Robert Shaw: Wi-Fi

Meshed Wi-Fi

Thu, 22 May 2003 08:48:14 GMT

Stretching broadband with meshed WiFi. News on BPO Solutions launching its Meshhopper technology. [The Register]

Enter the MAN (802.16a) Haters

Fri, 11 Apr 2003 22:27:14 GMT

Enter the MAN Haters. Interesting different perspective on the 802.16a standard. Obviously much more here than meets the eye. [Unstrung]

Tutorials on OFDM

Fri, 11 Apr 2003 08:25:07 GMT

802.11 Planet as a couple of tutorials on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing: OFDM: Old Technology for New Markets and OFDM's New Uses.

WIMAX Forum

Thu, 10 Apr 2003 13:59:52 GMT

The purpose of the WiMAX Forum is to promote deployment of broadband wireless access networks by using a global standard and certifying interoperability of products and technologies. This includes:

Support IEEE 802.16 standard
Propose and promote access profiles for ther IEEE 802.16 standard
Certify interoperability levels both in network and the cell
Achieve global acceptance
Promote use of broadband wireless access overall

Also see this related article at 802.11 Planet.

Roaming between Wi-Fi and GSM Networks

Tue, 08 Apr 2003 09:43:44 GMT

The Register has a piece: Roaming from wireless LAN to phone network discussing that t-net, developer of the Swiss-based WeRoam service, got together with Transat and Performance Technologies to demonstrate (registration required) seamless roaming between Wi-Fi and GSM networks at the recent 3GSM Congress.

Wireless Frontier: the Phone

Mon, 07 Apr 2003 07:30:08 GMT

Silicon Valley Hikes Wireless Frontier ""People see the PC as played out, and they are looking for new technology platforms to build new businesses on...". "We're on the cusp of the mobile Internet experience, but the key is going to be making sure the technological architecture of this world is open" [New York Times: Technology]

More on Wireless Mesh Networks

Thu, 13 Feb 2003 10:07:03 GMT

Mesh Less Cost of Wireless: A group of wireless enthusiasts provide a town in western England with Internet access at a fraction of the usual cost. They use a device that supplies hundreds of users with broadband piped from a single connection. [Wired News]

Internet on Airplanes

Fri, 07 Feb 2003 11:55:12 GMT

Boeing's sky-high Net access takes off. [News.com] Also see previous articles "Wi-Fi in the Sky!" and "Mile-High Surfing".

Wireless Broadband, IEEE 802.16a & Mesh Networks

Fri, 31 Jan 2003 11:37:20 GMT

The IEEE has just announced it has approved the 802.16a extension to the 802.16 broadband wireless access (BWA) standard. See Roger Marks' tutorial on 802.16 (Zipped PowerPoint) to understand why this is important for providing broadband wireless access. 802.16a provides improved support for mesh networks, where each subscriber access point is also part of the routing infrastructure. For a general overview of the growing interest in non-line-of-sight wireless broadband systems, see the IEEE's Spectrum article: Wireless Broadband in a Box. For a more in-depth technical explanation with regard to mesh networks, see Dave Beyer's recent (November 2002) presentation on Wireless Mesh Networks for Residential Broadband (PDF), demonstrating some extremely important characteristics of mesh networks, namely:

mesh coverage and robustness improves exponentially as subscribers are added;
rapid area coverage with only a few subscribers (easy to seed);
increasing subscriber density increases overall network capacity.

Some earlier articles here on mesh networks can be found in "Cheap Wireless Mesh Networks", "Watch this airspace and parasitic networks" and "Seeding Mesh Networks".

Cheap Wireless Mesh Networks

Thu, 23 Jan 2003 11:08:36 GMT

Guy Kewney's Mobile Campaign has a fascinating article on Locustworld's affordable wireless mesh network solution, Meshbox. LinuxDevices.com has a primer explaining the MeshBox - a Linux-powered wireless mesh repeater by Jon Anderson, its creator. As Guy Kewney's article notes: "However, there are going to be some controversial areas in the Locustworld experiment. The cheekiest move was the setting up of an IP address numbering authority, WIANA, or The Wireless Internet Assigned Numbers Authority." Also see my earlier articles on wireless mesh/parasitic/symbiotic networks in Watch this airspace and parasitic networks and Seeding Mesh Networks.

Wi-Fi in the Sky!

Thu, 16 Jan 2003 14:30:43 GMT

In a follow-up to my earlier piece, it's finally available: Lufthansa is now offering onboard wireless broadband service on scheduled flights. They've started with the popular Frankfurt - Washington D.C. (Dulles) run. Lufthansa's press release announcing the service is here.

Wi-Fi spectrum battle pits antiterrorism efforts against commercial growth

Wed, 01 Jan 2003 13:35:05 GMT

[Computerworld] Wi-Fi spectrum battle pits antiterrorism efforts against commercial growth: "The U.S. position paper, submitted to the ITU at its November meeting in preparation for the ITU's World Radio Conference (WRC) in June, which will make the spectrum decisions, endorses a global allocation for WLANs in the 5.150-5.350 band as long as radars are protected by a technique know as Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS), which shuts down WLAN transmissions when a radar signal is detected."

Isochronous mesh networks

Thu, 25 Jul 2002 10:27:53 GMT

Talk about timely. CommsDesign has a recent piece on the development by Motorola of an "isochronous network, developed with input from Nintendo Co. Ltd., Sony Corp. and other game platform developers, [that] will be extended into other markets to serve as a "feeder" for future ad-hoc mesh-based piconets that use 802.11 wireless technology as their underlying infrastructure". Slashdot also has a related thread. Isochronous ad-hoc mesh-based piconets? Wow. This almost seems like it could have been generated by dack.com.

Seeding Mesh Networks

Thu, 25 Jul 2002 10:11:32 GMT

Last month, in Watch this airspace and parasitic networks, I flagged the emergence of mesh networks, where end user devices can also be routing devices. Wired Magazine has a short article: A New Spin on the Wireless Web this month and mentions the interesting start-up Mesh Networks. Mesh networks, where user devices and routing nodes can get co-mingled, might be an interesting twist on Metcalfe's law, which says the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users or nodes. Think about it. Where all user devices are also routing devices, it's pretty obvious that, at least for the beginning part of the 'S' innovation curve, the value of network externalities is even greater. This has some interesting implications for seeding 'core' networks by seeding the 'edges'. I'll have to think about that.

Doonesbury on Wi-Fi poaching

Mon, 22 Jul 2002 08:32:09 GMT

Doonesbury on Wi-Fi poaching.

Qualcomm readies 3G/802.11 combo

Fri, 19 Jul 2002 09:53:50 GMT

Silicon Strategies is reporting that CDMA chip specialist Qualcomm is planning to integrate 802.11b wireless LAN capabilities in its next generation of chip sets for third generation mobile communications.

Wi-Fi as a 'Promiscuous Technology'

Wed, 12 Jun 2002 07:57:45 GMT

Article on internetnews.com: "With 802.11a products due to hit the market soon and an 802.11g standard in the offing, a battle between the two standards for the mantle of successor to 802.11b would seem only natural. In the end, though, the 802.11 world might just be big enough for all three." and "Dennis Eaton, chairman of the 802.11 trade group Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA), said Wi-Fi was a 'promiscuous technology', outstripping even the most optimistic predictions."

Cheap Broadband?

Mon, 10 Jun 2002 08:03:03 GMT

2 Tinkerers Say They've Found a Cheap Way to Broadband. Etherlinx uses an inexpensive wireless standard to transmit Internet data. [New York Times: Technology]