. Klassen said that Nortel recommends using the distributed Smart Mobile capabilities for stationary wireless—not mobile—devices. Stationary devices are Wi-Fi-enabled desktop computers and Nortel desktop phone sets. Using Wi-Fi cards in these devices, Klassen explained, is not about enabling mobility but, rather, about reducing the cost of computers for stationary workers and for reducing cabling requirements and associated expenses. Klassen advised that all mobile and roaming access devices remain on the centralized Trapeze/Nortel system. Why? Because the centralized system is what initially solved the problem of having to move information about all a company’s virtual LANs (VLAN) out to distributed switches when users went mobile. In a centralized scenario, a roaming user remains associated with the appropriate VLAN through the central intelligence of the switch. In the distributed scenario, VLAN information must be pushed out to the distributed forwarding devices, which creates mounds of reconfiguration work for network administrators. And what are Nortel’s plans to sell Trapeze’s 802.11 Draft N products? “We’ll resell them with the Trapeze branding until the standard is ratified,” said Klassen.   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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Contact the author: Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology writer/editor in California's Silicon Valley who has spent most of her career analyzing trends and news in the computer networking industry. She welcomes your comments on the articles published in this newsletter, as well as your ideas for future article topics. Reach her at joanie@jwexler.com. This newsletter is sponsored by Blue Coat Make mobile users more productive More users are going mobile. With all this business on the road, you can't afford to have road warriors suffer from sub-par application delivery or security. Join a panel of experts as they detail how you can deliver improved productivity and protection for all mobile workers, regardless of location. ARCHIVE Archive of the Wireless in the Enterprise Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007