Mobile Computing
Mobile Computing Market- The Big Picture -Mobile computing and wireless networking market is ready to take off - some research firms expect it to become a 70 billion dollar market in the new millennium (year 2005-2006) if you include wireless data services, mobile devices, application software, systems integration and related services. A study by CIBC World Markets done in 2000 estimate wireless data market itself to explode to 24.5 billion market by 2004. While this forecast may not been fully met, we think it might reach very close to that number.
The biggest challenge that we face in sizing the market is to define what is included and what is not included by a particular analyst in his/her study. The biggest skew is inserted by wireless handsets. If you include second and third generation handsets, the market becomes huge. During 2000, the number of handsets sold world-wide was 440 million units worldwide. At $200 unit price, this represents $88 billion. Since then, annual cellular handset sale numbers have hovered around 450 million mark. If you add to that, wireless network infrastructure market (base stations, etc.), it may be another $40-50 billion. We suggest to market planners and forecasters that they should not include cellular handsets in mobile computing market sizing because primary use of these handsets is for voice, and not wireless data. Of course, in future, increasing percentage of advanced handsets will be utilized for wireless data applications. Yet, this percentage will not reach 10% for the next several years - we mean where wireless Internet is a major application and nut a casual application.
More recent studies have forecast the market to be as high as twice of the estimate in the first paragraph. MobileInfo.Com is somewhat cautious in its own estimates. We believe that methodology used in some of these surveys and estimates is faulty. The forecasters assume elastic supply of capital to invest in new technology without any competition from other sectors. They also do not apply statistical validation tests against economic data. We suggest a more conservative outlook and propose that market planners should use caution. By any standards you use, market for mobile computing and wireless is large
Technoworld
TECHNOLOGY Broadcom to Give Wireless Networks ZipSource: Matthew Broersma, ZDNet (UK)Broadcom has introduced a Wi-Fi chipset that it says can speed the performance of 802.11g networks to 125mbps, potentially creating new opportunities for routing high-bandwidth media across wireless networks.
The company's 54g MaxPerformance chipset, with AfterBurner technology, is designed to be compatible with existing 802.11g networks, with an added "performance" mode that offers the equivalent to a signal rate of 125mbps, Broadcom said Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. That is faster than other wireless-LAN acceleration technologies, such as Atheros' 108mbps Super G. "Broadcom's latest offering provides both 802.11g compliance and a performance mode that can significantly increase throughput in an 802.11g-capable network," said Broadcom Senior Director Jeff Abramowitz in a statement.
The first product using AfterBurner, Buffalo Technology's AirStation 125mbps Wireless Cable/DSL Router-g (WHR2-G54), also made its debut Thursday. The four-port broadband router combines WLAN acceleration with a system called AirStation One-Touch Secure System (AOSS), designed to simplify wireless security configuration.
Broadcom said that the performance gain in AfterBurner is due to the closing down of the timing between data packets. The chipset uses one 802.11g channel for transmission, unlike Super G, which multiplexes traffic over two channels--an approach that Broadcom claims causes interference with other devices using the 2.4GHz radio band, including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices.
"Unlike competing high-speed solutions, the WHR2-G54 does not cause harm to nearby 2.4GHz wireless systems," said Buffalo in a statement.
Broadcom's chipset is currently being demonstrated at CES. The WHR2-G54 will be on the market in the United States next month for $199 (£108). Broadcom supplies WLAN chips to networking equipment makers such as Belkin, Linksys, Microsoft and Motorola; and its chips are used in notebook PCs from Apple Computer, Dell, eMachines, Fujitsu, Gateway and Hewlett-Packard.
Broadcom has shipped more than 11 million of its 54g chipsets, and it controls 78 percent of the U.S. retail market for 802.11g products, according to figures from the NPD Group released Thursday. Multimedia networksAfterBurner underscores a recent trend among chipmakers to create ever-faster networks for transmitting larger forms of digital media. The goal is to create wireless networks that can support forms of digital media that require greater bandwidth, such as video.
For example, on Tuesday NetGear announced the Super G-based WGT634U Super Wireless Media Router, which connects to an external hard drive over a USB 2.0 connection and allows client devices on the router's Wi-Fi network to access the drive's contents.
Earlier this week, chipmaker GlobespanVirata announced the Prism Nitro XM Xtreme Multimedia, an upgrade for its 802.11g, 802.11a and combination 802.11g/802.11a chips that boosts wireless transfer rates for compressed data to up to 140mbps, though actual throughput rates will be about 70mbps. Globespan Virata's system only speeds up the transfer of compressed data, such as audio and video, while content, such as encrypted data, is transferred at lower speeds.
The wireless-networking industry has been working on networks with higher throughputs, and industry groups such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers are getting the ball rolling on the next Wi-Fi standard, 802.11n, which is expected to offer an actual transfer rate of more than 100mbps. That standard is not expected to be finished for several years.
Management of Wireless Lan
Wireless LANsWireless LAN ManagementSince the proliferation of wireless LANs during 2001-2002 inside and outside the corporate setting, management of wireless LANs has assumed great importance. The following functions need to be addressed:
Management of various multiple access points (AP's) in a campus environment , providing roaming and session maintenance services as users move from one AP to another
Tracking users, groups of users, their security and user authentication - this can be done either exclusively for wireless LANs or an extension of wireline LANs or as an extension of entire remote network configuration (enterprise network perspective)
Providing common user interface for hot spot environments
Asset management - type of device, device information - model, CPU, peripherals, configuration settings, application inventory, etc.
Software updates and data synchronization
Class of service and bandwidth allocation to different users
Issues To Consider
Types of devices supported - Does it support only laptops?
Single user interface?
Hot spot support?
Does it support multiple access points - 802.11b, 802.11a, Bluetooth and others?
Only wireless LAN or WLAN and wireless WAN?
Campus only or multiple campus across a wide area network
Does it need a proprietary hardware
Likelihood of future compatibility to IEEE 802.11x standard, especially 802.11i standard
One piece of software for security and another for asset management or an integrated software - kind of management suite
BlueSocket - more than security, class of service
iPassConect Version 2.3 - Single user interface for various environment - inside and outside corporate environment. Currently supports laptops, will support handheld PDAs (Microsoft Pocket PCs in 2003).
Mobile Automation's MA 2000 Suite Security Module
Proxim in cooperation with Ericsson - new initiative launched to address roaming between wireless LANs and wireless WANs (hot spot roaming)
Reefeege
Symbol's Mobius Centralized WLAN Security Management Architecture
ALSO see Wireless Security page - there is a lot of commonality and overlap between security products and management products
What up, G?
Other than ease of migration, there are three main reasons to wait for 802.11g rather than opt for the immediate gratification of 802.11a: lower power consumption, longer range and better penetration. Also, 802.11g may offer cost advantages because lower-frequency devices are easier to manufacture. These same advantages apply to 802.11b today, which runs at 2.4GHz as opposed to 802.11a, which runs at 5GHz. So theoretically, 802.11g incorporates most of the good qualities of the other two standards
Eventually the pricing gap between 802.11b and 802.11a will narrow. Rich Redelfs, CEO of Atheros, currently the only chip maker shipping 802.11a chipsets, says 802.11a chips will be close to 802.11b in price "before long."
Another choice emerging in advance of 802.11g is multimode products that support 802.11a and 802.11b. These will be available in the third quarter this year. Multimode 802.11 a/g (which by definition includes 802.11b) will follow, probably in mid-2003. Redelfs also predicts that dual 80211.a/g chipsets won't cost much more than 802.11a-only chipsets.
A/B > A + B
rguments in favor of dual 802.11a/b or 802.11a/g NICs and access points are clear -- dual clients can "tune in" to whatever network happens to be available in a particular area. Envara, LinCom Wireless and Synad have announced dual-mode a/b chipsets. Atheros and Intersil plan to produce chipsets with 802.11a, 802.11b and "802.11g-like"capabilities. Although multimode chipsets could be used in access points, they are primarily for client cards, where space is limited and cost considerations often paramount, Redelfs says.Cisco, Intel and Proxim are vendors leading the charge to dual-mode products:
Cisco's Aironet 1200 Series Dual Radio wireless LAN access point supports only 802.11b. In August, Cisco is expected to ship an 802.11a module for the Aironet 1200. The company says it will offer dual client cards, although no timing has been announced. While Cisco hasn't announced any 802.11g products, its support of 802.11g is strong. For instance, Cisco and Intersil said that they would cooperate to create an 802.11g reference platform.
According to the Synergy Research Group, Cisco held 18% of the total and 37% of the enterprise wireless LAN market at the end of last year, making it the top vendor in the field. The total wireless LAN market was $2.4 billion in 2002, projected to grow to $4.9 billion by 2006, according to Synergy. Proxim's product line is currently 802.11a-only. Although Proxim has not officially announced dual products, Lynn Lucas, director of marketing, says the company will have dual 802.11a/802.11b client cards this year. Proxim sees separate 802.11a and 802.11b access points as a more cost-effective approach than dual-mode access points.Intel has promised an optional kit to add 802.11b capability to the 802.11a-only Pro/Wireless LAN Access Point. There's currently no time frame for releasing the kit. And Texas Instruments is working on combined 802.11a and 802.11g products, says Bill Carney, director of business development and marketing for TI's wireless network business unit, and plans to release them in 2003. TI was a major player in developing the 802.11g standard, even though it suffered a setback when its favored modulation method (Packet Binary Convolutional Code) was made an option rather than a requirement.
The ABGs of wireless LANs
First came 802.11b wireless LAN devices a couple of years ago. Then 802.11a gear hit the market this year. And 802.11g products are slated to ship next year. As if that isn't confusing enough, 802.11b and 802.11a are incompatible, while 802.11g will be compatible with 802.11b, but not 802.11a. So let's sort it all out. The IEEE's 802.11g standard is designed as a higher-bandwidth - 54M bit/sec - successor to the popular 802.11b, or Wi-Fi standard, which tops out at 11M bit/sec. An 802.11g access point will support 802.11b and 802.11g clients. Similarly, a laptop with an 802.11g card will be able to access existing 802.11b access points as well as new 802.11g access points. However, products based on the 802.11g standard won't be available until at least mid-2003. And if you're looking for a higher-speed alternative to 802.11b, 802.11a products are out now and offer top speeds of 54M bit/sec. The main drawback with 802.11a is a lack of interoperability with 802.11b devices as well as 802.11a's network interface cards (NIC) costing 50% more and its access points being priced 35% more than their 802.11b counterparts.This alphabet soup of wireless LAN standards doesn't make it easy for network executives to develop a long-term strategy. But new multimode chipsets could result in the interoperability and migration issues melting away because next-generation devices will be able to handle any standard you decide to use.Let it B
So far, enterprise IT managers have opted overwhelmingly for 802.11b, says Greg Collins, director of the Dell'Oro Group. Very little 802.11a gear has been installed since it became available in quantity in the third quarter of 2001, mainly in low-end small office/home office-type applications, Collins says. One factor in 802.11b's favor is that it was introduced in 1999 and is now in its fourth or fifth generation. It has had most of the kinks worked out and has come down to near-commodity pricing. Plus, its 1M to 6M bit/sec throughput is adequate for a range of applications. There were 15 million 802.11b radios in use by the end of 2001, according to Jim Zyren, director of strategic marketing for 802.11 chip manufacturer Intersil. Almost all wireless LANs in public places, such as airports, hotels and coffee shops, are based on 802.11b.
