NEW YORK-Sun Microsystems Computer Co. plans to target infrastructure monitoring in the wireless sector with its recently unveiled JavaStation network computer.
A lower-cost alternative to the personal computer, the JavaStation network computer is available for between $750 and $1,500. Java is Sun’s programming language that allows companies to write small programs that can travel over the Internet or across intranets.
In the wireless industry, Mitsubishi Corp.’s personal digital assistant, with a wireless Java-based system, “is used for remote monitoring of the system-cell sites, radio frequencies, etc.,” said Doug Ehrenreich, director of cable and telecommunications markets for Sun Microsystems, Mountain View, Calif. “The devices communicate real-time data.”
Down the road, Ehrenreich said Sun seeks to promote Java and JavaStation as a roaming facilitator. “The real big issue now for cellular carriers is roaming,” he said.
Sun also envisions the use of Java and JavaStation in customer support system applications to reduce fraud and churn in the wireless sector. Already on the wireline side of communications, British Telecommunications plc has converted its Service View customer service application for its larger customers to run in a Java environment.
Because of its miniaturized but powerful operating system, JavaStation is a miser when it comes to using available capacity. Therefore, it can help “model a cellular network for switched voice and data (given) a limited amount of spectrum,” Ehrenreich said. “Java facilitates efficiencies of transmission protocols because it can draw its applications from the network or can be downloaded from a local device.”
Sun’s overall mission is to move network computing to the application level, he said. Unlike mainframe computers or their antithesis, the freestanding personal computer, network computing promises greater speed and flexibility and lower cost in ongoing modifications and updates of programming capabilities, according to Ehrenreich.
“This will allow telcos to really differentiate the quality of their service and the applications available to customers based on their own evaluations of the costs and benefits of these services,” he said. “You won’t have to link service development to a physical transmission network.”
Ehrenreich said he envisions a host of new entrants into the communications industry whose products are “gateway machines to link various services.”
