Nokia's IP VPN specifically provides secure connectivity possibilities to Symbian OS-based devices. The IP VPN platform consists of gateways (multiple gateways are offered, primarily differing in bandwidth and capacity), the VPN client that resides on the Symbian devices themselves, and central management software allowing for the management of client VPN settings and policy upgrade distributions.

Based on their "Meta-Hop" technology, Nokia bills their VPN platform as "Self-Learning," and "Self-Healing." Self-learning, in that the technology is able to automatically recognize new application servers or subnets (when a new app server or subnet is added to the LAN, the availability of these new resources is automatically updated to all VPN gateways); and self-healing, in that if a traffic path between two VPN points fails, the technology is able to reroute the traffic around the problem automatically--while maintining IPSec connectivity--without requiring IT intervention. A further feature--IP Clustering--allows multiple gateways to be combined into a cluster such that VPN sessions are automatically dynamically load balanced across the gateways.

The IP VPN supports AES/DES/3DES encrypted connections, SHA-1/MD5 data verification, and both legacy and PKI-based authentication schemes.

As mentioned earlier, the IP VPN gateways are offered in several sizes, primarily depending on overall capacity/bandwidth needs:

- Nokia 100i: Targeted to mid to large-size offices, and supporting 310 Mbps VPN performance (AES-256, SHA-1)

- Nokia 50i: for branch enterprise offices (125 Mbps VPN)

- Nokia 10i: for small, remote offices (75 Mbps VPN)

- Nokia 5i: for small broadband-based offices (75 Mbps)

Performance for the 10i, 50i, and 100i gateways can be improved by combining multiple gateways via the aforementioned IP clustering capabilities.

On the client side, the Nokia Mobile VPN Client provides the Symbian-based end user with the capability to connect with the corporate LAN, providing the user with the ability to authenticate themselves and automatically establishing the secure encrypted communications tunnel.

The Nokia VPN Manager works with the vendor's Security Service Manager to allow automated centralized provisioning of end user VPN settings, policy updates, and certificate enrollments.

The Nokia IP VPN is expected to be available in February of 2005, with a base price of $395. Contact Nokia for further information.