Aruba lays out FMC strategy

Aruba Networks today announced an aggressive fixed/mobile convergence strategy today, designed to turn its entire portfolio of WLAN switches and access points into a wireless VoIP supporting full mobility inside and outside of the office.

Aruba unveiled a five-phase plan, starting with its mobility controllers to recognize VoIP calls and voice handsets on the network and culminating with a comprehensive ecosystem of vendors and features that will allow full call hand-off between its own access points and the cellular wide area network. Aruba said it has already completed phase one of the road map—which gives its mobility controllers the capability of identify and route VoIP packets—and today said it has completed phase two: it introduced Wi-Fi multimedia (WMM)-based features that add quality of service and call control capabilities to the portfolio.

The next three phases, however, will focus on introducing carrier- and enterprise-grade capabilities to its equipment. Aruba said it has begun striking partnerships with PBX and other enterprise networking equipment manufacturers in order to meld its wireless data networks with voice networks. It already is working with Alcatel and Avaya to integrate its wireless switch controllers with their PBX and SIP servers. Aruba is also developing technology to enable call handoff between the WLAN and cellular network.