Nortel, MIT, BIT to Trial Breakthrough WLAN Architecture
Nortel Networks is going to trial a breakthrough wireless local area network (WLAN) architecture with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and British Telecommunications (BT). The trial, is designed to help significantly reduce costs (up to 70 percent for backhaul and up to 75 percent for installation and commissioning) for transport of high-speed wireless data from Wi-Fi networks to wired broadband networks. The trial will go beyond traditional 'hot spots' to provide broader, more convenient service coverage for enterprises and individual users and to help service providers drive increased revenue opportunities. ========================================================================== October 29, 2003 09:05 AM US Eastern Timezone Nortel Networks Announces Plans to Trial Breakthrough Wireless LAN Architecture with MIT and BT OTTAWA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 29, 2003-- Innovative Wireless Technology to Eliminate Boundaries While Driving Lower Wi-Fi Costs by Up to 70 Percent for Backhauls and Up to 75 Percent for Installation and Commissioning Building on its recently announced "Business Without Boundaries" vision, Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT)(TSX:NT) today announced plans to trial its new public wireless LAN (local area network) architecture with MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and BT (British Telecommunications plc). The technology is designed to help drive significantly reduced costs for transport of high-speed wireless data from Wi-Fi networks to wired broadband networks. The concept behind the new architecture originated as an experimental development following a series of collaborative discussions between Nortel Networks and MIT. Nortel Networks new network architecture for public wireless LANs is expected to help service providers drive cost reductions of up to 70 percent for backhaul and up to 75 percent for installation and commissioning according to Nortel Networks estimates. "The challenge of adapting simple, low-cost radio technologies like Wi-Fi to extend commercial public networks is not trivial," said Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder and chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. "Public telecommunications is approaching a renaissance with incorporation of innovative technologies like those Nortel Networks and MIT are trialing. Tomorrow's distributed, flexible communications networks will look very different from the centralized, highly-engineered networks of today." Nortel Networks new public wireless LAN architecture is designed to go beyond traditional 'hot spots' to provide broader, more convenient service coverage for enterprises and individual users, and to help service providers drive increased revenue opportunities. An outgrowth of 'peer-to-peer' and 'ad hoc' networking research at Nortel Networks Ottawa Wireless Technology Lab, the new public wireless LAN architecture includes a peer-to-peer access point architecture - with smart antennas, integrated routers, and adaptive routing and security capabilities - to backhaul data wirelessly to wired broadband networks. This minimizes the need for expensive wired backhaul connections like T1 lines. "Nortel Networks is one of the industry's most innovative wireless data network providers with a very strong heritage in public and private networking," said Pascal Debon, president, Wireless Networks, Nortel Networks. "Today's announcements demonstrate our vision of converging public and private networks and positioning enterprises and service providers to create a seamless and highly efficient experience that will deliver mobile broadband and advanced data services to end users." Nortel Networks and BT have jointly proposed a trial of the technology with BT and one of its leading enterprise customers. "We're delighted to be partnering with Nortel Networks, with whom we already work closely in the Enterprise market, to test this new technology as it reflects the increased demand we are experiencing in our customer base for mobile and flexible working solutions," said Chris New, director, Finance Industry Solutions, BT. "The proposed trial allows us to continue to lead the way in the mobility convergence marketplace and present our customers with increased productivity and convenience by providing access any time, any place, any where." Virtual Private Networking (VPN), Internet browsing, e-mail, multimedia messaging, personal messaging, and other advanced services virtually 'any time, any where' via laptop computers, PDAs (personal digital assistants) and wireless handsets are expected to be the focus of the jointly proposed Nortel Networks and BT trial. Nortel Networks will also trial the technology with the MIT Media Lab at MIT's campus in Boston. During this trial, MIT students, staff and visitors will have the ability to connect to the Internet, send and receive e-mail, and access MIT campus files and content securely from any location with any device. In addition, the MIT Media Lab plans to trial future wireless data services and applications created by MIT Media Lab staff and students. Applications will include the use of wireless networks to allow collaboration among intelligent devices and their users. Nortel Networks is a founding sponsor of the Media Lab, and currently sponsors the Media Lab's Digital Life research consortium. Nortel Networks expects that the MIT trial and the jointly proposed BT and Nortel Networks trial are expected to be completed in early 2004. "Today's announcement is a testament to our vision for the industry and our strategy of removing barriers to efficiency, productivity, and growth, and creating opportunities for new revenues and services," Debon said. "We're breaking new ground and leading a new wireless data era by providing our customers innovative technology that will help drive profits and position them to offer a compelling wireless broadband solution to enterprise and end users alike." As part of Nortel Networks Business Without Boundaries vision, this architecture is designed to provide the appropriate level of network access and security while supporting the unrestricted mobility of end users, regardless of where and how they access the network. It will incorporate 'auto discovery' and 'self healing' algorithms to simplify deployment and reduce service outages by optimizing radio link communications and minimizing interference. In addition, the self-organizing nature of the architecture removes the need for RF engineering or commissioning, enabling installation in any location where power is available, significantly increasing the reach of wireless LAN coverage. Infrastructure equipment being used in the trials are expected to include Nortel Networks Wireless Mesh Network solution, which includes Wireless Access Point 7220, Wireless Gateway 7250, Nortel Networks Optivity Network Management System, and related network management elements. This is the third announcement in Nortel Networks wireless LAN rollout, building on the December 2002 announcement of Nortel Networks capability to link wireless WAN (wide area networks) and wireless LANs securely, thus allowing users to roam seamlessly between 2G/3G networks and wireless hot spots with a single user sign-on. The new products complement Nortel Networks award-winning WLAN 2200 Series, introduced in March 2003, which provide a complete, end-to-end wireless networking solution for enterprise campus environments, serving as an extension of the wired communications infrastructure. With the introduction of the Wireless 7200 series, service providers and enterprises have a solution for areas that do not, or cannot, support a wired backhaul offering. BT BT Group plc is the listed holding company for an integrated group of businesses providing voice, data and video services in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. British Telecommunications plc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group, holds virtually all businesses and assets of the BT group. BT is one of Europe's leading providers of telecommunications services. Its principal activities include local, national and international telecommunications services, higher-value broadband and internet products and services, and IT solutions. In the UK, BT serves over 20 million business and residential customers with more than 29 million exchange lines, as well as providing network services to other licensed operators. BT consists principally of three lines of business: -- BT Retail, serving businesses and residential customers and including BT Openworld, one of the UK's leading ISPs. -- BT Wholesale, providing network services and solutions within the UK, including ADSL, conveyance, transit, bulk delivery of private circuits, frame relay and ISDN connections. -- BT Global Services, BT's managed services and solutions provider, serving multi-site organisations worldwide. Its core target market is the top 10,000 global multi-site organisations with European operations. There are a number of other businesses within the BT group, including BT Exact, an internationally renowned centre of excellence in IT and networking technologies. It is also BT's technology and research and development business. In the year ended 31 March 2003, BT's turnover was GBP 18,727m. with profit before taxation of GBP 1,829m. http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20031029005392&newsLang=en -- "NEXTEL-1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL" Note The New address Subscribe to Nextel-1: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL-1 "NEXTEL2 FOR iDEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS" Subscribe to Nextel2: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL2 "WIRELESS FORUM HOMELAND SECURITY GROUP" The Complete Resource for Wireless Homeland Security. Subscribe to WFHSG: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/WFHSG -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
