Symbol Awarded Patent That Enables Enterprise Telephony In Mobile Devices Over Wireless Local Area Networks

Invention Validates Symbol's Pioneering Role Behind Voice Communications over 802.11, 802.11b, and 802.11a Wireless Data Networks

Symbol Technologies, Inc. today announced that it was awarded a patent for telephonic communications for wireless digital devices using wireless local area networks (LANs).

Commonly referred to as wireless Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), Symbol was the first company to pioneer the methodology that made it commercially viable for devices to handle telephony voice communications over 802.11 wireless LANs. Symbol currently uses the technology in the .

"Enabling voice communications and enterprise telephony over wireless data networks maximizes customer's existing infrastructure investments and provides added functionality to already deployed wireless LANs and telephony systems," said "It's an exciting new patent which leverages our core technology strengths of , and ."

Dr. Swartz, Dr. Fred Heiman, former Executive Vice President who started Symbol's wireless LAN division, and Bob Beach, Symbol Fellow, are named on the patent. Symbol, responsible for several major industry innovations over the past 20 years, has more than 750 issued U.S. patents. Dr. Swartz has more than 160 issued U.S. patents.

The Symbol patent, filed on Jan. 16, 1998, is the system that today adds telephonic capability to 802.11, 802.11b, and 802.11a wireless handsets and mobile computing devices. Such capability allows these devices to access voice messaging features, which are available in wired telephone sets connected to PBX systems. Prior to the invention, telephonic capability and PBX functions like caller-id, call forwarding, call transfer, and call waiting, were not possible on wireless LAN client devices. With the Symbol patent for telephonic communication utilizing a wireless LAN, mobile workers can enjoy enterprise telephony features in the same wireless device also being used to also perform data applications and within building locations where cellular coverage is either too costly to reach or not allowed.

According to InfoTech, the market for in-building wireless IP telephony is ripe for growth. "Increasing demand for user mobility has resulted in the emergence of products that enable workers to be accessible and productive within the workplace," said Shelly Tyler-Radler, senior analyst, InfoTech. "Coupling this trend with the expanding wireless LAN market, we see companies taking advantage of available technology to deploy wireless IP telephony over traditional data networks," added Tyler-Radler. InfoTech expects the worldwide wireless LAN market to grow at a CAGR of 36% between 2000 through 2005 to reach $4.4 billion in 2005, with substantial growth in converged voice and data systems over the next five years.

The Symbol NetVision family of wireless VoIP appliances - and - offers a broad feature set and extensive PBX vendor option support. These products, which are being deployed across Symbol's vertical enterprise market segments, are IEEE 802.11b compliant and operate on International Telecommunications Union (ITU) H.323 standard-based telephony systems as well as other widely accepted industry call-control protocols. The NetVision Phone is a ruggedized wireless VoIP handset with voice messaging data capabilities. The NetVision Data Phone is a ruggedized wireless VoIP appliance with integrated bar code scanning and web-client data capabilities.

The Symbol NetVision family of wireless IP appliances connect to the following PBX gateway products over wireless LANs to achieve enterprise telephony features: Cisco Call Manager v3.x/AVVID; Ericsson WebSwitch 2000 & 100 series; Mitel 3800 Application Gateway, and the Nortel Networks Meridian 1, Succession CSE 1000, Meridian SL-100 and Business Communications Manager 2.5.