Alcatel beefs up UMA security

French vendor Alcatel announced yesterday that it has selected security firm Netrake to provide its nCite Security Gateway technology for use in its UMA-based wireless Lan deployments.

The secure gateway will be implemented alongside Alcatel's Mobile NGN solution based on its 5020 Spatial Atrium multi-standard mobile call server/softswitch to provide secure access to GSM and GPRS mobile services over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) allows service providers to let subscribers roam and handover calls between cellular networks and public and private unlicensed wireless networks using dual-mode GSM/GPRS and UMA-enabled handsets or PDAs.

Netrake's nCite Security Gateway provides IPSec encryption as well as an enhanced suite of security features such as dynamic session security, IMSI filtering and blacklisting.

Analyst firm Frost & Sullivan noted earlier this week that, following successful trials of Wi-Fi/mobile phone convergence last year, services are likely to be rolled out commercially in 2006.