A look at the wireless technologies available now and coming soon..

Already many enterprises make use of at least five wireless networking technologies. Consider the average mobile worker equipped with a cellular phone, this alone probably utilizes three wireless technologies, GSM, GPRS and Bluetooth. Their laptop most likely has built in wireless LAN access over WiFi and if they work away from any office infrastructure they may even be provided with a 3G data card. If they use a car as part of their work the chances are this will contain a Navigation system based on the GPS standard.  So, that is already six wireless technologies and that does not include others which might be in use within the organization such as RFID tags, DECT portable phones, or many of the new wireless services which are coming to the market.

Market indicators are that the success of WiFi will soon be overshadowed, literally, by the arrival of WiMax in many metropolitan areas. Alongside this, cellular services are already being enhanced to increase the speed of data transfers; GPRS is being enhanced with EDGE and 3G with high-speed download and upload capabilities called HSDPA and HSUPA. At the individual level Personal Area Networking (PAN) capabilities are soon to see significant improvements from the introduction of Ultra Wideband (UWB) products.
If your organization is already deploying some of these technologies then you might well recognize some of the alphabet-soup of technologies named so far, but if you don’t, lets spend a little time talking about what they are and how they might be used.

WiMax is an acronym of Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access and the technology is a metropolitan area network (MAN) which promises a wireless access range of up to 31 miles, compared with WiFi’s 300 feet and Bluetooth’s 30 feet. As such it offers the capability to extend broadband wireless connectivity to new locations and over longer distances, as well as significantly reducing the cost of bringing broadband to new areas. Anyone who has been waiting for their local exchange to be equipped with ADSL broadband may well find that they can soon get a fast, reliable WiMax service to meet their needs.  But as well as delivering data to remote, fixed locations, one variant of WiMax is specifically targeted at delivering a mobile service. Some UK local authorities are already piloting the use of WiMax to move data around the organization, with one city council currently developing the ability to stream video from wireless CCTV security cameras to council workers and the Police to enable them to identify and respond to problems. Elsewhere, WiMax services are already being launched as a competitive alternative to wired services.

In Westminster a London based company has launch the UK’s first true commercial WiMAX and already over 250 businesses in London are connected and test-driving the high speed wireless connection.
For those who have hitherto been disappointed by the price performance of 3G cellular will be pleased that carriers are currently rolling out some new services which will provide users with a higher speed data connection, as well as delivering data at more cost-effective bit rates. The new 3G overlay technology is called High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) which is an improvement to the WCDMA standard. In technical terms it boosts speed and reduces latency which basically means that more people can get their data faster, initially providing real-world speeds of 400K bit/sec. to 600K bit/sec., with theoretical peak speeds of 14.4M bit/sec.

HSDPA should provide carriers with the ability to provide greater user capacity. By making more efficient use of the existing network, it allows them to deliver a higher speed data rates to more users within the same cell. By boosting throughput HSDPA should deliver a better experience to end users, and in the background the carriers are gaining advantage from lower operating costs. How those cost reductions will be reflected in data tariffs is open to speculation.

Initial launches of HSDPA focused on enterprise customers via PC cards, and targeting those which have already invested in the earlier 3G business services. Not surprisingly carriers are deploying HSDPA very fast in order to reduce the competitive threat of other next-generation networks, including WiMax. In the longer term mobile handsets will increasingly become available, with consumers being able to benefit from faster data speeds in order to download applications such as video and music at much faster rates than 3G will ever provide.

HSDPA is now widespread and will soon be followed by HSUPA, the U stands for Uplink, and it is the method by which the carriers will to increase upload speeds of 3G networks. While most communicating  applications, such as web surfing, music and video downloads, and e-mail, rely heavily on downlink speeds, applications such as IP telephony and video conferencing also require fast upload speeds and HSUPA should provide the required bandwidth to make those applications work effectively.

Some people refer to HADPA/HSUPA as 4G (4th Generation) technology, but as it is a modification and therefore maturing of the 3G standard, as opposed to a complete replacement, it is more commonly, and properly known as 3.5G.
Until now Bluetooth has provided the most common type of Personal Area Networks where cables are being replaced by radio communications. A new range of technologies collectively known as Ultra Wide Band (UWB) will soon deliver significant improvements on the speed and capabilities. UWB is so called because it is capable of transmitting large amounts of digital data over a wide spectrum of frequency bands across relatively short distances. It also has the potential to operate at enormous speeds of 110 Mbps at a range of up to 10 meters compared with Bluetooth’s peak data rate of 3Mbps over the same distance.

The promise of UWB is that it will deliver a “World without Wires” allowing people to “unwire” their lives in new and unexpected ways. For example, when a worker puts their mobile PC on a desk they might be instantly connected to printers, scanners and other peripherals including a Voice over IP (VoIP) headset, instead of having to connect today’s spaghetti of cables. Or a laptop user could wirelessly connect to a digital projector in a conference room to deliver a presentation. UWB will also provide benefits in the home where the components for an entire entertainment centre could be set up and connected to each other without a single wire.
These are just a few examples of wireless network technologies, some of which are already in common use, and have increased the number of wireless technologies which must be managed within an organization.

As usual the question for all organizations is the same, “Where are the effective and appropriate uses for each technology to support the needs of the enterprise?” Likewise the considerations of complexity, user training, security, cost, and lifespan are all important, as is the one issue common to all wireless technologies – interference. I shall address that question in my next post.