InnerWireless Horizon DAS Delivers Cisco Advanced WLAN Services At Leading Northern California Outpatient Center
A top-ranked northern California hospital deploys WLAN on DAS (distributed antenna system) for enterprise-grade, facility-wide Wi-Fi in its new state-of-the-art Outpatient Center. Incorporating the latest Cisco WLAN technologies with the InnerWireless Horizon DAS, the deployment includes Cisco Aironet 1252 Access Points with MIMO; advanced services, including Cisco's ClientLink feature; and Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phone model 7925G, Cisco's newest and most advanced 802.11a-based handset.
The Horizon DAS is the market leader for providing in-building converged wireless coverage for cellular and Wi-Fi in the largest buildings and most technologically advanced hospitals in North America. Horizon has a proven track record for delivering enterprise-grade Wi-Fi where mission- and life-critical coverage, capacity and reliability are required.
"InnerWireless has evolved the Horizon Converged Wireless DAS Platform to keep pace with Wi-Fi advances and is the first and only DAS manufacturer to support 802.11n with Cisco's advanced services," said Kevin Swank, Director of Product Marketing for InnerWireless. "During the past six years, InnerWireless has successfully delivered every 802.11 protocol and application, including 802.11b/g, 802.11a, data, voice and location. Horizon now delivers 802.11n with MIMO, multi-streaming, and advanced services."
The capability to deliver 802.11 services on the InnerWireless DAS has proven to be a powerful solution for many healthcare customers. As WLAN has evolved from a departmental convenience to an enterprise communication tool for diverse and unique applications including HIS, EMR, voice, PACS and telemetry, Horizon enables enterprise-grade Wi-Fi. Horizon provides engineered, facility-wide coverage and signal strength from day one, guaranteed, for devices ranging from mobile computers, to VoWLAN handsets and clinical devices, to BlackBerry smartphones and the iPhone.
In addition, Horizon employs an alternative Wi-Fi deployment model, called Layered WLAN, whereby multiple WLANs can be deployed over a single DAS. This WLAN architecture gives traditional access points a new traffic management capability that dramatically improves enterprise-wide network performance by 2x, 3x or even more.
"In traditional WLAN deployments, APs are required to provide coverage, as well as carry every type of client traffic. While acceptable for small deployments, the WLAN can end up as a congested shared resource for data, voice and clinical applications in large enterprises," said InnerWireless' Mitchell Ross, CCIE. "Enterprises need thoughtful traffic engineering, which looks at the coverage and network performance as a whole and then provides guarantees for RF coverage, predicted levels of access and assurance of normal packet flow. Once in place, a traffic-engineered WLAN not only provides known enterprise-class performance for several selected classes of legacy devices, but it can also provide a path for a greenfield-like deployment of newer applications and protocols such as video streaming and 802.11n."
In the northern California hospital's Outpatient Center deployment, the DAS signal strength coverage is guaranteed for the most demanding devices, such as the Cisco 802.11a-based 7925G phone, to ensure Wi-Fi works everywhere in the facility, including at the edge of coverage. Layered WLAN is used to segregate the traffic; one layer for voice, another for mobile carts, another for public access, and so forth. Grouping like-applications and like-devices not only ensures that clinical and non-clinical traffic can be securely and physically separated, but it also ensures that data and clinical traffic does not affect voice traffic and vice versa, enabling a mission-critical voice deployment in the hospital.
"Deploying Cisco WLAN using the InnerWireless Horizon Converged Wireless DAS Platform has other practical benefits when compared to traditional ‘AP on ceiling' installations," said Gary Close, VP of Marketing at InnerWireless. "For hospitals that want a secure, customer-friendly appearance, APs are collocated in IDF closets or ceiling cabinets. This approach facilitates easy repair and trouble-shooting, and it also minimizes costly Ethernet runs. More important, support costs associated with coverage lapses, and device inconsistencies and post-deployment AP movement are substantially reduced. With Horizon, a superior user experience can be achieved, even as the numbers of devices and applications proliferate."
About InnerWireless
InnerWireless is the premier end-to-end in-building wireless solution provider for healthcare, enterprise, hospitality/gaming and government markets. With Horizon – a broadband, Converged Wireless platform – InnerWireless ensures the delivery of Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWAN) and Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) services including cellular/PCS, fire/life/safety, Wi-Fi and medical telemetry – guaranteed. Designed expressly for mission- and life-critical wireless applications, Horizon's comprehensive, single antenna infrastructure enables pervasive coverage and optimized capacity with an eco-friendly "green" design and an industry leading warranty. InnerWireless also collaborates with key industry partners to enable the delivery of turnkey solutions. As a Cisco Premier Certified Partner, specializing in Wireless LAN technology, InnerWireless provides and supports Cisco WLAN solutions. With a complete end-to-end solution, InnerWireless helps achieve a new and lasting degree of wireless freedom. For more information,visit www.innerwireless.com.
SOURCE: InnerWireless