Sept/Oct 2003

Interest in using wireless "hotspots" for making mobile Internet connections continues to rise, and Intermec has stepped up its drive to promote the concept by announcing a deal with IBM to provide seamless roaming between local and wide-area networks.

Seamless roaming is the holy grail of the Wi-Fi hotspot market, since it offers users the promise of totally transparent Web access, regardless of transmission medium. In theory it means mobile computers can switch automatically between local 802.11 hotspots (fast and also cheap, if they are on the user's own premises) and GPRS (widely available, but slower).

Intermec is presenting its deal with IBM as a major breakthrough in wireless computing, pointing out that it offers users significant cost savings.

However, not all suppliers agree that seamless roaming is quite so easy to accomplish. Ojas Rege, senior director of mobile solutions at mobile specialist iAnywhere, told m.logistics: "There are loads of problems to solve. If connections fail, you need resynchronisation; and they often do. And security is a big issue."

 

Intermec and IBM however are bullish. IBM's WebSphere software allows "session persistence" over any of the radio options available in the Intermec 700 Series, which should overcome the hurdle of resynchronisation. Supported systems include GPRS, 3G and IEEE 802.11b. The 700 Series also supports Bluetooth wireless for short-range connectivity between computers and peripherals.

Intermec has also launched an upgraded version of its MobileLAN wireless access point system, which is said to be quicker and easier to set up than in the past.