TABLE OF CONTENTS Wireless local area networks (short range broadband radio systems) are rapidly becoming a normal part of the communications access infrastructure. Demand for wireless local area network (LAN) products has grown dramatically over the last two years, and shows no sign of slowing. Indeed it is strengthened by the growth of laptops and personal mobility products. Business users now expect to be able to access the Internet and even their private corporate intranets through other wireless LAN networks. It is hard to remember that less than two years ago this technology was still viewed with some scepticism. Back in August 2001, BT's ability to provide a wireless LAN to support the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meeting in London won the acclaim Wow! from IETF [1]. BT continues to push ahead in this field with the launch of public wireless LAN hot-spots in the Openzone product [2] (this topic is discussed further in section 3.3.1). This technology and its rapid success presents service providers with incredible opportunities and challenges.
The aim of this chapter is to answer the following questions.
Why is this technology so successful?
What needs to be developed to maintain the successful growth in use of this technology?
The short answer to the first question is of course that the technology fulfils a real user need, at a cost the user can afford. The answer to the second question can only be derived through considering what other applications...
