According to WLANA, a non-profit educational trade association, the population of wireless LAN users is growing rapidly and the deployment of public LANs is expanding despite MobileStar's recent setbacks.

by ISP-Planet Staff [Oct. 30, 2001]

The way WLANA looks at it, the more WLAN public access setups the merrier. Backed by Wi-Fi evangelists like Alvarion, Cisco, Colubris, and Intersil, WLANA is on a mission to educate potential users about availability. In a nutshell, the wireless advocate thinks Wi-Fi access is misunderstood—it can't get "no respect."

Jeff Abramowitz, WLANA executive director, said the wireless LAN industry has emerged as one of the fastest-growing segments of the communications industry.

"Year-over-year industry shipments more than triple," Abramowitz penned in a recent report. "Thanks to the introduction of standards-based products prices have dropped more than 30 percent. Cahners In-Stat foresees the $1.1 billion industry growing to $5.2 billion by 2005."

Abramowitz contends that rapid application growth has been the key to wireless LAN allure to date, but that industry participation in promoting the befits of WLAN access has just begun, but the biggest boost will come from the biggest software maker—Microsoft.

"Software support for wireless LANs will receive a dramatic boost with the introduction of Microsoft's Windows XP operating system," Abramowitz said. "With built-in Wi-Fi technology support, users will find it easier to set up wireless LANs."

Popularity contest
While several flavors of wireless LAN technology remain popular in the marketplace, like Bluetooth and RF netowrking, interoperable systems will continue to drive the wireless LAN industry's growth. Abramowitz applauded efforts by the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) to set standards for intermingling wireless technologies.

Security remains an obvious industry challenge to WLANA. But things are changing. Enterprise systems utilizing wireless networking typically implement existing VPN technologies for shoring up secured Wi-Fi access. Small wireless LAN operators are implementing WEP standards or 128-bit extension of WEP as a sufficient security force. Microsoft's Window's XP simplifies the decision-making because it incorporates security safeguards into the core of its platform.

As security becomes less problematic, Abramowitz believes that wireless LAN technology makes a compelling wire-free future for broadband communications on a global scale.

— End

Online resource:
	CyberAtlas

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