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Product category: Embedded Software and Operating Systems
News Release from: LynuxWorks | Subject: LynxOS
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 13 November 2003

RTOS opens up wireless networking

The LynxOS real-time operating system is used to power the Symbol WS 5000 wireless switch

The LynxOS real-time operating system is used to power the Symbol WS 5000 wireless switch, the industry's first switched-wireless networking architecture designed to deliver advanced wireless networking services and application-specific security to IEEE802.11b (Wi-Fi), 802.11a, 802.11g and legacy Symbol Spectrum24 (802.11 and 802.11b) wireless networks and mobile systems.

LynuxWorks enabled Symbol Technologies to construct its sophisticated hard real-time wireless networking system with unmatched functionality, reliability, and scalability and quickly deliver to market its innovative architecture.

In today's wireless LAN market, enterprises are required to purchase and deploy multiple products from multiple vendors for application-specific wireless security, network management, and wireless connectivity.

To address this point, Symbol engineered all of these capabilities into a single wireless switch system that centrally delivers wireless connectivity and features to low-cost access ports that can be distributed throughout the enterprise.

As a result, organisations now have a more economical and efficient means to deliver all the essential capabilities of wireless area networking without purchasing numerous components.

Serving as intelligence behind Symbol's award-winning wireless architecture, LynxOS enables the delivery of advanced wireless services and connectivity to the network edge, which helps organisations realise the full benefits of business mobility.

LynxOS enables business-critical and real-time applications by powering the high performance traffic classification and switching capabilities of the Symbol WS 5000 Wireless Switch.

This ensures the real-time transfer and collection of data throughout the enterprise that is critical to day-to-day business.

For example, wireless customers in the retail industry are able to transfer data from a PDA to the wireless router and instantaneously forward information to different distribution and revenue centres within the company's organisation for more efficient end-to-end management of the entire retail process.

When a shirt is purchased in a department store, for instance, it is recorded on a PDA, the inventory department purchases another shirt, the revenue dollars are forwarded to management and the system keeps track of the best selling items to ensure they are continually in stock for additional revenues.

As LynxOS is located at the networking switch layer, wireless customers can conveniently change wireless system settings and easily add new functions in real-time.

This approach helps businesses protect their investment by providing an architecture that can grow and expand with their business.

As a result, customers in the retail, manufacturing, healthcare, government, transportation, and logistics industries have an intelligent adoption path for the emerging 802.11a and 802.11g technologies.

The business-critical nature of the Symbol WS 5000 wireless switch required an operating system with hard real-time deterministic performance.

To meet this critical requirement, Symbol needed a RTOS that was certified Posix conformant by the IEEE to assure code portability and software interoperability.

LynxOS met this challenge and provided Symbol the best alternative to other operating systems that only implement portions of Posix.

Another benefit LynxOS provided is a Linux ABI compatibility layer so Linux applications can run unchanged in a hard real-time environment.

This was crucial to providing Symbol the ability to leverage innumerable open source as well as proprietary applications to accelerate time-to-market of its WS 5000 wireless switch and meet their customers' demands for centralised intelligence, management and security in an integrated wireless system.

"Our goal was to develop and provide a system that would fundamentally change the way businesses deploy enterprise mobility", said Ray Martino, General Manager, Vice President, Wireless Systems Division, Symbol Technologies.

"LynuxWorks has played an important role in the growing adoption of the WS 5000 wireless switch for customers in industries ranging from retail to manufacturing to healthcare.

LynxOS gives us a significant strategic advantage in the marketplace by supporting the advanced wireless features required for end-to-end mobility".

"LynxOS has been proven to have the functionality necessary for business-critical and real-time applications in the wireless networking market", said Bob Morris, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for LynuxWorks.

"Utilising LynxOS' processing model, Posix conformance and open, standard APIs, Symbol maintains a competitive advantage in the wireless marketplace by providing their customers with the highest degree of reliability and scalability.

As Posix and Linux become increasingly mandated for commercial wireless applications we look forward to additional opportunities to work with customers in the wireless market".

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