Working Without Wires

Office workers get mobility

By Tamara L. Cravit

Wireless networking is poised to revolutionize the way computer networks are deployed and used. A study by the Strategis Group predicts that expenditures for wireless networking will grow by 140 percent annually for at least the next five years.

Worldwide wireless local area network equipment revenue jumped 80 percent in 2000, breaking the $1 billion mark. According to one industry report, by the time 2005 ends, the market will be well beyond this mark, approaching $3.2 billion.

Wireless networks are not without their challenges, though. Can your business benefit from a wireless network?

Current wireless networking technology falls into one of two types. The most common technology today enables parts of a local area network, or LAN, to be wireless. Less common is broadband wireless, which replaces a DSL or other Internet connection with wireless.

Wireless LANs

Wireless LANs are found today in many offices. They’re cheap, easy to install and provide reasonable performance. The technology is available from a variety of vendors, including Lucent, Cisco, 3COM and Intel. The bandwidth delivered, 1 to 11 megabits per second, is about 10 times slower than a conventional LAN.

A typical wireless LAN installation requires one or more wireless “access points,” radio transmitters that connect wireless users to the network. An access point costs between $500 and $1,200 and has a range of 200 to 800 feet.

Each user must also have a wireless network card–typically a PCMCIA card–which costs around $150 to $250.

Santa Barbara Technology Group is one company using a wireless LAN. SBTG deployed a wireless network using Lucent's Orinoco wireless hardware to supplement its 100 megabit-per-second switched LAN. A single Orinoco access point on a shelf in SBTG’s server room provides 5.5 megabit-per-second connectivity to mobile users within the building.

“I believe wireless LANs are here to stay,” said Larry Green, SBTG’s chief technology officer. Green, who’s been developing computer networks for more than 30 years, believes that the role of wireless networks is to supplement rather than replace traditional networks.

“To me, mobility is the excuse for wireless,” Green said, adding he sees wireless as a convenient tool to provide e-mail and basic network services to laptop users who need to be able to move within a building or campus.

Green was quick to point out that the current bandwidth of wireless network technology makes it unsuitable for large file transfers. “You’ll wish you had an Ethernet connection,” he said.

David Grant, President and CTO of Lanspeed Systems, a Santa Barbara provider of wireless LAN solutions, agrees.

“I wouldn’t set up a purely wireless network because it’s not fast enough,” Grant explained. “I’d augment a hard-wired LAN with wireless…in applications which require mobility.”

Wireless Internet

A revolution is quietly taking shape in another area of wireless network technology–broadband Internet access. It’s now possible to obtain high-bandwidth wireless connections to the Internet.

SkyPipeline, an ISP located in Santa Barbara, is one local provider of broadband wireless connectivity. Jim Senske, co-founder of SkyPipeline, sees broadband wireless as an affordable alternative to more traditional Frame Relay and DSL services.

SkyPipeline offers connections comparable in speed to DSL and T-1 (1.5 megabits per second), frame relay services for between $175 and $500 per month. The radio transmitter that enables this connectivity costs around $500.

The primary limitation of wireless Internet is that each user requires a direct line-of-sight path to the wireless base station. SkyPipeline has one base station located atop Gibraltar Peak, and is eyeing other sights around the tri-counties to increase their coverage and reliability.

Senske sees a promising market for broadband wireless connectivity, especially for users who can’t get more traditional broadband network connections.

“Forty percent of people that came to us looking for DSL did not qualify (for the service),” Senske said. “That’s what prompted us to look for a solution for them.”

Some, such as SBTG’s Green, point out that the current limitations of broadband wireless technology make it impractical for users needing very fast connections.

“Fiber is how you get bandwidth these days,” Green stated. “I don’t think you can cram as much data down wireless as fiber, and I don’t think you’d want to.”

Emerging Technologies Changing the Landscape

As with most of the high-tech industry, the wireless landscape is in constant change. New technologies are emerging, which will allow both wireless LAN and Internet access to provide ever-increasing bandwidth and reliability. As the technology continues to develop and mature, more and more people and companies are likely to adopt a wireless solution.

“Five or 10 years from now, I think many of us will wonder how we ever survived being continually tethered to our desktops,” said Dr. Elizabeth Royer, professor of computer science at UCSB. Royer focuses her research on the technical problems associated with wireless networks.

But bandwidth isn’t the only problem with wireless, Royer said.

“Battery life is also a problem,” she noted. “The power needed to transmit over radio channels is…significant.” Royer expects substantial progress in the wireless industry towards solving these technical problems. “We will begin to see some improvement soon.”

Senske agrees. “It’s hard to keep up with how quickly the technology is evolving,” he said. “It’s definitely going to explode over the next year.”

Despite the growing popularity of wireless technology, experts aren’t predicting the death of conventional networks. “It’s hard for me to imagine a company being 100 percent wireless,” Grant said. “I don’t see the advantages (of conventional networks) going away.”

There are definite advantages to wireless technology, both for LANs and broadband connectivity. The limitations of today’s technology need to be kept in mind when choosing a solution, but wireless is an affordable and cost-effective option for many businesses.

Tamara L. Cravit is a software developer and partner of Taylored Software, a Buellton firm providing custom Web and business software development services. She can be reached by e-mail at tcravit@taylored-software.com, or on the Web at http://www.taylored-software.com/

“Mobility is the excuse for wireless.”

—Larry Green