Wireless sparks enterprise network innovation at Mobile & Wireless show

By John Cox
Network World, 04/25/05

ORLANDO - Network executives are getting creative with mobile computing. They have to because they're coping with rapidly changing technologies in networks, handheld devices and application development.

Enterprise mobile projects tend to be highly focused, start small and look for concrete payoffs, which could be in hard dollar revenues or savings or in customer satisfaction and employee productivity, according to attendees and speakers at the recent Gartner Mobile & Wireless Summit.

Acuity, a Sheboygan, Wis., insurer is evaluating how to give field claims adjusters wireless access to corporate applications, possibly with a laptop fitted with a cellular network interface card, said Tina Pokrzywinski, director of IS. "We're due for a technology upgrade," she said. "And our CIO said, 'Wireless is coming and we need to be ready.'"

While some attendees at the Orlando event were focused on the basics of how to deploy secure wireless LAN infrastructures, others were looking beyond the network.

"If you look around, a lot of the people here are IT infrastructure people," said Paul Kurchina, program director for IT at TransAlta, a Calgary, Alberta, power generation company. "But the [wireless] infrastructure is almost boring to me now. The really interesting thing is, 'OK, now that I've got this network, what can I actually do with it?' It's about applications."

End users continue to find new ways to exploit the wireless network, according to attendees.

TransAlta, for example, is deploying wireless LANs at several generating plants to let field maintenance workers outfitted with Symbol rugged handhelds link with back-end equipment and repair databases, ordering systems, and a new mobile workflow application. The system has cut the time for many maintenance checks and tasks in half, according to Kurchina.

Almost as soon as the system was deployed workers were suggesting new applications, he said. "They're dreaming up solutions on their own," he said. One idea was to attach a $5,000 802.11b sensor to an aging machine. The sensor's data lets TransAlta extend the life of the equipment by six months, which created a huge ROI. The company now is rolling out more wireless sensors.

Columbus Children's Hospital in Ohio has hundreds of handheld devices, from smart phones to PalmOS handhelds to Dell laptops. Many of the PalmOS PDAs still synchronize via the user's PC or an Ethernet dock, but more of it is being done wirelessly. Hospital executives now can synchronize scheduling and other data in less than 60 seconds via Samsung and Treo handhelds over Verizon's 1X cellular network, said Schon Crouse, a PC support analyst with the hospital's IS group.

Exploiting the hospital's Cisco wireless LAN, emergency room nurses now take preliminary patient data using a wireless laptop mounted on a cart that's wheeled from one triage room to another. Data is collected faster, more accurately, and is available immediately. Crouse said the time it takes to triage a patient has been cut in half.

Westar Energy, a utility in Wichita, Kan., runs a mobile workforce management application over a 2400-baud radio system from Motorola to Panasonic ToughBook laptops mounted in trucks. The software has made job scheduling, dispatching and reporting faster, although the radio link itself is a far cry from broadband capacity.

"We don't transmit a lot of data," said Sam Funk, technical coordinator for mobile data. WLAN access points are being added to regional sites where the workers are deployed. The WLANs let the trucks download big files such as maps or photos and lets network administrators manage the laptops.

Westar also is talking with the city of Wichita about partnering on a wireless broadband network, to be based on 802.16 WiMAX radios due out later this year. The city wants to build the network for its public safety departments. "We'd have broadband coverage at least in the metro area," Funk said.

Another company, Northrop Grumman, has used WLAN bridging technology for a kind of slow-motion mobility at three shipyards.

Ships are built in modular sections that move in stages through the shipyards. A variety of portable buildings, from 200-person offices to small tool supply rooms, have to move with them, said J.D. Longmire, sector manager for networks and telecommunications, Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in Pascagoula, Miss.

In late 2004, the company eliminated the costs and delays of constantly re-laying Ethernet and power cables by using a point-to-multipoint wireless link, created by pairs of the Cisco Aironet 1300 Access Point/Bridge. The bridges link the shipyard's wired LAN with small LANs in 15 moveable buildings. The bridging unit on each building is wired to an Ethernet switch that supports PCs and Cisco's VoIP desk phones.

The wireless bridges are being rolled out as part of what the ship systems group calls the comprehensive wireless saturation plan, Longmire said. "The basic concept is to provide a complete wireless and VoIP infrastructure that will allow data/voice connectivity where it is required, including aboard the ships," he said.

The infrastructure will underlay a growing portfolio of applications and systems: bar code readers, remote data entry, telemetry systems for power, pressure and temperature monitoring, and supplanting wired applications and systems such as timekeeping and dumb terminals.

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