Padcom Introduces Automatic Dynamic Routing for Wireless Communications

Oct. 1, 1997
Padcom, Inc., Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S., has introduced SmartPath, an intelligent solution for wireless data network routing. SmartPath lets users

Padcom, Inc., Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S., has introduced SmartPath, an intelligent solution for wireless data network routing. SmartPath lets users dynamically send and receive data over multiple (incompatible) networks.

Padcom's SmartPath platform allows businesses to create a wireless network environment using any combination of existing private radio networks, both conventional and trunking, and CDPD, cellular, PCS and future technologies such as satellite. As mobile users perform their tasks, SmartPath intelligently selects the most appropriate network to route the wireless data, based on network access cost, data message size, time of day or network availability.

The SmartPath platform provides all of the hardware and software required to manage connectivity to wide-area and local-area wireless networks. SmartPath uses Padcom's TCP/IP facility to provide a single common interface to a mobile computer that is available to all network options needed to keep the business and its field workers connected.

In a separate announcement, Padcom has teamed with the Private Radio Systems Division of Ericsson, Inc., Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S., to jointly market SmartPath to users of Ericsson's Enhanced Digital Access Communication System (EDACS) networks who want multi-network data solutions.

SmartPath connects through a serial RS/232 port and provides a standard PPP link to the mobile computer. In addition, SmartPath connects to the wireless networks through internal and external radios or radio modems and supports up to four networks at a time.

Substation Control and Automation Contract Instem Computer Systems, Staffordshire, England, recently secured a multi-million pound contract from the National Grid Co. (NGC), Coventry, England, to install its substation control systems (SCS) at 12 substations in England.

The contract forms part of NGC's overall strategy to improve the integration of substation control, giving better service to the control engineers and enabling the substations to be operated remotely leading to improved operational efficiency.

Nine of the sites will be outfitted with automatic voltage control software to control the low voltage bus bar through transformer on load tap changing. Control from the substation is provided with a PC-based graphical user interface using mimics.

Motorola Embraces Wireless Data Networks Motorola's Worldwide Data Solutions Division (WWDSD) of the Land Mobile Products Sector, Schaumburg, Illinois, U.S., plans to incorporate public data networks into its wireless data portfolio with a communications offering called VersiTAC Integrated Wireless Data Solution.

The VersiTAC introduction extends Motorola's capability to offer customers total solutions on public or integrated (private/public) data networks.

With VersiTAC, Motorola provides a customized, seamless wireless offering across public and private networks. This will enable enterprises to link up mobile workers with corporate intranets and central databases. Motorola is working with Nextel, cellular digital packet data network providers and others, and will announce agreements in the near future.

Specifications Available on the Net The Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC), Wayland, Massachusetts, U.S., is making available its OpenGIS Simple Features Specification on the Internet. The specifications are available at http://www.opengis.org.

The OGC Technical Committee is in the final editing stage and will continue to make revisions to the specification through October. The Revision 1.0 specifications will be released in early November.

The three OpenGIS Simple Features specifications enable programmers to write application software using interfaces that give applications open access to heterogeneous geographic data sources on three distributed computing platforms: OLE/COM, CORBA, and SQL.

Virginia Power To Enter Telecom Market Virginia Electric and Power Co., Richmond, Virginia, U.S., has received approval to enter the telecommunications market, joining its neighbor, Potomac Electric Power Co. (PEPCO), Washington, DC, U.S., in the wave of U.S. utilities entering the telecommunications business.

The Virginia State Corporations Commission (SCC) approved VPS Communications, Inc. (VPSC), a Virginia Power subsidiary, to offer limited inter-exchange telecommunications services throughout Virginia.

According to William S. Mistr, VPSC's president, the company will be a competitive access (CAP) provider, linking long-distance carriers directly with larger customers such as businesses and government agencies. The subsidiary will also offer direct, on-switched, dedicated telecommunications links between large customers' facilities located in different local exchanges.

VPSC also will offer wholesale service to telecommunications providers through leased capacity on Virginia Power's 270 mile (434 km) fiber-optic network, Mistr said, which runs through the urbanized "golden crescent" of Virginia, from the Washington suburbs through Fredericksburg, Richmond, Hopewell and into the Norfolk, Virginia area.

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