8/29/2005 -- Cisco Systems Inc. and Intel Corp. last week expanded their existing alliance to trumpet the Business Class Wireless Suite, a set of proprietary extensions to the 802.11 wireless standards.

Analysts seem to have mixed feelings about the updated Cisco/Intel accord -- and some wonder why it’s needed in the first place.

To recap, Cisco and Intel announced the Business Class Wireless Suite, a new set of features designed for companies using Cisco's Unified Wireless Architecture and Intel Centrino mobile technology. That was the big news.

But Intel also agreed to join Cisco’s Network Admission Control (NAC) program, while Cisco will join Intel’s Active Management Technology (AMT) program. The upshot, the two partners say, is that NAC and AMT should be interoperable by the fourth quarter of this year.

In many respects, the expanded partnership smacks of two thoroughbreds hitting the home stretch. “The collaboration between these two industry veterans will ultimately result in more reliable and more functional technology solutions, though the bullish methods by which these vendors chose to affect the market leaves competitors hard-pressed to respond,” writes Joel Conover, a principal analyst for enterprise infrastructure with consultancy Current Analysis Inc.

This is especially true for the Business Class Wireless Suite, which will support features such as advanced QoS via fast, intelligent roaming, improved support for wideband codecs, and intelligent AP selection capabilities driven by input from the roaming client, Conover says. “The enhancements Cisco and Intel are announcing address critical weaknesses in the existing WiFi standards. Intelligent roaming and AP selection using client-derived parameters will have a profound impact on the quality and reliability of voice over WiFi calls, while support for wideband codecs and improved QoS will enhance the overall quality of experience with mobile devices,” he indicates.

But the Business Class Wireless Suite is by no means a home run, Conover stresses. “The biggest underlying question is why Cisco and Intel need to form a separate alliance to achieve what should be industry-wide support for better roaming and QoS on wireless networks. After all, isn’t there a standards body [the IEEE 802.11 group] to solve these problems?”

Cisco, for its part, says that the Business Class Wireless Suite technologies will be taken up by standards bodies in the future, but give it and Intel time to market advantage in the here and now. Conover isn’t so sure. “[C]ompetitors sing a different tune, crying foul that Cisco has the WiFi provider market locked up, and unfairly keeps advanced technologies out of the hands of competitors through the [Cisco Compatible Extensions] CCX program. And competitors may be right. With the advanced features CCX delivers, what is the incentive for Cisco partners to develop open, standards-based implementations? Indeed, it seems that many standards languish in 802.11 working groups because the rest of the industry can’t come to a consensus on one ‘right’ way to do things.”

As a result, Conover has mixed feelings about the accord. “[W]ith the pervasiveness of CCX on the silicon supplier side, soon the majority of WLAN products will be compatible with the latest enhancements that Cisco and Intel have devised. Cisco and Intel gain a competitive advantage in the market, and the customer gets a better, more functional and reliable product,” he writes. “It seems like everyone wins -- everyone but their competitors.”

There’s some danger for Cisco and Intel, too, says Conover. “The risk here is that the industry decides to take a different direction, either to stymie Cisco and Intel, or simply because a superior technological implementation has been developed. Ultimately, this leaves customers with networks and devices that lack the critical interoperability necessary to make this technology work.” -Stephen Swoyer