IBM, Alvarion fashion public-safety wireless alliance

IBM Corp. and Alvarion Inc. have established an alliance to offer wireless systems to municipalities and their public safety agencies, Alvarion announced.

The companies' solution comprises IBM's suite of mobile applications built on Alvarion's broadband and mobile wireless systems. The system can be customized to deliver broad functionality and support myriad applications while also enabling citywide broadband coverage.

The companies have tested their WiMax solution in a pilot project for Fresno, Calif., where they created a public-safety network that enables police officers to send and receive text messages, still images and full-motion video. The information is transferred using car-based mobile data terminals and handheld personal digital assistants.

IBM built the Fresno system using Alvarion broadband wireless systems and its own WebSphere Everyplace Connection Manager. The network features government-grade wireless encryption, roaming and compression to 250 police cars.

WiMax is a specification for fixed broadband wireless metropolitan access networks that use point to multipoint architecture.

Alvarion Inc. is a unit of Alvarion Ltd. of Tel Aviv, Israel.

IBM of Armonk, N.Y., ranks No. 14 on Washington Technology's 2005 Top 100 list of federal prime contractors. The 2006 list will be released May 15.