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It goes without saying the wireless space is among the most exciting and fastest growing in all of communications, with both WiMAX (News - Alert) and LTE gearing up for a lengthy battle — despite proponents of each claiming its choice has the clear advantage. Then again, there are those that see a value proposition in supporting both.

 

Of course, the other side of the wireless market — WiFi (News - Alert) — is growing faster than ever as well, driven by the 802.11n standard, which, as Polycom’s Vice President for Product Marketing for WLAN Voice Products Ben Guderian noted during a recent video interview, has help ease concerns about the reliability and stability of WLANs.

 

The benefits of wireless networking in businesses is evident — especially when you consider skyrocketing adoption of laptop computers, WiFi-enabled mobile handsets, and many other business devices. When you factor in the rise to prominence of VoIP, the development of voice over WLAN technology becomes a no-brainer.

 

In fact, Guderian notes that voice over WLAN has been a part of Polycom’s (News - Alert) development efforts for at least a decade, but it’s really only now becoming more widely accepted as a viable business solution. Its growth is being driven, he says, by an increase in mobile workers, especially in-building mobile workers, who need to maintain communications with colleagues and customers, but need an alternative to racking up high cell phone charges.

 

The logical answer is to integrate wireless handsets into their PBX systems.

 

Several verticals are leading the charge, including healthcare, manufacturing, and retail. Guderian adds that the hospitality industry is also starting to leverage their investments in guest WiFi for mobile staff communications. The idea is to enable immediate access to the right personnel, regardless of where they are on the premises.

 

Polycom, in fact, takes it a step further, integrating PTT capabilities into some of its SpectraLink handsets, along with text messaging, which is particularly useful when integrated with nurse call systems in medical facilities.

 

As always, of course, integrating third-party devices into communications networks comes with its challenges, since even those built on open standards have a certain degree of proprietary technology built in. To ease the deployment of its SpectraLink handsets, Polycom developed its VIEW Certification Program, which is basically an interoperability testing process between the SpectraLink wireless handsets and WiFi access points.

 

Last month, Trapeze Networks became the first VIEW partner to be certified with Polycom’s latest software, its 3.0 release. This latest version enhances support for standards-based QoS and security protocols, including voice prioritization, power management, and admission control.

 

Now, Aruba Networks (News - Alert) has also achieved VIEW certification with its adaptive 802.11 WLAN, allowing its customers to easily integrate voice over WLAN into their communications processes. In fact, Aruba is the first vendor to achieve 802.11n interoperability with Polycom’s VIEW program.

 

“As more companies right-size their network infrastructure, reducing wired LANs in favor of 802.11n wireless LANs, the need for certified interoperable wireless voice solutions grows,” said Manav Khurana, Aruba’s head of industry marketing.  “Network integrators and customers alike will benefit from the availability of these pre-tested solutions.”

 

This partnership bodes well for Polycom, which recently stated that VoIP is the future, and its VoIP phones were among its fastest growing product lines in 2008. When you factor in the record fiscal Q1 2009 reported by Aruba, which it followed with additional growth in Q2, it can be expected that Polycom will see significant growth in its wireless VoIP phones as well, especially now that they have been certified with the Aruba solutions.