CUMA Call Streams?

[jvankirk]

Can anyone tell me (or point me to a resource) that accurately describes the various call flows for CUMA? What I'm trying to determine is this: Can a call from a client (say Cisco Mobile for example) be started(and continue) on the WiFi wireless network and then seemlessly handed over to a cellular call as the client walks out of the wireless range and can a cellular call be handed over to a WiFi wireless client when the client comes back in range?

If Cisco has a solution for this scenario, is it just CUMA that is needed or are there more appliances/software needed.

Thanks!

Jim

[Scott Fella]

Right now there is not a solution that I know of.... maybe these docs will help you understand.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns340/ns394/ns348/ns772/net_implementation_white_paper0900aecd806ec474.html

http://www.umatoday.com/umaOverview.php

[jvankirk]

Great articles both. Which takes me back to my original thought (which I believe I mostly confirmed today), which is there is no single vendor solution out there yet. Dual-Mode handsets have some third party software that does the RSSI monitoring, calls in to a central platform to anchor the call, etc., etc.. Cisco (choose your mobile flavor) client rides on top of some of those clients and leverages those clients to add additional features.

I don't see this as a particularly bad thing, just that the technologies have not completely matured yet. As I look at solutions for our company, I think there is a bit of a smorgasboard approach that needs to be used. I just wanted to have some confirmation on my initial theories.

Thanks for the articles. Any other thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks!

Jim

[Scott Fella]

Correct... there are no products today that can offer true transparent handoffs from cellular to wireless and vice versa.  Cellular companies offer devices tha can be placed into the network that allows calls to be made while on 802.11 but is a manual switch.  There are other cellular companies that require just internet fro users to make call using 802.11, but again... its a manual switch made by the end user.  The hard part I think is the growing technology in cellular and in wireless and getting handsets and appliances or devices to communicate to allow the smooth hand-off.  In time I believe it will happen, but for now its something that we have to wait for.

Another article:

http://www.networkworld.com/techinsider/2005/031405tiwireless3.html