Cisco unfurls wireless services strategy

摘要

Cisco is looking to reshape enterprise wireless LANs with a new network appliance that collects device data and makes it available for use by higher-level applications. The Mobility Services Engine (MSE) runs software programs that collect, store and manage data from wireless clients and Cisco access points and controllers. MSE can use this data itself for jobs like rogue radio detection, and share it with higher-end Cisco security access control and network management applications. MSE also can share data with third-party mobility applications, such as wireless asset tracking,cellular-to-Wi-Fl voice roaming and RFID data management. The appliance, which was unveiled last week, is part of Cisco's plan to create a unified software layer that spans different physical networks and the mobile clients that use them. Mobile devices such as laptops, RFID tags, dual-mode smartphones, embedded devices and sensors could be using any combination of access networks - including wired Ethernet, Wi-Fi, passive RFID, cellular, WiMAX, ultra wideband, and wireless sensor networks such as Zigbee. MSE is the start of collecting and coordinating data about all these clients, in large numbers, across these different types of networks, and feeding it via a XML/SOAP-based API to other applications. "What it shows is that Cisco is finally realizing, although they don't overtly state mis, that networking is no longer [about] LAN, WAN and PAN [personal area network]," says Ken Dulaney, a vice president with research firm Gartner. "Networking is converged among wired, wireless, personal, business. The next step to watch is how they deal with security, which is still fragmented.Will they have a more unified vision for security on top of [this vision] of the converged network?"