Jul 16, 2013

Mobility is the hottest trend and the Holy Grail in the world of networking technology.  With the “Internet of Things” continuing to gain traction, mobility can only become more important in the coming year.

Analysts have talked and written about ”anywhere/anytime” networking, or “ubiquitous connectivity.” for what seems like forever.  With wearable technology and  self-driving cars on the horizon, we’ll soon be living in a world where cars not only drive themselves but communicate with each other to prevent accidents and increase public safety.

If that seems a bit futuristic, consider that we can now equip patrol cars with cameras and mobile nodes to transmit real-time video of dangerous high-speed car chases. Real-time video can give great insight for pattern recognition to police officers in control centers about drivers and their maneuvers, allowing them to set up more effective traps.

Mesh technology for mobility

As a product management specialist at Firetide, I believe that our mesh technology is the ideal fabric to enable this next phase of networking, the ubiquitous connectivity.  But set aside your preconceptions about “mesh” and take a look at where we think networking is going and what we’re doing about it.

Firetide is a leading provider of wireless infrastructure mesh networks that enable concurrent video, voice, and data applications for municipal, public safety, government, transportation and industrial customers worldwide.  That “concurrency” is critical to our support of mobility and ubiquity.

We classify our product line in two categories:  the infrastructure side and the access side. On the access side we provide enterprise-grade product lines in MIMO and non-MIMO modes. On the infrastructure side we provide the fiber equivalent of Ethernet connectivity on the wireless side. It’s a Layer 2 Ethernet backhaul, whether indoors or outdoors, through our mesh product line or PTP and PTMP product line.

Mobility controller is key component of network infrastructure

Our key strength in these emerging areas is the mobility controller, which is part of our infrastructure product line. The Firetide Mobility Controller is a software platform enabling advanced wireless infrastructure mobility; it works with mesh nodes and network management software to deliver high speed infrastructure mobility and seamless client roaming. With Firetide, Ethernet-enabled devices such as network video cameras, Wi-Fi access points, RFID readers, and laptop computers maintain network connectivity while traveling at high speeds across multiple networks and IP domains.

In my next post, I’ll discuss how Firetide handles the four basic components of any mobility network:

• mobile nodes
• static nodes
• gateway server
• mobility controller

I hope that in my coming postings and in those of my Firetide peers, you’ll see that we’re setting a new direction in networking–a direction that you’ll want to follow and adopt.