Beware problems facing Location-aware FMC

We recently received the following comment/questions (see FMC, Mobile Unified Communications & DiVitas) following one of our posts:

I recently read an article with one of your competitors claiming their technology "takes advantage of location." The implication was that other FMC vendors don’t do this and so now I’m curious to find out more on this topic. I have three questions right now that I’m hoping you can answer.

1-Does DiVitas offer location-aware services?

2-If not, why not?

3-What do you offer instead (and how is it different/better)?

I am a VoIP purchasing decision-maker at a major provider network (healthcare) and planning an FMC deployment in the near future. But I’ll confess that I’m having a hard time convincing myself this location-aware thing is really “real”, much less a deciding factor when choosing among FMC vendors.

DIVITAS RESPONDS:

By Rich Watson

Basically, a location-based service is implemented to discover the “edge” of the WiFi network coverage. Within a company facility, WiFi access points are positioned to ensure wireless accessibility while the user is inside the building (or on the campus). Once outside of a company facility (off premise), mobile communications services must rely on cellular coverage. FMC embodies the concept that allows a user to roam from a WiFi network into a cellular network without dropping the call (and in reverse). With a location-based system such handovers are triggered by a user passing beyond a marked edge Access Point.

DiVitas does not offer a location-based solution, but for a very specific reason. While the concept is appealing, location-based solutions are faced with several operations challenges in providing smoother WiFi-cellular roaming. The base presumption is that once installed, the coverage map of the WiFi doesn’t change. The building “exit” location is manually mapped regarding the near Access Point ID and signal strength at that point. As long as nothing is changed that affects the RF characteristics in that area, things are fine. However, adding new Access Points, changing transmit power, or even moving office cubicles or filing cabinets around may change the RF coverage! With any such changes, the location-based information must be manually re-configured, and it must be closely monitored and managed.

There are reasons to roam to cellular beyond just crossing the edge of the network. Any time the voice connection viability is jeopardized by RF congestion or interference, a roam to cellular should be invoked. For example, a wireless voice connection may be initiated when the signal strength is strong and congestion/interference is low. But if a high-bandwidth wireless application is launched, those RF characteristics radically change and will deteriorate the experienced voice quality. At this point, the handset should roam to cellular, even though the user is located well within the bounds of the WiFi coverage area, in order to ensure maximum call quality.

DiVitas has taken a more reliable approach to implementing cross network management: environment-aware services. DiVitas has implemented this sophisticated architecture to always ensure that the user has the very best voice quality experience by monitoring the total RF environment in order to make roam decisions. Because RF can be dynamic, irrespective of location, being able to respond to the real-time RF changes provides DiVitas a real advantage over location-based solutions and obviates any manual configurations of the location maps.