Introduction

The wireless industry, like many other sectors of Information Technology, is advancing at a rapid pace. Driving forces of this advancement are the protocols and standards that provide more and more bandwidth, as well as the convergence of data, voice, and video within a network. This chapter will present the various forms of emerging wireless communication from a service provider perspective, all the way down to the home networking environment. In covering wireless technology from the perspective of the service provider, we ll be discussing Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS), Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS), and Wireless Local Loop (WLL); in covering wireless technologies for the home and enterprise network, we will discuss wireless local area networks (WLANs) and the 802.11 protocol suite. The three primary areas of discussion are fixed wireless, mobile wireless, and optical wireless technology.

We have provided generic architectures under each of these wireless technologies to help you understand their evolution. We also provide a brief overview of why these technologies were developed (that is, the market that they serve), and what new capabilities they will provide. The intention is to provide an overview of the direction of wireless technology. When designing a network, you need to know what functionality is available currently and in the future to make longer term plans.

However, before we dive into emerging technologies, let s define what wireless means in the context of this chapter. In earlier chapters, a basic understanding of wireless technology was introduced in...