We reached out and touched Cisco’s Brett Galloway on his cell phone this week while he was commuting to work. A founder of wireless LAN switch pioneer Airespace, he’s now the vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Wireless Networking Business Unit… considerably enriched as a result of Cisco’s $450 million acquisition of Airespace in 2005.
With about 20 minutes to spare, he talked, and didn’t talk, about Cisco’s wireless plans and priorities. [We annotated the interview – in bracketed italics – to add context, via reporting, commentary and links.]
So, how about some hint, even in general terms, of your news scheduled for Interop Las Vegas [May 20-25]?
We don’t pre-announce products. Watch this space.
[Cisco is nevertheless expected to make Interop announcements relating to wireless voice, fixed/mobile (cellular/Wi-Fi) convergence, and wireless location services.]
Are you using any wireless technology right now?
I’m using Bluetooth on my cell phone [to connect to a headset].
Cisco promised to integrate wireless LAN with wired network infrastructure in the enterprise. Where are you with that?
The first phase was physical integration. We’ve taken the WLAN controller functions and put them in various form factors for convenient deployment: our appliances, but also a blade for the Catalyst 6500, a module for our Integrated Services Router and so on. That has been quite successful.
The Catalyst 6500 in particular is a nice form factor for very large-scale wireless deployments: you can put a lot of wireless LAN ports into that backplane.
That first phase was about physical integration. The second phase [starting in 2006]…is more about logical integration. It’s in line with Cisco’s strategy about the Services Oriented Network: to drive capabilities into the network that support and promote a richer set of capabilities for a broader set of business applications that are using the network.
The core [wireless] service today is laptop data access. We’ve optimized this application, making it easier to deploy, troubleshoot, manage and secure. On top of that we’ve identified what we call advanced mobility services: guest access, voice services, security, location services.
[Our recent reporting shows the whole “integration” idea is still in its infancy across the industry. But some analysts say Cisco’s two-pronged approach makes it a leader. Cisco’s “logical integration” has been focused on blending wired and wireless network management.]
WLAN vendors have been talking about VoIP over WLAN as the next big thing for over two years. Where is it?
There are two models for wireless VoIP. First is our traditional market, with the 7920 series of WLAN phones. These are cordless IP phones, mainly in vertical applications [within the enterprise]. It’s a good business: the uptake is strong and growing.
We’ve done a lot of work in wireless VoIP in terms of technology, for example, our Cisco Compatibility Extensions [CCX, which is code used by third-party chips and handheld devices to work smoothly with the Cisco WLAN infrastructure]. Our CCX [Version 4] driver is about using pre-standard features or other technologies to make sure VoIP works.
[“Works” in this context is a relative term. Voice over WLAN, sometimes called VoFi, is almost as big a challenge today for large-scale deployments as it was two years ago when Network World evaluated four solutions. Cisco placed second then, trailing Aruba Networks.
Compared to wireless data networks, wireless voice networks require more extensive and precise signal coverage, less latency, and better capacity planning, says wireless consultant Jim Geier in a recent Network World podcast.
But CCX v4 did beef up QoS across both wired and wireless Cisco networks, and introduced Call Admission Control to support more users and balance voice traffic among access points.]
What’s the second type of wireless VoIP?
Dual-mode: cellular phones that can also handle voice over Wi-Fi. That’s still nascent. NTT DoCoMo has a service in Japan, launched with an NEC dual-mode phone. Airespace worked with them on that. The appeal is that you have the enterprise WLAN VoIP experience moved to your cell phone, and you can use your cellular net for extending coverage. We have a joint effort with Nokia on a dual-mode phone, but that is more focused in GSM networks in Europe.
[“Nascent” is right, as the Fall 2006 Interop show clearly revealed. Handoffs between networks can be complex, there are varying standards implemented on handsets, and carriers are reluctant to surrender billable minutes to enterprise WLANs.
Cisco’s Interop news this year could build on its Nokia project, with Nokia E Series enterprise handsets, and its Intellisync Call Connect software, working with the Cisco Unified CallManager product to shift calls seamlessly between GSM networks and WLANs. The solution is being tested at Volvo Trucks France and at Elitfonster, a Swedish window manufacturer.
Plus Cisco is facing competition from both start-ups and established rivals: newcomer Divitas and Siemens recently announced separate behind-the-firewall appliances that work with an IP PBX to make the cellular-WLAN handoff without carrier involvement.]
There’s a lot of enterprise interest in location services, such as asset tracking, using “active RFID” tags, often based on Wi-Fi. What kind of success have you had with the Cisco 2700 Series Wireless Location Appliance?
It’s been quite successful. The basic application is an active RFID tag, with the appliance calculating its location based on data from the access points. This is a service on a converged network.
Location is an attribute that the network is uniquely designed to determine. There is a broad range of capabilities and opportunities that can use this if they know location. You can use it to augment information about a user’s presence on the net, for example.
We do continue to look at technologies enhancing accuracy. And at ways to integrate location into a broader set of applications and to enhance the wireless location data with data from other sources.
[Cisco has forged partnerships with several companies, which tie their Wi-Fi radio tags and asset tracking or other application software into the Cisco appliance. Cisco even created a new protocol, the Certified Extensions Tag Protocol, to make it easier for companies like PanGo to connect with and use the 2700.
And the success of the 2700 has sparked rival offerings from Newbury Networks and Trapeze Networks.
But some users report the appliance persistently over-reports the number of radio clients on the network, lacks the memory needed to handle complex floor plans for several buildings on a campus, and often coughs up cryptic or unspecified errors that can baffle Cisco’s usually very expert tech support.]
What are your priorities for 2007?
Continuing to turn ‘services’ into ‘solutions,’ involving partners, hardware and software products.
The second focus is executing our client strategy. A lot of these [wireless] applications depend on having a great user experience on the client device. Our CCX program and partner relationships are key to making sure customers have the best devices suited to their needs.
Third, most of what customers actually buy are WLAN access points. We continue to raise the bar on these. Radio frequency performance and management is important, and difficult. We continue to make our access points easier to operate, better performing and easier to troubleshoot.
[“Solutions” is a hackneyed marketing term, but gets across the point: Cisco is working to convince customers that it has the tools and relationships to simplify demanding, complex, enterprise-wide wireless services.
One potential part of the client strategy, not yet realized on the wireless side, is Cisco’s Unified Personal Communicator, a PC application intended as a single “collaboration interface” for managing voice, video and instant messaging as well as document sharing, voicemail playback and relevant directories. Cisco recently expanded its’ joint effort with IBM in this area.
The CCX program has been criticized for shackling users to the Cisco infrastructure. But if emerging mobile devices can use CCX to significantly simplify and ‘enrich’ the user experience, customers may feel that’s a worthwhile tradeoff.
Cisco has been hinting at improving RF management for some time. Greater visibility into the RF environment, and automating network adjustments at both the client and infrastructure levels would be a big step in making enterprise WLANs more reliable and predictable, and more efficient.]
Will you have 802.11n products in 2007?
We don’t make future product announcements. Watch this space.
[If you’re in Vegas next month, you can bet on this one.]
Copyright © 2007 IDG Communications, Inc.