8.1 Introduction and Scene Setting

This chapter describes wireless technologies that can be used for carrying IP data. UMTS is one of these technologies; it has had a high profile due to the cost of its licences but is also another technology that may change the shape of the Internet with its ability to bring IP applications to potentially billions of mobile terminals. Other wireless technologies with a potential to change our lives are wireless LAN and Bluetooth wireless LAN may free many users from plumbing their offices and homes with cables, while Bluetooth will enable a new type of data network, a data network for our personal space.

The chapter gives the reader a useful insight into these upcoming wireless technologies, several of which exist depending upon the application and the nature of the telecommunications carrier implementing them. On the one hand, wireless systems can be used to provide mobility, getting rid of the link with a fixed location. On the other hand, wireless systems can be used by a telecommunications carrier as part of its infrastructure when it is more convenient or cheaper to set up a wireless network instead of a wired one. The following three types of wireless system are investigated here:

• cellular systems which provide users with mobility based on a mobile-enabled network;

• cordless systems which provide in-building coverage as a short range wireless extension to a fixed network with cordless systems, users enjoy...