The future of wireless

[nodle]

Where do you see wireless technology going? I see more and more citys doing a web canopy system more and more these day. One day I am sure they will mabe the whole globe using a grid system, either with satellites or with something in the ionsphere (can you say haarp? :wink: ) But I see one day being able to stand anywhere on the globe and using your PDA or you laptop not having to worry about finding a access point. But then what company will run the internet? I think you will see smaller companies merge with larger ones, just as they do today. Or will you see the goverment step in and take control of it? Maybe a ip. address per person to keep track of it? Kinda like a social security card? Anyways let's see your input on this, I am just kinda going off here because I have had to much coffee this morning :-D

 

[C Pav]

Too much coffee now that I don't work with you anymore. Damn you. Kidding.

I see wireless going like you say where they canopy the whole city or area. I just am not sure how fast wireless can actually get.

 

[nodle]

I see there up to 802.11n now.

802.11n

In January 2004 IEEE announced that it had formed a new 802.11 Task Group (TGn) to develop a new amendment to the 802.11 standard for wireless local-area networks. The real data throughput is estimated to reach a theoretical 540 Mbit/s (which may require an even higher raw data rate at the physical layer), and should be up to 100 times faster than 802.11b, and well over 10 times faster than 802.11a or 802.11g. It is projected that 802.11n will also offer a better operating distance than current networks.

 

[nodle]

http://www.ieee802.org/11/802.11_Timelines.htm

 

[nodle]

A little update to my thinking thanks to more coffee. If the wireless would every go worldwide, could you imagine the type of security that you would need? Bye bye WEP,WPA, etc. With all that info going around you would need some heavy security. :smt104

 

[ndboarder]

I can see the possibility of wireless eventually being everywhere, but there is a lot of concerns in that area. For one, look at cell phones, they aren't quite everywhere and there are still some issues there. The main concern is of course security, which as admin mentioned would need to be far superior to anything currently available.

Another large hurdle that needs to be addressed is the ability to seamlessly go from switch connectivity from one wireless node to the next (unless it's all satellite in which case the change wouldn't happen as often).

One town near here just put in a wireless mesh system and they are already having problems with the bridges they ordered to install in homes.

At one time I worked for a small company putting mesh nodes into hotels, hospitals, etc. and we put in a bid to do a city wide network and the ability to seamlessly move from node to node was one of the cities primary concerns because of the plans they had for police officers and subscribers driving in town.

I'm sure we'll eventually get there, but wireless technology needs to evolve quite a bit before it is ready.

 

[nodle]

Good write-up ndboarder. I agree with you, if you think about how long wireless has been around its not all that long. It will be interesting to see what the future brings.