In officially opening a Mobility Centre at Cisco's North Sydney offices, Senator Richard Alston, Minister for Communications, IT and the Arts, was quick to praise the contribution of Australian developers to the advancement of wireless technology.
Radiata, a company that started as a federal government research and development initiative and grew out of research teams at the CSIRO and Macquarie University, pioneered a wireless chip set based on the IEEE 802.11a standard. It allows transfer speeds of up to 54 Mbps over the 5 GHz spectrum - compared to speeds of up to 11 Mbps on the more established 802.11b protocol, which operates on 2.4 GHz.
After Radiata was acquired by Cisco in November 2000, commercialisation of the chip set continued and the result is the Cisco Aironet 1200 Series Access Point. It features a 5 GHz radio module and 5 GHz network interface card and is compliant with both IEEE 802.11a and 802.11b to allow users to implement either or both standards in their WLAN solution.
Dr John O'Sullivan, General Manger of the Cisco Wireless Networking Business Unit, says that the decision on what standard to use comes down to the total number of people using the network and what types of applications they run.
Hence, the Cisco Mobility Centre was set up as an applications test bed of wireless technologies for use in traditional office buildings as well as locations such as hotel rooms and airport lounges. The centre also demonstrates Cisco IP telephony, virtual private networking and security solutions.
Senator Alston announced that Brisbane Boys' College is among the first Australian customers to use the 802.11a Cisco wireless network to bypass cabling and provide students with laptops and high-bandwidth network connections in classrooms. Australian Pharmaceuticals Industries (API) has also implemented a trial 802.11a Cisco platform at its new Camellia site in Sydney.
But Cisco executives conceded that Australian adoption of the technology has not kept pace with Australia's leadership in its development.
"Businesses will invest in wireless as a means of incrementally adding value to their existing IP networks," said Terry Walsh, Managing Director of Cisco Systems Australia and New Zealand. "The Mobility Centre will show how WLANs can help them increase their network usage and productivity."
