Cisco 'discovers' seamless mobility

Stuart Corner
Friday, 15 February 2008 03:02

Opinion and Analysis

Cisco isn't the first big player to play catch-up and present this concept as something new, way behind the more established mobile communications industry vendors. It's nearly two years now since I said much the same on iTWire about Microsoft. Commenting on chief software architect Ray Ozzie spelling out the company's vision of putting the Internet and hosted services at the centre of its universe, I observed that it had "much in common with the converged communications vision that the telecoms sector has been touting for some time."

Of course, achieving this vision is no easy task. It requires much co-operation and collaboration on standards: to define services and how they interoperate so they can be delivered to any device anywhere. And such services will place huge demands on the underlying network: to route, switch, secure and manage these services across multiple networks reliably and without imposing delays that make the services unusable. A massive challenge and a massive opportunity for the likes of Cisco, Juniper and other vendors of carrier-grade networking equipment and software.

This is exactly why Juniper has just joined the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance ,  of which Cisco is a sponsor. It's a global initiative made up of leading mobile operators whose aim is "to accelerate the delivery of the next generation of high-performance mobile broadband networks [and] provide a vision for technology evolution beyond 3G for the competitive delivery of broadband wireless services."

It aims to establish "clear performance targets, fundamental recommendations and deployment scenarios for a future wide area mobile broadband network, as well as to ensure that the cost-effectiveness of this network is competitive with alternative technologies."

Commenting on Juniper's joining its ranks, Alliance COO, Dr Peter Meissner, said exactly what Chambers was saying and what the communications industry has been saying for years. "As the mobile industry transitions from 3G to true mobile broadband networks, there will be a fundamental requirement for an intelligent, secure, all-IP infrastructure that delivers a quality experience for the end user...The widely anticipated increase in mobile traffic is changing wireless operators' current approach to a flat all-IP network design, resulting in a shift toward a model that draws more intelligence into the network...As a result, the three keys to success for the mobile network will be to deliver high performance with service richness, identity and policy awareness with the ability to scale the infrastructure in line with the enormous growth in mobile traffic.

All good for the likes of Cisco and Juniper, but not something that the mobile industry needs Cisco to present as a revelation.