Exploring the Wireless Lanscape

INDUSTRY TRENDS

The technologies are not well estab- lished yet, though, and they still face such Exploring challenges as high costs. Meanwhile, the market has not determined whether one or all of the technologies will succeed. the Wireless WIRELESS LAN TECHNOLOGIES Several companies developed wireless LAN technology about a decade ago. For example, said John Barr, Motorola’s LANscape director of systems architecture and tech- nology for PANs, Motorola developed Altair, one of the first commercial wire- Linda Dailey Paulson less LAN systems. Early wireless LANs were expensive, their data rates were low, they were raditionally, the word “net- prone to signal interference, and most of working” has evoked images of them were based on proprietary RF and yards of spaghetti-like wiring in infrared technologies. T walls, on floors, and hanging from the backs of computers IEEE 802.11b and peripherals. The recently adopted IEEE 802.11b is However, several trends in the com- the newest IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN puter industry are rapidly driving the standard. IEEE developed the 802.11 development and adoption of newer standards to provide an Ethernet-like wireless networking technologies, which wireless networking technology. link devices to each other and to corpo- The European Telecommunications rate LANs, primarily via radio-frequency Standards Institute (ETSI) is looking into (RF) technology. adopting IEEE 802.11 standards, which These trends include the increase in And another industry consortium has would enhance the technology’s interna- home networking; the rapidly growing developed Bluetooth, which many tional interoperability. use of networkable portable devices— experts consider to be wireless PAN (per- The technology. The technology permits such as smart phones, personal digital sonal area network) technology. (See the transmission speeds of up to 11 Mbits per assistants, and laptops—by a mobile sidebar “Bluetooth: The Wireless PAN.”) second, which makes it considerably work force; and the desire by companies Major vendors are beginning to faster than the original IEEE 802.11, to operate networks in historic, leased, develop products using these standards, which sends data at up to 2 Mbps, and a or temporary buildings in which wiring and a number of vendors are working bit faster even than standard Ethernet. is impractical, prohibited, or expensive. with more than one of the technologies. IEEE 802.11b permits devices to estab- Moreover, there is a demand for wire- And now, faster and otherwise lish either peer-to-peer networks or net- less networking by industries, such as improved versions of wireless LAN stan- works based on fixed access points with medicine, in which employees must com- dards are being prepared for release. which mobile nodes can communicate. municate with central networks but are “We’ve been touting wireless LANs IEEE 802.11 operates in the unlicensed too mobile to use wired devices. for six or seven years, and they just have 2.4-GHz so-called industrial, scientific, Meanwhile, improved radio and net- not taken off,” said Eric Thompson, and medical frequency band, which has working technologies have increased the senior analyst with the Gartner Group, become popular for worldwide wireless performance, reliability, and desirability a market research firm. communications because it is globally of wireless networking. However, said Peter Hortensius, direc- available. To maximize the usefulness of wireless tor of technology development for IBM’s On the physical layer, the original LANs, vendors want technology based personal system group, the IEEE 802.11 IEEE 802.11 uses either FHSS (fre- on open standards rather than on pro- standard, backed by established compa- quency-hopping spread spectrum) or prietary technologies, which have been nies, has begun to move wireless LANs DSSS (direct-sequence spread spectrum) used during the past 10 years. into the mainstream. Bluetooth and technologies. With this in mind, the IEEE and two HomeRF are following in a similar path, With both technologies, transmissions industry consortia have developed three he said. HiperLAN appears aimed prin- regularly shift frequencies, which reduces major wireless LAN standards: IEEE cipally at the high-end corporate market, interference and efficiently uses the avail- 802.11, HiperLAN, and HomeRF. primarily in Europe. able bandwidth. However, DSSS sends

12 Computer Bluetooth: The Wireless PAN Bluetooth has been one of the hottest Anders Edlund, Ericsson Mobile Edlund said Bluetooth functions over stories in computer technology, even Communication’s marketing director distances of 10 meters or 100 meters, though vendors have only just begun for Bluetooth, said “We don’t consider depending on the power of the radio releasing products. Bluetooth to be a wireless LAN. It is transceiver being used. The technology Ericsson developed the wireless net- more like a personal network.” permits net throughputs of up to 721 working technology in 1994 to replace Bluetooth personal area networks Kbps upstream and 56 Kbps downstream. the cables used to link computers and (PANs) link enabled devices—such as Bluetooth works with a wireless sys- telephones. The technology has garnered PCs, laptops, smart phones, and personal tem packed onto a chip that can be inte- strong industry support, with about digital assistants—into mininetworks via grated into computers, phones, and 2,000 companies, universities, and other radio signals operating in the 2.4-GHz other devices. organizations joining the Bluetooth spectrum. Bluetooth can also link Ericsson has released a wireless cellu- Special Interest Group (http://www. mininetworks to form a piconetwork. lar headset and two types of cellular bluetooth.com). And many vendors— However, the technology is primarily phones, all equipped with Bluetooth. including Intel, Lucent Technologies, and designed to replace wiring between Meanwhile, other vendors plan to Microsoft—have invested in the tech- devices that are close together, rather implement Bluetooth in their upcoming nology. than create data or voice networks. cellular phone releases.

transmissions over a wider channel (11 longer distances. However, wider chan- addition, DSSS uses more power and is MHz) than FHSS (1 MHz) and thus nels also mean that DSSS offers fewer more expensive to build. offers greater transmission speeds over potential channels and less scalability. In IEEE 802.11b uses complementary

October 2000 13 Industry Trends

Potential commercial applications of Key the high-speed technology include med- HiperLAN identifier Key HiperLAN ical imaging, video training, or remote key set identifier key set surveillance. Key Initialization Key However, HiperLAN has not hit the vector Initialization marketplace yet, as vendors have focused XOR XOR vector more on IEEE 802.11 thus far. Seed Seed “HiperLAN is fancy and it’s new,” Random Random said Barry Davis, strategic marketing Encrypted sequence XOR XOR sequence manager for wireless LAN operations at data generator generator Intel, “but products have never shipped.” Although HiperLAN has been seen as Data Encrypted Data Transmitter transmission Receiver primarily a technology for the European market, it can be used in other areas. For example, the US Federal Communica- Figure 1. In HiperLAN1’s implementation of wired equivalent privacy (WEP) cryptography, a ran- tions Commission (FCC) has allocated dom bit sequence called the initialization vector runs an XOR operation on the encryption key. spectrum for its use. The resulting value helps produce a stream cipher, which is used to encrypt the data. Packets— which include the key identifier, initialization vector, and data—are then sent to the recipient’s HomeRF system, where decryption takes place. HomeRF is based on the shared wire- less access protocol (SWAP), which the code-keying DSSS, which permits faster HiperLAN HomeRF Working Group (http://www. transmission speeds than the original ETSI developed the HiperLAN (high homerf.org) adopted in late 1998. DSSS used in IEEE 802.11. performance radio LAN) standard. The technology, including a faster For security, IEEE 802.11b supports The HiperLAN Alliance (http://www. Wideband HomeRF currently under authentication and encryption, including hiperlan.com) designed the initial version development, is designed for use primar- 128-bit wired equivalent privacy (WEP) of the technology, HiperLAN1; the ily in homes and small offices. cryptography. HiperLAN2 Global Forum (http://www. The technology. SWAP lets up to 127 The market. Apple Computer was the hiperlan2.com) is working on a faster PCs, peripherals, cordless telephones, first company to market IEEE 802.11b version. and other devices with a network stack systems, via its AirPort technology. Air- HiperLAN1 offers up to 23.5 Mbps share and communicate data. SWAP also Port is implemented via add-on cards throughput, the highest performance of permits up to six voice connections. and, in some cases, base stations that let today’s wireless LAN technologies. A HomeRF system can operate either up to 10 devices form networks. Other The technology. The keys to Hiper- as an ad hoc network of devices, which companies, including Cisco Systems and LAN’s high data rate include its efficient support only data communications, or as 3Com, also offer IEEE 802.11b prod- power amplifier and its use of the 5-GHz a managed network under the control of ucts, such as network cards and chips. frequency band. Within the 5-GHz a central connection point. For trans- Gartner’s Thompson predicts that most band, providers have larger frequency missions that won’t tolerate latency, such wireless LAN vendors will invest in 802. ranges and, therefore, higher bandwidth as voice communications, a connection 11-based technology. Corporate users like to work with than providers using tech- point is required to coordinate the sys- 802.11 because of its range, security, and nology in the 2.4-GHz band. tem. The connection point can also sup- reliability, he said. On the physical layer, HiperLAN1 uses port power management for prolonged In addition, IEEE 802.11 offers quality- Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying, a battery life by scheduling device wake- of-service capabilities, according to Barry robust technique for modulating data sig- up and polling. Davis, Intel’s strategic marketing man- nals by shifting transmitter frequencies. The radio in HomeRF systems has a ager for wireless LAN operations. HiperLAN1 supports quality of ser- power amplifier able to transmit at up to “The [big] advantage,” Thompson vice in some implementations. In addi- 100 milliwatts, which permits the tech- said, “is that it has a very strong push tion, the technology supports encryption, nology to operate over distances up to from the industry and is standards based. including the WEP algorithm, as shown about 45 meters. It’s absolutely brought vendors together in Figure 1. The market. HomeRF products have and given them a target for interoper- The market. HiperLAN offers great already been released, including Intel’s ability.” promise because of its high data rates, AnyPoint home networking system, as “It is a little more expensive than according to Jeff Orr, product manager well as Compaq Computer’s Symphony- some of the other wireless technologies for Proxim, a manufacturer of broad- HRF USB dongle, PC cards for note- today, but the price is coming down,” band wireless networking products and book computers, and PCI cards for PCs. he said. a member of the HiperLAN Alliance. Wideband HomeRF, with its 10-Mbps

14 Computer data rates, could be particularly appeal- adoption of wireless networking is that OFDM is a key component of IEEE ing in the residential marketplace. In the costs are still “too high relative to 802.11a and HiperLAN2, both of which corporate marketplace, however, it Ethernet,” explained Peter Rysavy, pres- are planned for release next year with would have to compete with faster ver- ident of Rysavy Research (http://www. throughputs of up to 54 Mbps. sions of other technologies. rysavy.com), a communications-technol- Meanwhile, the HomeRF Working ogy consultancy. Group plans to release a 10-Mbps ver- THE WIRELESS LAN’S FUTURE “The key new technology here is sion of its technology, called Wideband The widespread adoption of wireless OFDM (orthogonal frequency division HomeRF, early next year. A recent ruling LANs has been limited by such issues as multiplexing), which currently is expen- by the FCC will enable the use of wide- relatively low data rates and a lack of sive,” said Rysavy, “but vendors are band frequency-hopping systems in the quality-of-service capabilities in some likely to make large strides in reducing domestic 2.4-GHz frequency band. This technologies. product costs.” technology permits higher data rates by Interoperability is also a potential issue. Observers expect OFDM to be a key allowing more signal modulation within However, said Ben Manny, HomeRF component of next-generation, high- each frequency hop, thus using radio fre- Working Group chair and director of res- speed wireless networks. OFDM divides quencies more efficiently with less inter- idential wireless networking for Intel’s the available spectrum into multiple ference. Architecture Lab, “in the near future, transmission channels. The technology Indicating how the wireless LAN mar- you’ll start to see bridge products.” permits many channels and thus squeezes ket as a whole might grow, Figure 2 These products—such as Proxim’s considerable performance out of the shows that Gartner Group/Dataquest Harmony PC cards, access points, and spectrum. OFDM places channels very predicts that the worldwide revenue from access-point controllers—bridge LANs close together and positions adjacent sales of wireless NICs will increase from that use different technologies, such as channels orthogonal to each other to $187.9 million in 1998 to $648 million IEEE 802.11b and HomeRF. minimize interference that would other- in 2004, even as the average product The primary impediment to wider wise occur. price drops from $340.20 to $180.

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October 2000 15 Industry Trends

any industry observers say that 4,000 400 800 HomeRF will be used more in the M home and small office, while 3,500 350 700 IEEE 802.11 and HiperLAN will be used more in the enterprise. 3,000 300 600 However, Thompson said, as prices drop for IEEE 802.11, home-networking 2,500 250 500 users may well adopt this technology. In the long run, said IBM’s Hortensius, 2,000 200 400 “The dilemma is whether you need all three [wireless LAN] technologies, and 1,500 150 300 that’s what the marketplace will tell us.

Average price (US dollars) Average There are not enough products [now] to Unit shipments (thousands)

1,000 100 200 Revenue (millions of US dollars) decide. There could be a compelling case for all three, or just one or two.” ✸ 500 50 100 Linda Dailey Paulson is a freelance tech- 0 0 0 nology writer based in Ventura, California. 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Contact her at [email protected]. Source: Gartner Group/Dataquest

Editor: Lee Garber, Computer, 10662 Los Figure 2. Gartner Group/Dataquest predicts that the number of network interface cards sold Vaqueros Circle, PO Box 3014, Los Alamitos, and the worldwide revenue they generate will steadily increase through 2004, even though the CA 90720-1314; [email protected] average product price will steadily fall.

16 Computer