Published on the 09/07/2003 | Written by Keith Newman
Everything you ever wanted to know about the latest communications revolution. Keith Newman answers the WiFi FAQ’s…
Wifi – allowing workers to embrace mobility and escape the constriction of cables for freedom in their offices and beyond. So what’s it all about, how does it work, and where can use it? The WiFi option, like its HiFi broadcast radio equivalent, is enabling workers to remain in touch with their network connection, or at least access email and the web, as long as they’re within a coverage area. For most that means freedom within the office but as WiFi nodes proliferate, that liberty is increasingly being offered in cafes, airports and shopping malls – well beyond the walls of the traditional workplace.
How it works
WiFi – wireless fidelity – is mainly centred around the 802.11b standard using the unlicensed 2.4GHz band to transmit data across the radio spectrum normally occupied by cordless phones, garage door openers and a growing number of Bluetooth products designed for device connectivity.
A transmitting antenna, usually linked to a DSL or high-speed land-based internet connection, uses radio waves to beam signals to PCs, laptops, PDAs and mobile devices. A client antenna, a PC card ( PCI or USB connected), removable PCMCIA card or chip embedded into the remote device, picks up the signal.
The client device can receive strong signal within a 100 metre range of the transmitter. The further from the signal the slower the data rate – although additional transmitters can boost that rate.
Early mover technology scoping
According Jupiter Research (March 2003) an estimated 57 percent of US companies support 802.11 networks and another 22 percent plan to head there within the next year. Small businesses are leading the way, but only marginally, as to date the obstacle for large businesses adopting the technology has been security (more on that later).
In New Zealand there’s been growing interest in dumping wires with businesses embarking on controlled projects to prove the value and likely return on investment. Often a department, will be singled out and equipped with mobile devices and the appropriate software to monitor inventory, manage warehouses or remain in touch with essential data, while moving around large buildings.
WiFi is meeting a long overdue demand in the office environment where cabling and re-cabling to accommodate shifting seating arrangements or company growth is not only inconvenient but expensive. Initially installing a WiFi network in an office building or warehouse was a complex business, possibly requiring software development to integrate with existing technology and testing and site surveys to ensure optimal coverage.
There are still issues in areas where there is electrical interference, metal shelving or concrete walls but typically the components are simpler to install. In fact many laptops now come standard with a WiFi card and the network components are available off-the-shelf. All you need is a little in-house expertise to achieve plug ‘n play connectivity at access speeds of up to 11Mbit/sec.
Stronger security
This rapidly evolving area of WiFi has had some bad press because of security holes in 802.11. Fears were fueled by an underground movement ‘war chalking’ symbols on footpaths or walls indicating insecure networks. In simple terms this meant that somebody standing outside your business with a WiFi capable device would have open slather access to your bandwidth.
However with growing awareness of the problems, industry players, standards bodies and IT managers are overcoming the obstacles, taking WiFi closer to the mainstream. For example the WiFi Alliance supports the new WiFi Protected Access (WPA) standard to replace the insecure WEP (wired equivalent privacy) protocol. This is an interim measure to deter crackers until the full-blown 802.11i protocol is available, possibly before the end of 2003.
A new 802.11g WiFi standard is also expected to be certified later this year, effectively increasing the amount of data that can be transmitted (up to 54Mbit/sec), making it much easier for subscribers to work with multimedia content.
Price dropping as market grows
Major manufacturers of WiFi technology include 3Com, Cisco, D-Link, and Netgear. Prices continue to fall and even Microsoft is getting in on the game making its own wireless routers, access points, and PC cards.
While many laptops are already coming out with WiFi chips on board, Intel threw its weight behind the shift in March promising to outfit millions of laptops with its Centrino chips, which contain a built-in WiFi transceiver with longer battery life than its rivals.
Its estimated about 35 per cent of all laptops – about 7.7 million – will be wireless enabled out of the box this year, rising to 60 per cent next year and 90 per cent by 2005.
Meanwhile wireless networking cards are selling for as low as $150 – $400 depending on brand and breed, with access points or transmitters available for around $300.
For the home user one card linked to a transmitter, in turn linked to your DSL router, could give you freedom to sit in the lounge or out on your deck with your laptop accessing the internet or files off another PC. Two PCs or laptops could speak to each other without a central access device in peer-to-peer mode but if you want to expand to multiple devices you need that central node.
You can then move two or more laptops or PCs to a remote location and keep them connected without cumbersome cable. With a Bluetooth dongle on a printer or other mobile devices, remote printing or squirting data between PDAs or phones can be enabled within 10 metres distance.
Bluetooth is rapidly gaining greater credibility as 3Com, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Lucent, Motorola, Nokia and Toshiba begin embedding the capability in hardware they manufacture.
Wide area WiFi
Outside the office WiFi is finding its niche as a variety of operating models are explored around New Zealand with cafes, hotels, airports and other public outlets keen to provide ‘hotspots’ where laptop users can have wireless internet access or link to workplace networks.
By 2006, research firm Gartner expects 99 million WiFi users and 89,000 public WiFi access points around the world. Starbucks has already WiFi’d 2000 coffee shops in the US and by the end of the year 300 McDonald’s restaurants plan to offer an hour of free high-speed wireless access to anyone who buys a combination meal.
There’s a lot of speculation about whether wireless hotspots will evolve as wide area subscription services, proprietary to certain outlets or ISPs, or even become a new kind of public service or value added freebie to maintain loyalty among patrons at cafes or hotels.
This WiFi approach is different to the nationwide high speed mobile communications options offered by Telecom with its CDMA 1X and Vodafone’s GPRS 2.5G networks and an alternative to what Walker Wireless and Radionet are offering with their developing wireless networks.
Walker Wireless is keen to establish hot spots around the country but has parked its plans while focusing on the current roll out of its nationwide IP-based wireless network. It has partnered with Vodafone to deliver high-speed wireless connectivity to Southland, Whangarei and Wairarapa and other more built up regions including Auckland and Wellington.
Hot spots on hold
Walker Wireless has some wireless hot spots ready to activate at Auckland airport for users who subscribe to its network but commercial arrangements are still under discussion. “We see these hot spots as complimentary to our new IP-based service,” says Walker Wireless sales manager Alan Leigh. “Some of the questions about how this strategically fits with our new network are still being addressed but we’ll be looking at it again.”
The only player with anything significant operating in New Zealand is Wellington-based CityLink which has fibre optic cable throughout the CBD and some capacity in Auckland. It is still in the early stage of establishing WiFi outlets around the capital city with around 20 access points.
Its service are live at cafes and other public areas including the National Library, Wellington Library, the Michael Fowler Centre, the James Cook Hotel lobby and several conference centers. It also makes available wireless hot spots for consultants and corporate workgroups working on short-term projects outside their main offices. “We’re still at the early stages, progressively pushing forward and connecting up but our endgame is a ubiquitous networks from one side of the city to the other – we want the CBD to be one big hotspot,” says managing director Neil DeWitt.
And CityLink is in the perfect position to achieve this, simply adding access points where required off its independent fibre optic network. Users have a pre-pay option for example $20 for 120Mb of data which can be used at any Cafenet location over any period of time. CityLink operates as the ISP enabling web browsing and web-based email rather than allowing outbound SMTP mail, largely to prevent spammers . Outbound connections on the normal SMTP port 25 are blocked although email can be picked up via POP3.
Broadband MAN
For corporate users there’s a fixed price package offering remote VPN connectivity back to the corporate network using VPN secure tunneling to a corporate LAN. This is seen as ideal for boardrooms, consulting teams or mobile work groups.
There’s also a wholesale model to be launched to ISPs once further backend development has been completed. CityLink is gradually expanding its coverage and plans to provide additional coverage in parks and public areas as funding and resources allow. Another wireless innovator who’s recently made promises to the New Zealand market is RoamAD which has developed a variant of the 802.11b standard to deploy secure metropolitan area WiFi networks.
During the America’s Cup it established its world’s first network over three square kilometres in downtown Auckland giving users an always-on mobile wireless broadband connection to the internet, VPNs and the PSTN.
The ‘demonstration network’ designed to impress resellers and potential venture capital partners is pitched as a compliment to 3G providing roaming at 330 Kbit/sec. The company has promised to extend to 100 square kilometres and have a commercially available network by Christmas. It’s currently in fund-raising mode.
RoamAD chief executive Paul Stoddart, says the network overcomes security issues with proprietary security and data encryption and is not reliant on an incumbent carrier to provide connectivity between its hotspots because it has its own wireless backhaul system.
He claims the breakthrough technology delivers carrier level communications that rival “3G nirvana” with a committed information rate. Mr Stoddart claims lower network infrastructure costs and more affordable end user costs than conventional landline broadband and dramatically lower than cellular data offerings from traditional mobile operators.
He says coverage and congestion are not an issue. “The RoamAD network architecture is a star-grid topology, meaning that users at any point within the network are supported by a minimum of four different access points.” The service would be available in offices as well as for roaming.
Stoddart says there are about 50 non-commercial active users, mainly stakeholders, who have been demonstrating the capability of the network. “We provide a business community with a mobile broadband connection with billing, quality of service and seamless hand-offs that will allow end users to maintain quality communications for streaming video and voice while they move around.”
