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Wi-Fi voice certification:

Voice over Wi-Fi is often used by consumers with open VoIP software, of course, but its robustness for enterprise quality voice services has often been questioned, despite sometimes over-optimistic plans by metrozone operators to challenge cellular networks with WLAN-based voice/data services. In reality, most wide scale WLANs have remained primarily data-focused.

Now the Alliance, the industry body that selects and certifies Wi-Fi standards and profiles, plans to make voice a fully mature member of its family and has introduced a certification program, called the Wi-Fi Certified Voice-Personal initiative. An enterprise version is likely to follow next year.

The 'Certified Voice-Personal' stamp of approval attests that a product is capable of making or handling good quality voice calls in the home or small office environment, according to the Alliance. Access points, wireless routers, handsets and laptops can all be tested and certified.

Unlike most Alliance programs, which focus on interoperability, this one examines performance in a specific application. Other standards that have gone beyond simple interoperability and enhanced the trust that business users, in particular, could have in Wi-Fi, have included the 802.11i security specifications and 802.11m for quality of service, also important for voice, but limited mainly to prioritizing different types of traffic, rather than how voice calls are actually handled once connected. To be certified under the new VoIP program, products have to deliver packet loss of less than 1% with no burst losses, as well as latency and maximum jitter of less than 50 milliseconds.

The kings of Wi-Fi platforms, Intel and Cisco, are the first to gain the new kitemarks for their products - Intel's Pro/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (an embedded 802.11a/b/g PCIe Mini Card), and Cisco's Aironet 1250 and 1200 Series access points. Also successful was Meru's access point AP200, heavily focused on the business market.

The enterprise version of the process will be called Wi-Fi Certified Voice-Enterprise and will be kicked off early next year. It will be based on the Voice-Personal Program but with additional functionality covered. It will add support for bandwidth management, hand-offs between access points, enterprise class security, network management and other features that are necessary in larger environments, according to the Alliance.

Enterprise femtocells:

Enterprise confidence in the quality and security of voice over Wi-Fi will need to grow quickly to fend off the arrival of femtocells geared to corporate networks - seen by cellcos, many of which are having problems taking a more strategic role in enterprises than mere suppliers of mobile minutes, as an important stalking horse for greater control of corporate customers. There is some debate over whether the enterprise market can use femtocells largely based on the format currently being devised for the home, or whether it needs a larger, business optimized product.

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