Users Eye Wireless Voice/Data Unification
The state of New York’s court system has deployed voice over wireless LANs (VoWi-Fi) technology for court officers and other court employees. The technology is seen as a complement to the courts’ existing radio infrastructure, not a replacement, says Michael Jean, a systems engineer with the court system.
Courthouses in the Bronx and Manhattan have been outfitted with several dozen Nortel wireless LAN (WLAN) IP phones that are used for voice communication purposes. The court system decided to adopt the use of VoWi-Fi technology because the radio frequencies used by police and emergency personnel around the courthouses were interfering with the shortwave radio frequencies used by the court system.
A secondary problem was posed by the physical makeup of the courthouses–the many granite, marble, and iron materials inside the buildings blocked the transmissions of the courthouses’ shortwave radios.
When radio reception is not feasible, the court staff can switch to the WLAN phones, which are manufactured by Spectralink and are compatible with the Nortel Communication Server 1000s. The court system was able to establish hundreds of WLAN access points because Wi-Fi is not licensed.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from Network World (06/20/05) P. 22; Hochmuth, Phil.