Conclusion

---

Before the introduction of the 802.11 series of standards, wireless local area networks (WLANs) were slow, expensive, proprietary, and were only deployed to support vertical market applications, i.e. sold as components of a specific solution to a specific problem where mobility was required. Shipping companies were the first to see the value of WLANs in warehouses; today, FedEx, which has extensive WLAN deployment throughout its global infrastructure, estimates its Wi-Fi-enabled workers are 30% more productive since they've been unleashed. The manufacturing sector also was among the first adopter group. This sector immediately saw WLANs as a way to help with inventory management; Wal-Mart uses WLANs for inventory and to connect pricing terminals. Hospitals and college campuses came next and it wasn't long before car rental companies used WLANs to connect portable check-in terminals to their back-office systems.

In each of these applications, the organization deployed the WLAN to support a specific application, not as a part of the general-purpose LAN infrastructure. But today's 802.11 (a, b, and g) networks are flexible wireless data communication systems that can be implemented as an extension to, or as an alternative for, a wired network. The current wireless landscape looks significantly different from that of yesteryear. WLANs are practical and cost-effective for almost any networking environment because a WLAN combines data connectivity with mobility delivering powerful results: the ability for end-users to communicate with a network at the point of activity.

At the beginning of 2003, almost 60% of all U.S. corporations, including all of the FORTUNE 1000, had at least a small-scale Wi-Fi network, and a few tech-savvy firms like Microsoft, Novell, and Qualcomm have deployed WLANs company-wide.

The speed and performance of 802.11b products make WLAN technology attractive, especially where a wired Ethernet installation is not feasible. And thanks to the recent dramatic drop in price for WLAN gear, SOHO (small office/home office) and mobile applications are also a possibility.

Another exciting event in the WLAN arena is that vendors across the board are designing and shipping innovative products. All the major enterprise infrastructure providers-Cisco, Enterasys Networks, Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks-have a wireless story to sell. Even more compelling, these products (1) are truly interoperable, (2) cost less, and (3) provide better performance than their predecessors. The quantum leaps made in all three areas make wireless LANs a viable technology for the masses. Never before has there been such a strong backing of wireless technology, feeding a growing momentum for everything wireless.

The Wi-Fi craze is also aided by new and better designed computing products, e.g. lighter, more portable notebooks, tablet computers, and PDAs like HP's iPAQ, to name a few. For stability and continuity, there is the Wi-Fi Alliance, a highly active group of vendors with a mission to guarantee interoperability across all 802.11 products. As for the broadband revolution, it's enabling the WISP (Wireless Internet Service providers) industry to provide low-cost wireless Internet access to the general public the world over through a new business model known as "HotSpots."

---