OnlySoftwareBlog

General discussion, news & views about Software

Posts Tagged ‘Wi-Fi’

Alcatel-Lucent unveils new software to advance BYOD trend

March 27th, 2012

OTC is built upon OpenTouch communications platform, designed for multiple platforms

Telecommunications company Alcatel-Lucent has launched new OpenTouch Conversation (OTC) software to enable employees to shift between different types of business communications services like instant messaging, data sharing, voice calls and video collaboration, without interrupting their conversations.

The new software advances the BYOD trend by delivering all the communications services to employees’ personal devices, including smartphones and tablets.

Employees can now start a voice call on an office phone, move the conversation to a video conference on a PC or tablet and then conclude it on a mobile phone.

OTC also enables enterprise employees to add participants to the conversation or collaboration session.

Alcatel-Lucent’s new software is built upon OpenTouch communications platform and is designed for multiple platforms.

The first release of the software supports iPad, runs over Wi-Fi and 3G networks and will soon also support multiple platforms including Windows and MacOS, Android, iOS, Blackberry and Microsoft smartphones, the company said.

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Communications Business vice-president and general manager Eric Penisson said OpenTouch Conversation leverages the power of smart devices and reconciles all the modes of communication in one place.

“With OpenTouch Conversation’s outstanding approach, employees will be able to get much more out of their tablet or smart phone,” said Penisson.

Source:http://telecoms.cbronline.com/news/alcatel-lucent-unveils-new-software-to-advance-byod-trend-270312

Comments Off »

Posted in Software News

Tags: 3G Software Wi-Fi

New software can boost battery life for Wi-Fi devices

July 8th, 2011

Share

A new program developed by a Duke University grad student promises to double the battery life of cell phones and other mobile devices by tweaking how they tap into Wi-Fi networks.

As described by its creator Justin Manweiler in a Duke Today story, downloading videos and other hefty content via Wi-Fi can cause a huge drain on the battery of a mobile device. This drain can be especially severe in crowded cities and other locations where multiple devices have to battle for available bandwidth.

So in an example cited by the story, downloading a movie in midtown Manhattan chews up more battery power than downloading the same one in a Midwest farmhouse.

The SleepWell software works by putting the Wi-Fi card in a mobile device to sleep while it waits its turn as other nearby devices download their slice of data. Comparing the flurry of mobile devices all grabbing data at the same time to employees who all leave work at the same time, Manweiler said that his software can relieve the congestion, thus preserving battery life. The software itself would run on Wi-Fi routers and wireless access points.

Manweiler explained to CNET that the sleep mode occurs at very fine timescales, meaning multiple times per second.

“Your Wi-Fi card already does this when it uses something called ‘Power Save Mode’ (which is common),” Manweiler said. “What SleepWell does is to improve the timing of entering and leaving these sleep states. During the ‘awake’ periods, SleepWell enables the Wi-Fi to download data more efficiently. The device does all the same work as before (nothing is changed to any negative user perception), but it does it all at a lower energy cost.”

The software was designed by Manweiler under the guidance of Romit Roy Choudhury, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. SleepWell was recently presented at the ninth Association for Computing Machinery’s International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services in Washington, D.C., where Manweiler and Choudhury received the runner-up award for Best Demo.

A research paper (PDF) co-authored by Manweiler and Choudhury describes SleepWell in greater detail.

Choudhury’s research team is supported by the National Science Foundation, as well as Microsoft Research, Cisco, Nokia and Verizon, according to Duke Today.

What are the next steps for SleepWell? Manweiler told CNET that the team wants to turn this idea into something that can benefit real users.

“The design is very much something than can be quickly deployed, given the appropriate interest,” he said. “Off the record, I can’t speak about actual commercial interest at this point. But on the record, I can say that we are very optimistic to see SleepWell adopted in projects soon. The energy savings are substantial, and the barriers to deployment are (by design) minimal.”

Source:http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20077521-94/new-software-can-boost-battery-life-for-wi-fi-devices/

Comments Off »

Posted in Software News

Tags: Software Wi-Fi

WildPackets and Ekahau Team Up to Improve Corporate Wi-Fi Networks

October 20th, 2010

Share

WildPackets, Inc. , a leading provider of network and application performance analysis solutions, and Ekahau Inc. (www.ekahau.com), a leading provider of Wi-Fi planning and site survey tools, today announced that they have entered into a joint marketing agreement to create a world-class wireless analysis bundle that is designed to help enterprises address the complete lifecycle of wireless networking. To deliver this bundled solution, Ekahau will provide its graphical, map-based Wi-Fi planning and optimization tools, while WildPackets will provide its packet analysis technology for in-depth troubleshooting.

“Wireless networking continues to evolve and become more complex,” said Tony Barbagallo, vice president of marketing at WildPackets. “Enterprises deploying wireless need a single solution that addresses design, deployment, monitoring and troubleshooting of their wireless network. This joint offering will do exactly that.”

“The wireless monitoring and management systems from Wi-Fi infrastructure vendors provide a high-level, birds-eye view to manage the network,” said Jussi Kiviniemi, senior product manager at Ekahau. “Ekahau and WildPackets improve on that by offering a comprehensive solution that assists enterprises with the necessary client-device based planning, deployment and troubleshooting tools. With all these tools at hand, the IT administrators will have complete peace of mind when rolling out and maintaining their Wi-Fi networks.”

Ekahau Site Survey (ESS), the leading tool for Wi-Fi network planning and verification, allows automated, three-dimensional planning for Wi-Fi networks. ESS also covers Wi-Fi verification and troubleshooting with site survey mapping of network performance and coverage. Ekahau also brings Wi-Fi spectrum analysis to the solution with the Ekahau DBx Spectrum Analyzer, an accurate and easy-to-use USB device designed to tackle Wi-Fi interference issues. Without a spectrum analyzer, many Wi-Fi issues remain unseen, diminishing the full benefits of an 802.11 deployment. WildPackets’ OmniPeek Network Analyzer software offers an intuitive, easy-to-use graphical interface for rapidly monitoring, analyzing and troubleshooting wireless enterprise networks. The OmniPeek software monitors and analyzes “real world” wireless networks — multiple access points and multiple channels — and simplifies the display and analysis of the information needed to address issues quickly and efficiently. OmniPeek provides in-depth analysis of wireless traffic using its comprehensive wireless-specific expert diagnoses and 802.11 protocol decodes, high-level wireless-specific dashboard view, signal strength and channel analysis and visual experts, which analyze every conversation on the network.

Whether it’s a greenfield deployment or a scheduled upgrade, careful planning is a must with any corporate wireless network. With the solution from WildPackets and Ekahau, the entire lifecycle — including design, deployment, monitoring and troubleshooting — can simply be addressed with a single product bundle certified for interoperability and based on industry-leading software solutions