IP: The 'Wi-Fi' Route To the Internet

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

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From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>


 From Newsday --
<<http://www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-pitech2688922apr30.story>http://www.newsd
ay.com/mynews/ny-pitech2688922apr30.story>

MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS
The 'Wi-Fi' Route To the Internet
By Jon Van
CHICAGO TRIBUNE. The Chicago Tribune is a Tribune Co. newspaper.

CELL PHONE executives hype the arrival of their new "3G" networks, but a
lowly technology from the computer world has been steadily gaining
converts as an alternative path to the nirvana of high-speed mobile access
to the Internet.

The technology is known as "Wi-Fi," and it's the most popular method of
creating wireless networks in homes and businesses. For a few hundred
dollars, anyone can pick up the gear at a local computer store and have a
network running in a few hours.

Although cellular carriers are spending billions to build their high-speed
nationwide networks, Wi-Fi adherents point out that their off-the-shelf
technology is faster, cheaper and easier. But there's one important
caveat: Its range is only about 150 feet.

That might seem like a fatal flaw for a technology vying for a piece of
the grand wireless revolution - a movement built on the promise of
ubiquitous high-speed Internet access that works whether you're sitting in
an easy chair or riding a bullet train.

But as the revolution has gathered steam, the industry has begun to
realize that the nationwide reach of 3G networks is not really necessary
for everyone. What's important is to be able to connect in a few key
locations: home, office, airport, hotel and - why not? - the coffee shop.

Business campuses are embracing Wi-Fi networks, and even retailers are
installing local systems for customers' use while they shop. In many urban
areas, computer buffs can move from one Wi-Fi "hot spot" to another,
keeping their Web connectivity as they go.

"You can go to airports and other hot spots and be amazed at the
performance," said Adam Sewall, the former chief executive of wireless
gear maker Spectrum Wireless Inc., who now works at ComVentures, a venture
capital firm in Palo Alto, Calif.

Even wireless carriers forging ahead with their 3G plans are waking up to
the benefits of including Wi-Fi hot spots as part of their national
networks - not as a replacement but as a supplement.

At least two wireless carriers, VoiceStream and Sprint PCS, already have
invested in Wi-Fi firms. Most others have deals in the works.

Wi-Fi, short for "wireless fidelity" and also known by the techie moniker
802.11b, is the wireless version of the common Ethernet networks that link
computers in homes and corporate offices. The original selling point of
Wi-Fi when it was introduced several years ago was that it eliminated the
need to snake miles of wires throughout a building.

The earliest version of wireless Ethernet transmitted information at about
1 megabit per second - not particularly fast compared with the
100-megabits-per-second speeds of wired Ethernet. But today, Wi-Fi
transmits information at a respectable 11 megabits per second, and a
recently adopted standard, 802.11a, will bump speeds up to 54 megabits per
second.

Although still not up to wired speeds, Wi-Fi runs rings around 3G, short
for "third-generation" wireless technology. The advanced wireless networks
that carriers such as Verizon Wireless Inc., AT&T Wireless Services Inc.
and Sprint PCS Group Inc. are bringing out this year deliver speeds of 60
to 120 kilobits per second.

Wi-Fi is so cheap and easy to set up that it has sparked a kind of
populist movement. Wireless hot spots are popping up in all sorts of
places, creating a pseudo sense of ubiquity in some densely populated
urban areas.

But out in the suburbs, countryside or even in big buildings, Wi-Fi begins
to lose its luster.

Russ Intravartolo, chief executive of StarNet Inc., an Internet service
provider based in Palatine, Ill., said his firm is expanding its wireless
high-speed Internet service to customers in Chicago's northwestern
suburbs. StarNet recently began using Wi-Fi to put wireless LANs, or local
area networks, into apartment complexes and discovered the difficulties
inherent in the technology.

"Bringing in the signal into a development and then distributing it to
everyone can be a struggle," he said. "We have this 14-story condo where
we're trying to serve the residents with a wireless LAN, but we find it
won't work from one floor to the other. Even when you install a wireless
LAN for one floor, it may not propagate everywhere you want to reach."
These difficulties with Wi-Fi's low-powered radio technology probably will
ensure that the higher-powered signals of 3G will find a significant mass
market, said Annabel Z. Dodd, author of "The Essential Guide to
Telecommunications." "In the end, I'd say Wi-Fi is complementary to 3G
wireless," she said.

A San Diego bus, or electrical pathway along which signals are sent, that
marries 3G and Wi-Fi may provide a glimpse of this hybrid future.

Operating on the campus of the University of California, San Diego, the
bus is connected to the Internet via an advanced 3G network providing
speeds of 2.4 megabits per second. Riders on the "Cybershuttle" access the
network through a standard Wi-Fi network set up inside the bus, which is
essentially a rolling hot spot.

"It's like a mobile version of a cable modem," said Ramesh Rao, director
of UCSD's advanced Internet division.

Although it has many advantages, Wi-Fi could become a victim of its own
success. It uses unlicensed segments of radio spectrum that are shared by
many sorts of devices, including some kinds of cordless phones. More
applications for the same spectrum are in the works, said Roger Marks, who
chairs a standards committee for the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers.

"There are so many products that want into the band that there are a lot
of concerns about the coexistence problem," Marks said. "It's hard because
no one has a clear answer. There's always a scenario how these things can
interfere with each other and scenarios where they don't. But no one knows
for sure."



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