In yet another sign of mobility's swift rise in the IP communications industry, distributed enterprise network solutions provider Aruba Networks Inc. today announced that it's teamed up with a Chicago-based provider of enhanced 9-1-1 solutions  and RedSky Technologies to launch a WiFi (News - Alert)-based emergency call location solution for campus, branch office and teleworker applications.

One of the key trends in telecommunications sectors from schools to enterprise businesses is mobility. For example, enterprise workers increasingly find themselves moving about the enterprise, and they want to stay connected to their most critical applications - including voice - as they move about.

Market researchers are taking notice. One recent study posits that the overall Voice over WiFi market is expected to enjoy steady growth through 2012. Researchers forecast that the number of access points used to handle voice traffic will experience an annual rate of 93 percent during this period, reaching nearly 56,000 access points by 2012.

As enterprises increasingly adopt mobile VoIP handsets supported by a WiFi network, they must consider all that goes along with freeing their employees to roam productively about the workplace.

The Aruba-RedSky (News - Alert)solution addresses that.

If a user is on the move, pinpointing their exact location when a 9-1-1 call has been made on a WiFi phone is a challenge. This latest solution will automatically and accurately locate a WiFi phone as it originates an E9-1-1 call. This accuracy will ensure first responders are dispatched to the correct address, building and floor.

'Emergency location identification is a key feature sought by all institutions migrating from wired Ethernet to WiFi access, and we believe Aruba offers the only solution with this important feature for all voice clients both local and remote,' said Peter Thornycroft (News - Alert), Aruba's wireless applications manager, in a statement.

'The solution works over our campus wireless LANs and Virtual Branch Network solutions for remote offices and teleworkers - and doesn't require any hardware changes to the network,' he continued. 'Proving that cutting the cord doesn't mean cutting essential features, this solution brings users the mobility of WiFi, the safety of precise caller location, and toll-quality voice that is uniquely Aruba's.'

In an interview, RedSky Senior Vice President Nick Maier told TMCnet that two industry trends drove the agreement.

First, he said, mobile networks of users with softphone clients, smartphones and dual-use phones are becoming increasingly prevalent - especially in the healthcare, retail and higher education verticals.

"Second, enterprises are equipping teleworkers with wireless access points so they can make calls and access the corporate network from a range of devices at their home office," he told TMCnet. "The common requirement shared by these applications is they must be able to pinpoint the location of a caller in the event of a 9-1-1 emergency and provide this location information to dispatchers so help can be sent where it's needed."

Low cost and the spread of wireless LANs across enterprises and institutions continues to drive the popularity of Voice-over-WiFi. With this growth is an increasing need for regulators to call for WiFi networks to offer the same E9-1-1 services that are mandated for wired phones. In particular, regulators want to more precisely identify the location of e9-1-1 VoWiFi callers. 

In the past, location solutions have relied on 'IP parsing,' a technique that translates the IP address of the closest Ethernet switch or router into a physical location that is related to the first responders. The problem with this approach is the actual location of the caller could be very distant from the location of the IP gear, which wastes precious time as responders have to search for the caller.

Real-time information about a WiFi caller's location is relayed to the E9-1-1 dispatcher with the solution developed by Aruba and RedSky. The solution relies on a combination of Aruba's campus, branch office, and teleworker/home worker solutions and RedSky's E911 Anywhere service.

The solution operates as a three-step process:

1. Aruba's wireless LAN sends real-time location updates to RedSky E911 Manager as voice clients move on the network. The location of the caller is triangulated by processing signal strength and other data from nearby Aruba access points and then forwarded to RedSky.
2. RedSky E911 Manager updates internal, external and IP-OBX databases with the location of the clients.
3. When a voice client dials 9-1-1, E911 Manager provides instructions to the IP-PBX to route the call, notifying internal security personnel with precise location information derived from floor plans of the facility. 

The E9-1-1 dispatcher receives the emergency voice call and location updates in real-time. With this information, he or she can direct first responders appropriately to the correct address, building, and floor.

According to Maier, previous attempts to locate VoWiFi E9-1-1-1 callers were 'inaccurate and unreliable.'

'This solution extends RedSky's proven wired voice over IP E9-1-1 location service to VoWiFi,' Maier said. 'By partnering with Aruba we can offer a best-in-class user location system that works wherever users do - at home, in remote offices, and on the campus. We believe this solution will be a boon to universities, hospitals, and distributed enterprises.'

In other Aruba Networks (News - Alert)news, the company recently announced Holy Spirit University of Kaslik in Lebanon, an educational institute for information technology, has completed installing campus-wide Aruba's WiFi network managed by the AirWave (News - Alert) Wireless Management Suite at its Jounieh site north of Beirut.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Michael Dinan