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The growing demand of wireless connectivity has transcended itself as the
primary driver for the phenomenal growth of the wireless local area network
(LAN) hardware industry. The number of hardware chipsets shipped across the
industry has risen ten-fold over the last seven years. Recent trends in the
industry show an exponential rise in penetration of wireless networks across
various environments such as work, home, coffee shops, and hotels.
The exponential increase in the number of users connecting their notebooks to
wireless networks in different environments has fueled the need for efficient
network access technologies. To currently address this goal, Wi-Fi has been the
most commonly used technology in laptops and network access devices such as
routers and cable modems.
Till now, the most popular of access technologies has been the Wi-Fi or the
ieee 802.11 a/b/g standards. With a maximum throughput of 54 Mbps covering a
range of less than 100 mt, the existing Wi-Fi standard, 802.11g, has cleanly
paved the way for new technologies, which promise to provide a ten-fold increase
in performance.
With next generation wireless technologies looming over the horizon, it has
become increasingly hard for legacy technologies to accurately address current
user requirements. Also, the industry is equally keen on adopting emerging
wireless technologies.
In order to address this problem, the Wi-Fi Alliance recently showcased the
newer and robust version of their standard802.11n. The new wireless standard
promises to deliver high data rates with increased mobility. Essentially, the
ieee 802.11n standard was developed with heightened focus on increasing the data
throughput in WLAN to 600 Mbps, which is more than ten times the speed of the
previous standard802.11g.
Built on the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technology and
by increasing the channel spectrum from 20-40 MHz, the standard has been devised
to achieve higher throughputs suitable for enterprise customers. Toward
increasing channel utilization, the standard employs medium access control (MAC)
aggregation techniques.
With Mimo delivering spatial diversity and spatial multiplexing, 802.11n can
be expected to provide increased throughput and range for dynamic enterprise
conditions.
Although the new standard is very attractive, most enterprises are still
seeking ideal methods to generate increased throughput, reliability, and range,
without compromising their existing wireless LANs.
With the tremendous need for minimal overhaul of enterprises wired and
wireless LANs, the onus on Wi-Fi developers to provide maximum technical
capabilities, coupled with easier migration, is huge. The final revisions to
802.11n are very likely to happen this year. That accomplished, we can soon
expect certifications of interoperability in 802.11n standard products. However,
for small and medium businesses (SMBs), there are certain considerations that
need to be ascertained before scaling from 802.11g to the new standard.
Enterprises need to first understand their requirements for the level of
scalability and capacity desired. In the case of large enterprises, 802.11n
could most certainly define the future trend in workplace mobility
infrastructure.
Arun Nirmal
The author is research analyst, Technical Insights, ICT Practice at Frost &
Sullivan
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in
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