SANTA CLARA, Calif.-Aeris.net introduced a new service option called VBurst, an overlay to the firm’s existing MicroBurst service, using the cellular control channel for packet data services.
While MicroBurst is positioned primarily as a one-way, alert service, VBurst is a full-duplex, universal roaming two-way packet data service. Because it is an overlay, VBurst requires no new network infrastructure.
It combines the control channel signaling abilities of the MicroBurst network with use of cellular voice channels to send and receive up to 1 kilobyte of data via Aeris.net’s carrier partners.
VBurst is a store-and-forward architecture supporting both digital and analog services. According to the company, the new service will broaden the range of services it can offer.
“As well as providing the robustness that the telemetry market requires, VBurst will provide larger data payloads, facilitating enterprise solutions that require greater bandwidth,” said David Neale, vice president for Rogers AT&T Wireless, an Aeris carrier partner, in a statement. “The VBurst solution complements the MicroBurst offering not only by its much higher and bi-directional data transport, but also by enabling customers to reconfigure their applications over the air.”
The solution gives Aeris.net the capability to better compete with nationwide ReFLEX and other wireless data carriers, and it can now support two-way packet data. VBurst uses digital packet technology where available and packet analog when not. All wireless data carriers are eying the telemetry market, and Aeris wants to up its offering in order to play in the upper levels of the game.
By incorporating VBurst-enabled mobile radio devices into utility usage meters, for instance, utility companies can monitor customer use and power quality at any time, as well as reconfigure the monitors remotely. Other applications include vending-machine monitoring, point of sale functions, supply chain management and more high-end alarm panels.
Rogers AT&T has begun VBurst field trials, and L.M. Ericsson has integrated the technology into its DM-10 and DM-20 mobile radios.