IEEE wireless LAN standard spurs products

InTech, Jun 1998

Las Vegas-An industry standard for wireless local-area networks (LANs), recently approved by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), opened new-product floodgates at a host of communications vendors, with manufacturing applications seen as a major market segment.

Called IEEE 802.11, the recently ratified standard has received the support of more than 40 suppliers to the wireless LAN market, which is estimated to have doubled in the past year to about $400 million. Some forecasters predict it will be a $1.2 billion-per-year business by 2001. Users also have demonstrated support for IEEE 802.11 because products conforming to it will be interoperable regardless of the manufacturer, giving users wider choices.

The major advantage of wireless LANs, versus wired, is mobility. With IEEE 802.11, production, warehouse, and maintenance workers, for example, can report inventories or problems using wireless scanners, portable computers, or other hand-held devices.

Several manufacturers, including Lucent Technologies and Harris Corp., rolled out IEEE 802.11-compatible product lines at the 1998 Networld InterOP show, held in April at Las Vegas. Introducing Lucent's new product family, called WaveLAN, Angela Champness, director of WaveLAN product and business development, said IEEE 802.11 was analogous to the widely accepted Ethernet communications standard. Other suppliers include Cutler-Hammer, IBM, Digital, 3Com, and Motorola, to name a few. Process and other manufacturing facilities, particularly open-air production areas and those with environmental problems (e.g., electrical interference or corrosive contaminants) that could disrupt or harm hardwired data communications equipment, are potential market segments for IEEE 802.1 1-compliant suppliers.

According to A Short Tutorial on Wireless LANs and IEEE 802.11, available on IEEE's Web site (www.IEEE.org), written by three members of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University's electrical and computer engineering department, IEEE 802.11 allows for two different ways to configure a network: ad hoc and infrastructure.

The ad hoc scheme connects computers to form a network on-the-fly, with no structure and no fixed points, yet every node can communicate with every other node. The infrastructure network, on the other hand, uses fixed network access points with which mobile nodes can communicate. These access points are sometimes connected to nonwireless, land-based lines to widen the LAN's capability by bridging wireless nodes to other wired nodes. Handoffs can occur when service areas overlap, similar to existing cellular telephone networks.

"Interoperability, aggressive pricing, flexible packaging, improved performance, and range are key to speeding up market acceptance of wireless LANs," explained Laurie Pasmooij, LAN research analyst at International Data Corp., a market research firm.

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