Cisco blurring the lines of technology.

Greater Sudbury -- In a work world that is increasingly focused on multi-tasking individuals, it would only make sense that their gadgets do the same.

Cisco Systems breezed through Greater Sudbury March 1 with its Network on Wheels (NOW) van displaying working, cutting-edge technology that blurs the lines between digital voice, data and video devices.

"It's a move toward a world where all devices can perform each other's functions," says Jan Sirek, a Cisco systems engineer based in Huntsville.

He uses a flashy Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone with a four-inch colour displayto call from one of the demo stations to another. As soon as the second set picks up, a video of Sirek picked up by station one's web cam shows up on the desktop of the PC at station two. The video and sound feeds come through to both; the call can be answered by the touch of a button on the phone or the computer. By the same token, Sirek can use the IP phone to e-mail a file to his cell phone or PDA, or to any other device on the Wide Area Network (WAN).

"Why should a data device only handle data?" he asks. "It's a convergence of technology and a blurring of the lines that define what devices do in a data network world."

If all devices can perform all functions, he says, there is no reason it can't all be done on the same network. Companies that are triplicating their infrastructures for data, voice and video transmission could save big with a one core intelligent network, Sirek says.

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Cisco Systems is not a retail operation. Their products and technology solutions are sold through vendors, often Internet service suppliers. But their offices are like working demos for their technology, as it all can be found in use by their own employees.

Can't get to a Cisco office? Check out the trailer they have from the hit television series 24. Sirek showed a clip of the show's stars discussing a security threat using the very technology on display in the van.

Applications for the technology aren't found exclusively in the world of business. Sirek envisions a hospital with IP phones at every bedside. It isn't difficult to imagine, since the display units in the Cisco van have test versions of the software installed on them. A nurse is on medication duty. Sirek continues, and her trolley is equipped with some form of mini-computer as well. The nurse gets to Jane Doe's bedside and calls up her information on the IP phone, logging into the hospital's network. With a touch of the screen, the nurse can call up Doe's vital information, heart rate, a graph of her temperature profile over a given period and a number of other things, including her medication schedule.

The nurse has a look at the schedule, but the meds don't jive. Her trolley's PDA says Doe has been prescribed penicillin, but her medical history says she is allergic to it. With the technology, the nurse can avoid having to backtrack to wherever the paper medical charts are kept to double-check, saving a lot of time. Instead, he calls his supervisor on the IP phone with the touch of a hot button. The supervisor receives the call on her wireless IP phone a couple of floors down, and heads up to correct the problem. The whole ordeal takes a few minutes, instead of a couple of hours.

That's just one example, Sirek says. The rest exist in the imaginations of Cisco's potential customers. The NOW van is taking a spin to Western Canada and should be back through Northern Ontario in the summer.

www.cisco.com/ca

By CRAIG GILBERT

Northern Ontario Business