Wireless Technologies Landscape

In the wireless world, aside from cellular technologies, myriad wireless technologies have emerged and matured. At the eve of the new millennium, “ wireless ” typically referred to the use of cell phones. After only a few years, the dramatic growth of new wireless communication and computing technologies has fundamentally changed our perception of wireless technologies. This section discusses these technologies from an overall perspective. Once again, the emphasis of the discussion is on mobile data access in the greater domain of mobile computing, rather than on wireless communication. The picture depicts the landscape of existing and emerging wireless technologies with respect to two signifi cant characteristics pertaining to mobile computing: data rate and signal transmission range. As the fi gure suggests, cellular systems are positioned in a grid of low data rate and high signal range. Wireless LANs (the 802.11 family) provide medium and high data rates in a local area range. Within the body area network (BAN)/ personal area network (PAN) range, UWB is expected to supply a quite high data rate, whereas Bluetooth, ZigBee, and infrared fall into the low data rate range. For PTP and multipoint wireless communications, 802.16a and 802.16e offer a high data range for communication over a metropolitan area network (MAN). A broad set of applications has been created to make use of the data rates in each range for various cases where wireless communication is preferred.

Source of Information : Elsevier Wireless Networking Complete 2010