Avaya unveils new wireless IP telephony products for converged mobility

International communications specialist Avaya has unveiled new converged mobility products that help extend the key advantages of office communications to employees travelling throughout - and beyond - an enterprise.

These products play a critical role in the converged WiFi and cellular solution architecture Avaya is currently jointly developing with international partners Motorola and Proxim. The new products seamlessly extend IP telephony - a software-based technology that uses voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) to transmit voice over a data network - to wireless networks.

Says Alain Schram, managing director of sub-Saharan Africa at Avaya: "The new products are designed to improve the delivery of IP applications and voice communications for a mobile workforce, driving enhanced productivity, new cost-efficiencies and greater security in enterprise wireless communications. The partnerships with both Motorola and Proxim also echo Avaya`s ability to partner with international vendors who are also leaders in their fields."

The Avaya W310 WLAN Gateway and Avaya W110 WLAN Access Points - incorporate co-developed technologies from Avaya and Proxim. The gateway and access points, along with Avaya`s IP telephony software, Communication Manager, deliver a voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN) solution that will support the Motorola CN620, a new dual-network Mobile Office Device recently announced by Motorola.

The collaboration between Avaya, Motorola and Proxim is designed around the desire to create an enterprise seamless mobility solution, which supports continuous communications to users across business wireless networks and public cellular networks.

This enterprise seamless mobility solution helps organisations boost productivity by enabling employees to use the Motorola dual-network device to conduct wireless conversations that will not fade or drop as they move to various locations throughout a work campus, as well as away from their office building. Users of the solution will also have seamless access to advanced IP capabilities, such as listening to e-mail, accessing corporate directories and overseeing multi-party teleconferences, as they move across a WLAN and onto public cellular networks.

Seamless mobility can also drive greater cost-efficiency for enterprises through device consolidation and centralised management of an organisation`s WLAN infrastructure. For example, highly mobile employees who switch between office phones, cellphones or other devices for communications can now use one Motorola dual-network device to make VOIP-based calls as they travel within an enterprise or to an outside destination. The Avaya W310 Wireless LAN Gateway and W110 Access Points also let information technology (IT) administrators centrally manage and monitor an enterprise`s wireless networking capabilities from one location, resulting in lower labour and administration costs.

"By delivering improved, seamless access to IP applications over wireless networks, the key advantages employees have in their offices are extended to them as they move within an enterprise, and outside office walls," adds Schram.

The seamless mobility solution from Avaya, Motorola and Proxim is in the final stages of development and currently undergoing trials in several enterprises throughout North America.