With interoperable products and a variety of form factors, wireless LANs are coming into the mainstream.
Is wireless as insecure as everyone says, and what can you do about it? And can it compete with wired Ethernet in cost or performance?
There are various new standards on the horizon that will take wireless networking off into the high-speed future.
As outlined in the original 802.11b specification, chip sets would use a modulation scheme known as Complementary Code Keying (CCK) to transmit data signals at 11 megabits-per-second (Mbps) using a slice of the spectrum around 2.4GHz.
When this specification was approved in 1999, the IEEE concurrently approved the specs for 802.11a. These chip sets are designed to use the OFDM (orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing) schema to transmit data at 54Mbps through a separate portion of spectrum around 5.8GHz.
Though offering terrific speed, 802.11a has its flaws. Since 802.11a transmits on the 5GHz band, it's not backwards compatible with the 2.4-GHz 802.11b, and it shares the same flawed WEP encryption algorithm used by 802.11b, so users will likely want to supply additional security of their own.
Finally, use of the 5GHz band means 802.11a's range, about 100 metres, is likely to degrade faster than 802.11b's when used in an office type environment.
On the other hand, 802.11a networks will not have the potential for interference from other 2.4GHz products such as microwaves, Bluetooth devices, and cordless phones.
Since then there has been some development in the area of higher speed transmission in the 2.4GHz spectrum. The mission of 802.11g was to boost the data transmission to the so-called "turbo" rates of 54Mbps while still maintaining interoperability with earlier specs.
This is a great boon for world markets, as 802.11a is currently only licensed for usage in North America as opposed to 802.11b which is accepted throughout Australia, Europe, and Asia as well.
Bridging
Several vendors, such as Waverider, offer specialised equipment to connect geographically separated networks. For instance, wireless links can connect networks in two separate buildings at speeds comparable to a fibre-optic link, and often at a substantially reduced cost--particularly where digging under a road would be involved.
However, 802.11 technology is perfectly capable of performing this task-as long as the software on the access point can handle it. Using specially built directional antennas, the range of 802.11 devices can be extended greatly--even over tens of kilometres in some cases. Groups all over the world are using this technique to build wide-area wireless networks.
Why use wireless?
There are many reasons to run a wireless component to your network:
- To set up a small short-term office that will only be in one place for a few days/weeks/ months.
- To set up a network in a Trust building where you can't punch holes in the wall to run cables.
- In the healthcare sector where doctors and nurses are moving from patient to patient and often need instant access to patient records.
- In a manufacturing or warehousing environment where there are large areas and a need for immediate stock assessment.
- Hot-desking for teams of transient staff.
- To share resources among a few scattered computers in the house without having to climb up in the roof or crawl under the floor.
- To set up a portable classroom of laptops in an academic institution, especially universities.
- In hotels, airport lounges, Internet cafes, or anywhere else you want to provide public access to a network.
