ITN has been working with several healthcare related firms over the past few years with great success.  ITN has installed MERU Networks wireless equipment in many different healthcare facilities ranging from a small doctor office to a regional hospital serving multiple floors and hundreds of users & patients.  One of our first clinics to adopt the MERU Wireless product had cycled through other brands such as Cisco and Aruba with poor results.  These products had failed to perform at the level required for accuracy of data input, proper coverage, interference, and most important to the doctors at this clinic, ease and consistency of connection.  It’s unfortunate that they purchased inferior solutions twice but the good news is that this clinic was still willing and interested to depend on wireless for their architecture.  Four years later, the MERU Networks system in this clinic is still performing flawlessly.  With Meru, healthcare organizations can ensure that physicians and caregivers stay continuously connected throughout the hospital, with toll-quality voice and seamless roaming. Meru supports critical mobile applications at the point of care, enabling hospitals to confidently deploy innovative solutions for mobile access to patient records, patient monitoring, dosage verification, voice, and asset tracking. Easy to deploy and simple to manage, they deliver the industry’s best user experience with low total cost of ownership.

VOIP has been “all the buzz” the last year or two and touted as the next big tool for business, but is it really a good fit for you?  If new Ethernet switches are considered in the budget, then the overall cost of VOIP is usually higher than Digital.  Digital would never require re-wiring the office where VOIP might.  Having VOIP requires the separation of voice traffic and data traffic, or the execution of a network assessment to see how well the “network” will handle the addition of voice if voice (VOIP) and data traffic were converged. 

We take a different approach because the built-in features of the latest generation of VOIP systems are also available on the AVAYA IP Office in the digital configuration too!  Remote workers, quick phone moves, and “hotel-ing” are the primary benefits to VOIP.  The AVAYA IP Office has the ability to have VOIP, Digital, and Analog devices ALL working off of the same phone system therefore we can configure your office to be “all digital” while having your remote users on VOIP!  ITN can program the ability to do “hotel-ing” on any group of phones allowing for random access for transient workers.  When you look at the big picture, VOIP is not the answer for every business.  Maybe our competitors tout VOIP because their systems won’t do digital? 

802.11 N and modern security advances from MERU have eliminated the top two reasons for hesitation to migrate to wireless, speed and security.  A third reason can now be considered, especially in the Seattle/Bellevue area where so many are concerned about the environment.  Picture a typical facility with 250 workstations, each with their own phone and computer.  Historically each workstation would be supplied with a voice cable and a data cable totaling 500 Category 5e cables (or 750 in the case of 3 cables per location) running through the ceiling back to the server room.  This cabling represents hundreds of pounds of mined copper, cable sheathing produced from petroleum products, plastic and metal patch panels, and the energy consumed in mining and manufacturing all this equipment.  Every time the company moves to a new space, they have to re-cable the new facility at a significant cost to their budget and environment since they can’t take the cabling with them.  For nearly the same price as a cabling infrastructure, the same staff could be served 802.11 N data speeds and QOS rated voice via MERU wireless without all the copper, steel, petroleum, mining energies, installed each time in the ceiling AND after the initial MERU investment, the company would save significant money on each facility move by relocating their MERU WLAN with the rest of their stuff.  Although AMP NetConnect cabling products satisfy RoHS standards and have one of the only lead free cable plants, there is nothing more environmentally friendly than no cable at all.   Check this out

We’ve already had a chance to chat about how MERU wireless allows you to transition from a cell call to VOIP call on the WLAN using a “Dual Mode” cellular phone.  This technology brings up another future opportunity worth discussing.  Imagine a future where your dual mode cellular phone is your ONLY phone!  No more “desk phone”, no more “checking voicemail at the office”.  Software applications downloaded to your dual mode phone will tie to the AVAYA IP Office allowing your mobile phone to take on much of the same features and functionality that you are used to in a desk phone.  Wouldn’t it be great to have the mobility found of your mobile phone but with the functionality of your desk phone?  Conference calling, call routing, hunt groups, tiered voicemail options, call center integration, etc.. are all things that could be combined with the mobility of your dual mode phone.  The power of your only phone being your mobile phone is possible now using AVAYA IP Office and MERU Wireless Networks.

Sure, some of your cell phones out there have a “data plan” where you have internet access when you need it.  Mobile phone manufacturers have phones on the market today that we described as “dual mode” cell phones.  These Dual Mode phones can automatically connect to your office’s wireless LAN when you walk into the building eliminating the use of your cell phone minutes!  You could be in the middle of a conversation leaving your car and walking into the building when your dual mode phone will automatically switch your call from “cellular” call using a tower connection to a “VOIP call over the WLAN without interruption!  Now this transition from Cellular to WLAN is only possible if your wireless LAN is truly rated for QOS (Quality of Service).  MERU’s Air Traffic Control system and QOS rated WLAN makes this happen.  Imagine 100’s of staff not using minutes but still taking advantage of true mobility!  MERU’s WLAN also clears the way for the elimination of the “desk phone” as your cell phone can become your only phone.      

Novarum (independent research group) reported 3 key differences between MERU’s 802.11N product and that of Cisco and Aruba.  The first significant difference was 40mbps more of throughput over MERU’s competitors.  Performance was usually above 170mbps beating the other guys’ by 40mbps.  The next thing they found was in the category of “Air Time Fairness” where MERU’s solution provided “fair and equitable access” to the 802.11N clients being served by the WLAN.  Airtime fairness is important because it’s how the signal is shared by different clients, both old school (b/g/a) and the new (N), and gives a sense of network stability in the eyes of the client (user).  The final standout in Novarum’s WLAN testing is in the category of “Toll Grade Voice”.  Neither Cisco or Aruba can match MERU’s performance in supporting voice applications at a toll grade voice level.  MERU’s product registers above a MOS score of 4.0 with high density, bi-directional voice and data traffic.  Interface Technologies’ AVAYA VOIP users and dual mode cell phone users require a WLAN system like MERU’s to provide toll quality voice performance. 

What is QOS?  QOS is “Quality of Service” and is a hugely important when considering the move to an all wireless VOIP solution.  Without QOS rated wireless, a company’s voice communications will be unsatisfactory.  In a nutshell, QOS is a function of your wireless LAN’s ability to “prioritize voice” transmissions on the network in order to maintain the appropriate performance levels.  These performance levels can be measured with a “MOS score” to measure “Toll Quality Voice”.  MERU’s Virtual Cell technology and Air Traffic Control show powerful results in independent testing.  In the testing procedures, the evaluation group compared MERU and two other big names in a multiple testing format of combined VOIP and laptop users with the largest single test being a combined 48 data users and 24 simultaneous VOIP users.  In this last scenario testing with 15 APs, MERU and another competitor tied for MOS scores of 4.5 while both maintaining data throughput of over 33 mbps  using 802.11g gear.  When the AP count was reduced from 15 to 10 with the same number of clients trying to connect to the network (48 laptops, 24 VOIP phones), MERU’s throughput stayed above 33mpbs and its MOS score only dropped to 4.0, the bar for “toll quality voice”.  The other guys’ both came in below 5mpbs in throughput and MOS scores of 3 and 1.4, well below the standard for toll quality voice.  This testing showed us that MERU’s WLAN is very scalable, requires less infrastructure to perform at the same or better levels to support voice and data, more easily managed without the need for costly RF planning, and outperforms its’ closest competitors in the market place at nearly every level.