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Look mum, no wires! Wireless Broadband

Wireless broadband services are centred on the IEEE 802.11 standard, also called WiFi. Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks and Symbol Technologies worked with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE; www.iee.org) to create the IEEE 802.11 specification for use with wireless area networks.

There are currently four specifications in the family: 802.11, 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. The most widely deployed of these today is 802.11b (often called WiFi), which runs on the public 2.4GHz spectrum and is capable of data speeds of up to 11Mbps over a range in excess of 150m.

This data-only system utilises a small base station connected to a wired network or to the Internet and transmits data wirelessly to multiple workstations, which can be desktops, laptops or even handheld PCs. Each base station can service several users equipped with wireless receiver cards in their computer, and base stations can be overlapped to allow several hundred users to access the network or Internet.

Hazy reception

The 802.11b has gained the most popularity of the wireless services. 802.11a uses the 5GHz waveband and promises speeds of up to 54Mbps, but will not be interoperable with 802.11b. The emerging 802.11g standard is compatible with existing 802.11a and 802.11b networks and equipment.

A problem encountered with wireless connections are the frequency conflicts with other communications equipment, especially that of cordless telephones, which use the same wavebands as WiFi.

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