IdleAire is a Knoxville, Tennessee-based company that is revolutionizing travel centers across the United States with its patented "advanced truck stop electrification," or ATE, system.

Long-haul trucks are required by law to be parked for eight hours after driving for ten, and keeping the truck idling to provide heat or air conditioning produces both noise and pollution and is uncomfortable for drivers. IdleAire's system provides computer-controlled heat and air conditioning, communications and entertainment packages, and electrical shore power inside and outside of a truck and can be deployed wherever these vehicles park for extended periods.

The self-contained solutionallows drivers to turn off their engines while they rest or wait to load and unload, thereby eliminating diesel idling emissions, saving fuel, and improving driver comfort.

Drivers park in designated spaces, and place a service module in the passenger window. The module is connected to a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) unit located on an overhead truss. Once hooked up, the unit provides airflow throughout the cab and a touch screen display for system operation, Internet access, and more.

Today IdleAire unveiled plans to roll out wireless local area network (WLAN) hotspots across America's highway system alongside its current wired offering. News@Cisco spoke with IdleAire's president and CEO, Michael Crabtree, about the WLAN deployment and how it complements the company's primary business.

What is IdleAire's primary target market?

Michael Crabtree: Anywhere long-haul trucks congregate and their engines idle for extended periods of time. That includes travel and service plazas, distribution centers, border crossings, seaports, and other locations. Our initial deployment targets are travel centers (truck stops) and Interstate service plazas, which we estimate account for about 272,000 parking spaces. We believe there are approximately 1.3 million long-haul trucks with sleeper cabs using these spaces daily.

High-speed Internet access is something truck drivers can really use while they wait between driving shifts. They can communicate with the fleet dispatcher, e-mail loved ones, take required training courses online, or just surf the Web for entertainment. It's a secondary revenue stream for IdleAire and provides a service that truck drivers really appreciate.

With today's announcement you are expanding your services to include wireless Internet access. To whom will you market this service? Michael Crabtree: The service will be targeted both to long-haul truckers who just want the convenience of wireless, and to other traveling professionals, primarily in sales, who have laptops and wireless LAN cards.

Today's professionals need to be mobile but also must have reliable access to their company's network. By offering wireless hotspots at locations a salesperson or other mobile professional is likely to visit anyway - for gas, supplies, or a rest stop - we can help enhance their efficiency and productivity.

What made you decide to offer a WLAN service?

Michael Crabtree: It's just good business. First, we're leveraging the locations we currently have across the country. By providing hotspots along with our primary truck stop electrification service, we can attract a new range of customers, including the mobile business users. A high-speed wireless LAN is easy to add because the necessary telecommunictions infrastructure exists and is integral to the IdleAire system, which includes wired high-speed Internet and satellite television. Wireless technology offers a dependable, high-quality platform, and this Cisco Aironet WLAN deployment gives us an additional service and revenue stream with relatively little effort.

What is the WLAN deployment schedule?

Michael Crabtree: The first deployment phase will target 200 of the travel centers that have already signed agreements for deployment of IdleAire's ATE technology. Completion of the first phase is expected in 90 days, but there will be more than 50 IdleAire wireless locations in 35 states within the next 30 days.

of interest to IdleAire, and our goal isto establish a presence at all of them over the next two to four years. Because most truck stops are located in remote areas outside of major cities, we are uniquely positioned to bring high-speed Internet access to areas where it was previously unavailable.

What were the primary factors that led you to partner with Cisco?

Michael Crabtree: We originally selected Cisco for our wide area network that interconnects our ATE locations, which includes wired high-speed access, video-on-demand, etc. Our engineers had a long history operating Cisco equipment and are confident with Cisco's performance, reliability and scalability. With the Cisco infrastructure already in place, it was easy to extend the Cisco solutions for our wireless deployment. We also liked the security features of the Cisco wireless solution. Cisco is a solid named backed by a solid, proven support structure. Source: Cisco Systems