Bird watchers see new roaming solution

Birdstep Technology, a wireless software company with one foot planted in the global wireless capital of Scandanavia and the other planted in the U.S. software capital of Seattle, is trying to similarly straddle disparate public wireless networks and private wireless LANs to bridge the rift in seamless communication that exists between the two.

The firm, founded in Oslo, Norway seven years ago, and now with a dual headquarters in Seattle, today announced Intelligent Mobile IP, mobile IP client software capable of allowing secure and consistent connectivity of mobile device roaming through a variety of networks, including GSM/GPRS cellular systems, wireless LANs, Bluetooth, and corporate enterprise wireless, and even wireline, VPNs.

The software is independent of underlying transmission technology, so it also will work with next-generation CDMA networks. The three components of the software are a PC, laptop or handheld client; a home agent that authenticates and tracks users similar to a mobile network home location register; and a foreign agent or visiting location register that initiates access while roaming and communicates location information to the home agent.

Birdstep’s goal for the Mobile IP suite is to enable easy roaming between different networks, with no extra configuration or authentication required—and the only noticeable change in connectivity being the obvious access speed changes from network to network, said Hans-Arne L’orange, CEO of North America at Birdstep.

The Mobile IP client seeks out the best available wireless connection to use. Usable connections also can be prioritized by quality, price or whatever other parameters a network administrator would like to put on them. Additionally, the client agent detects new potential connections as they become available, such as when a user roams into an are of powerful Wi-fi signal strength.

“This is not just administrative roaming, but complete network handover without interrupting connectivity,” said L’orange. Trends in the growth of mobile workforce and wireless LAN deployment are creating a multi-network wireless data access environment which calls for easy roaming, he said.

The software also can be integrated with a wide array of legacy corporate VPN solutions. It comes in two packages—a Universal Mobility Package that turns on a corporate VPN when public networks or potentially unsecure wireless hot-spots are being used by the client, and turns the VPN off when the user crosses the firewall. The Standard Mobility Package allows mobility between any intranet access network and between any public network without using a VPN.