Big promise, big risks define WLAN market
Darrell Dunn
ebnonline

06/02/2003 10:00 AM EST
URL: http://www.ebnews.com/showArticle?articleID=10100589

Despite the promise of profitability, a spate of rapidly falling prices and a possible slowdown in the deployment of so-called wireless hot spots are straining some semiconductor vendors that had hoped for financial salvation by supplying the emerging wireless LAN market.

Analysts predict that even amid a surge of activity in the WLAN, or Wi-Fi, sector, total chipset revenue will decline this year before rebounding in 2004. At the same time, the installation of WLAN hot spots in airports and cafes is triggering what some described as a "land grab," but one that is expected to dip next year as service providers wait to see a return on their initial investments.

"In general, it's tough out there," said Mike Feibus, an analyst at TechKnowledge Strategies Inc., Scottsdale, Ariz. "There are ways to make money, but in what is very much a standards-based market it's a challenge.

"Plain and simple, prices are falling faster than units are growing," Feibus said.

TechKnowledge estimates that WLAN chipset revenue will drop from nearly $370 million last year to just more than $340 million this year, followed by a return to growth in 2004.

The research firm also noted that the price of 802.11b chipsets, which make up the majority of the WLAN market, has dropped to an average of $6.61 this year from $16.06 a year ago. Although higher-priced 802.11g and multimode chipsets are posting growth, the newer technologies have yet to generate sufficient volumes to offset the decline in 802.11b ASPs.


Multimodes from Atheros
In an effort to harvest a technology it helped popularize, Atheros Communications Inc. this week will introduce its next-generation silicon, a series of single- and multimode chips that will support the 802.11a, b, and g standards. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company hopes that by the end of 2003, the devices will allow it to realize a profit after laboring for nearly six years in the WLAN market.

Atheros was an early champion of the relatively high-performance 802.11a Wi-Fi standard. However, the technology was unable to make a serious run against the lesser-performing but more widely accessible 802.11b protocol. According to research firm Forward Concepts Co., Tempe, Ariz., manufacturers bought only 830,000 802.11a chipsets last year, compared with about 18 million of the 802.11b variety.

Moreover, rather than migrating from 802.11b to the higher-speed 802.11a standard, most OEMs appear to be jumping directly to 802.11g.

"I think Atheros got blindsided by 802.11g, but they have made a pretty good recovery," said Forward Concepts analyst Will Strauss.

Atheros is betting that its new products in 2003 will allow it to triple last year's revenue of more than $10 million.

The new product family, which will be introduced this week, features seven chipsets with higher levels of integration, according to Atheros president and chief executive Craig Barratt.

On the client side, the AR5002X will integrate previously separate 2.4- and 5GHz radio chips into a single device that is paired with the company's baseband MAC solution to provide multimode support for 802.11a/b/g. Atheros is also offering 11a- and 11g-only versions.

The company additionally will roll out four access-point chipsets. The new devices will be available in production quantities this month.


Intersil fights revenue drop
Market leader Intersil Corp., Milpitas, Calif., has seen revenue in its wireless networking business fall from a high of nearly $75 million in the third quarter of 2002 to $51 million in the first quarter of 2003. The drop was attributed to ASP declines, seasonal softness, and a customer inventory issues.

Chris Henningsen, vice president of marketing for Intersil in Palm Bay, Fla., said price erosion "is a market reality, but the good news is that overall, the market in terms of total units is continuing to grow rapidly."

Henningsen said that to combat the ASP decline, Intersil has accelerated product generations from nine months to six, and expanded its support of 802.11g and multimode products. Intersil is also creating system-level products with higher ASPs for access points and gateways, and is increasing its licensing of WLAN technology to broadband modem chip suppliers such as Analog Devices and Conexant Systems.


Hot spots cool down
While new chipsets continue to increase Wi-Fi bandwidth, the number of hot spots that serve as wireless communications hubs may not be growing as fast as first expected, according to analysts.

A new report from Forward Concepts projects that after firing up more than 45,000 Wi-Fi hot spots this year in the United States alone, service providers will reduce deployments next year as they seek to make existing sites profitable. The cost of equipping and maintaining a hot spot with a T1 line can run $1,000 or more a month, according to the research firm.

Some cellular service providers are offering Wi-Fi access for a set fee or as part of their ISP package, while hotels, convention centers, and airports are charging $9 to $25 a day for access, a fee that may drop as low as $1 a day in the next few years, Strauss said. In the long run, however, the popular Wi-Fi coffee shop model will be particularly hard to operate profitably, he said.

"You may be able to operate it as a loss leader to get people in the door, but to run a profit-loss center is going to be tough," Strauss said.

Atheros' Barratt agreed, noting that "the independent hot-spot operator, without any captive customers or related business, has a big challenge. On the other hand, in hotels and airports that already have the right profile of customers, there is money to be made."

Barratt expects at least some of that activity will translate into profits for Atheros. "We're confident we can make money, because we're beginning to dominate the new standards," he said. "I think in the end it will be Atheros, Broadcom, Intersil, and Texas Instruments, and Intel on the laptop, that will be the ones fighting in the marketplace."

Microsoft shares experiences as wireless LAN user
 
By Joanie Wexler
 
Not all enterprise IT and networking staffs can boast the same level of technical proficiency as Microsoft's. But, hey, somebody with plenty of resources has to pioneer new
technologies to help iron out the kinks for the rest of s. And when it comes to wireless LANs, Microsoft is one of the few companies that has taken the plunge enterprise wide. Today, Microsoft has the benefit of nearly three years' experience with a global WLAN deployment under its belt to share.
 
So why did Microsoft deploy WLANs, and what has been the upshot? Don Berry, the senior network engineer at Microsoft who began designing the wireless network in late 1999 and deploying it in 2000, relates his company's story.
 
"The initial business driver was that we needed an enironment for developing wireless-aware operating systems and applications," Berry explains. Now, however, Berry estimates that each of Microsoft's wireless users - whether knowledge workers or developers - gain at least an hour of productivity per day.
 
"We've had senior vice presidents say, 'wireless saves me 1.5 hours per day.' It doesn't take too many of those gains [at senior-executive salaries] to quickly realize big returns."
 
Today, Berry estimates, 14 million square feet of Microsoft
workspace have WLAN coverage, delivered by about 4,000 Cisco Aironet access points (AP) across 70 countries. Current deployment costs, he estimates, are about 50 to 60 cents per square foot in the U.S. and about $1 outside the U.S.

A couple of interesting informational nuggets:
 
* Back in 1999, the only 802.11b vendors shipping products were Aironet Wireless Communications (which was purchased shortly thereafter by Cisco) and Lucent. Berry says Microsoft chose Aironet for the strength of the management capabilities in the company's 340 and 350 series APs.
 
* Microsoft is considering the Cisco Aironet 1200 Series AP as a replacement when the 350 is discontinued, but only for 802.11b connectivity at this juncture. Surprisingly, the percentage of bandwidth utilized, Berry says, remains in the single digits. "We're not looking for an infrastructure upgrade [to 802.11a] until 2005," he says.
 
What does Berry think about the emergence of WLAN switches and thin APs? "There's merit to not having to upgrade APs with more processing and memory," he observes. "But for small sites, a thin-only model wouldn't work. A mix of fat and thin APs, but with the same feature sets, will likely be the model."

Study questions Wi-Fi business model

By John Ribeiro, IDG News Service
JUNE 02, 2003

The Wi-Fi wireless LAN "hot-spot" industry could go the way of the dot-coms unless there is grass-roots market acceptance of the technology, according to a report this week by Tempe, Ariz.-based electronic research firm Forward Concepts Co.

Although a Wi-Fi hot-spot "land-grab" is in full swing, only a few venues will be profitable, according to the report, titled "Wi-Fi Hotspot Opportunities: Exploiting the New Phenomenon."

"We see the emergence of hotspots as almost a textbook case of effective repurposing of technology, but a closer look reveals some troubling deficits in the market thus far," the study's author, Daniel Sweeney, said in a statement.
"In most cases where repurposed technology has succeeded in a big way, such as the Internet, it has exhibited a strong grass roots component in terms of the user base," Sweeney said. "In hotspots to date, the grass roots aspect of the phenomenon resides in the service providers themselves, which are often very small, single-location businesses linked in a franchise arrangement with a hot spot aggregator or platform developer."

Unless hot spots inspire a similar degree of enthusiasm among subscribers, the hot-spot industry could suffer the same fate as e-commerce, where similar vendor enthusiasm far outstripped market acceptance, Sweeney said.

A land-grab frenzy will propel the U.S. hot-spot market to grow by an estimated 46,000 new locations this year, according to the report.

By 2004, however, there will be a dramatic slowdown in the creation of hot spots as the industry seeks to identify appropriate applications, content and terminal designs for existing capacity. But the report predicts that growth in the number of hot spots will resume in 2005, with 530,000 hot spots in the U.S. by 2007.

The report also predicts that in Europe, almost 800,000 hot spots will be installed by 2007, while in Asia, by even the most pessimistic estimates, there will be more than 1 million hot spots by 2007. A more optimistic estimate places that figure at almost 4 million by that year, according to the report.

Forward Concepts predicts that by 2007, revenue from hot spots in the U.S. will be $8 billion, or about $15,000 per hot spot. At such revenue levels, margins will be tight and profitability for the industry as a whole will be contingent upon the lowest possible infrastructure costs, which will force service provider incumbents to re-evaluate their business plans, according to the report.

There will be winners and losers among the hot spots depending on the kind of venues in which they are located. Different venues will have different profit potentials and liabilities, according to the report.

The average for hot spots in the U.S. is estimated to be about 190 sessions per year, with a disproportionate share going to business hotels and major airports.


http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/...0.html?nas=AM-81728

Atheros, Cisco to unveil new wireless products

By BOB BREWIN
JUNE 02, 2003


Wireless LAN chip vendors and hardware manufacturers this week will introduce new products designed to provide users with advanced features, including tri-mode clients at lower prices and advanced management tools for enterprise users.

Atheros Communications Inc. in San Jose will introduce a universal chip set that covers all WLAN standards, including 802.11a, b and g. WLANs that adhere to the 802.11b/g standards operate in the 2.4-GHz frequency band, with raw data rates of 11Mbit/sec. and 54M bit/sec respectively. WLANs that use the 802.11a standard operate in the 5-Ghz band and have a raw data rate of 54Mbit/sec.
Craig Barratt, Atheros' president and CEO, predicted that the street price for the universal clients will quickly drop below older, dual-mode WLAN clients. Current dual-band 802.11b/g or 802.11b client cards have a street price of about $70. Barratt forecast that the street price for the universal client will come in about 20% lower, or roughly $56 per client.

Such a drop would reflect the economies of scale Atheros has managed by putting all the functionality of the three WLAN standards onto just two chips, with one handling the radio frequency functions, and the other signal processing.
Atheros has also built extra functionality into the new universal card, including an encryption engine designed to support Wireless Protected Access (WPA), the new WLAN industry security standard, as well as the federal Advanced Encryption Standard, which offers even better protection than WPA.

Barratt said the versatility of the universal client means it could eventually replace single-mode 802.11 hardware. Craig Mathias, an analyst at FarPoint Group in Ashland, Mass., agreed, saying that eventually single- and even dual-mode WLAN clients "will fade from the scene."

Atheros also introduced a WLAN access point chip that incorporates all three 802.11 standards, allowing users to run two separate and concurrent wireless networks from a single access point.

Proxim Corp. in Sunnyvale, Calif., has incorporated this chip into a family of dual-band access points it will introduce this week, according to Lynn Lucas, the company's marketing director. Proxim also uses the Atheros chip set in its universal card.

Prices for Proxim's dual-band access point start at $795, and the enterprise-grade universal card with 152-bit encryption goes for an estimated street price of $110.
Also this week, Cisco Systems Inc. is introducing a new architecture for its enterprise WLAN products that includes an improved version of its Cisco Works Wireless LAN Solution Engine. It runs on an access control server priced at $11,995 and will be available this month. The tool allows IT departments to remotely manage up to 2,500 access points, compared with 500 in the older version, according to Christine Falsetti, Cisco's director of marketing for wireless and mobility.

The improved version of the management tool also allows IT departments to remotely detect and disable unauthorized access points, Falsetti said. The Engine also includes an RF management tool to help map out the best configuration for a network.

Joel Conover, an analyst at Current Analysis in Sterling, Va., said Cisco has provided enterprises with a new suite of tools that should be viewed as "fairly threatening" to WLAN start-ups such as Aruba Networks Inc. in San Jose, which provides similar management tools through a switch-based architecture.


http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/...0.html?nas=PM-81738

A hot spot can increase sales, access

By KENNETH AARON, Business writer
First published: Sunday, June 1, 2003

BETHLEHEM -- When a Hudson Valley company approached
Roberta Bastow to put wireless Internet access into her new Delmar
coffee shop, Perfect Blend, she turned them down.

Another hot-spot operator got there first.

"They were surprised that we were already set," said Bastow, whose
Four Corners shop opened in April. "They thought they were on the
cutting edge."

In the tech world, though, lots of entrepreneurs are looking for a chunk
of Wi-Fi, a nickname for wireless fidelity. And as quickly as customers
buy laptops that can surf the Web using radio waves, not wires, myriad
business models are popping up for Internet providers to make money
off the technology.

"It's a wide-open playing field," said Brian Epstein, an Albany
businessman who has started two new Wi-Fi companies and signed up
Bastow's shop.

One of those companies, Tech Valley Wireless, sets up hot spots with
Wi-Fi equipment. The other, WiFiFee, is aggregating hot-spot networks
for its subscribers to use. (Think of it like a customer with one cellphone
company making a phone call in another cellphone company's territory.)

In many ways, this rush to Wi-Fi feels like 1997 all over again. Back
then, a new technology called the World Wide Web inspired droves to
come up with wild ways to make money off it.

Today, tech insiders have lofty expectations for Wi-Fi, which many
regard as the best selling tool in years to rebuild the moribund
technology economy. In 2002, venture capitalists injected $2.8 billion
into 296 wireless and data communication companies, according to
New Jersey research firm Thomson Venture Economics. And by 2007,
hot-spot revenue is expected to reach $873 million, according to
Arizona researcher In-Stat/MDR.

But which business models will win remains a huge issue.

"It's got to be the most difficult question right now in this market," said
Tim Shelton, senior analyst at Allied Business Intelligence, a Long Island
researcher.

Hot-spot operators as small as Tech Valley Wireless and as large as
telecommunications giant T-Mobile are trying to build networks. The
difference: Epstein is trying to connect his small network to others with
roaming agreements. T-Mobile, which has installed its network in 2,300
locations, currently is available only to other T-Mobile subscribers.

Businesses that agree to host hot spots typically get some sort of
payment from the site operator. Epstein, for example, gives half the
revenue generated from a Web-surfing session to businesses.

Aggregators, such as WiFiFee and Boingo Wireless Inc., collect small
networks under their umbrella and give customers access to each of
them. While Tech Valley Wireless has signed up just a handful of sites,
including Albany International Airport in Colonie and the Armory
Automotive dealership in Albany, WiFiFee's agreements mean
subscribers can tap 214 hot spots.

Eventually, Epstein expects the big providers to dominate. He just wants
to amass a network quickly enough to sell it to one of those big
providers in a few years.

"Someone else is going to build it," Epstein said. "Hopefully me."

Despite all the hype, so far there are only about 7,000 hot spots in the
country, according to In-Stat/MDR. And today, even the busiest
locations don't get too much traffic. Just 20 to 30 users tap into the
busiest airports on a daily basis, "which isn't huge," said Amy Cravens,
In-Stat/MDR senior analyst.

"The revenue from pure wireless access isn't really there," Cravens said.
At this point, "it's real important" for providers to have other sources of
revenue, she added.

Pricing for the services is also an issue. While customers can get either a
monthly plan or pay by the session, the lack of available networks --
and the lack of roaming agreements among those -- are blocking
growth, some experts say.

"I still don't think that many users are seeing the value in paying an extra
$30 or $40 a month," Cravens said.

They might someday, but the number of places offering the service will
have to grow, said Shelton of Allied Business Intelligence.

"I'm at a Starbucks, I need a T-Mobile subscription. I'm at the airport, I
need a Wayport subscription. The list goes on," he said. "Roaming is
going to be a necessity for the market. It's not really an option."

As service providers try coming up with ways to make money, the
businesses making Wi-Fi available to their customers see the technology
as a way to differentiate themselves from competitors -- not as a way to
generate piles of new revenue.

For Borders Group Inc., officials hope Wi-Fi extends the typical
hour-long visit an average shopper makes to the bookstore chain. A
T-Mobile hot spot went online at Borders' Wolf Road store in May.

The investment is within reach for most businesses. Bastow, who
operates Perfect Blend, needs to spend $130 a month on Road Runner
access and has spent $2,000 setting up the system.

Revenue is nice, but it's not the goal, she said. adding, "I wanted Internet
access here as a value-added for my customers."

That's the right attitude, Epstein said. "A hot spot is not going to get
rich," he said. "If you're a bar, you're going to make a lot more money
selling drinks."

But then again, a Wi-Fi-enabled bar might draw more drinkers than one
without.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story...S&newsdate=6/1/2003

Prowling for wireless access
points

Albany -- Road show demonstrates many hot spots, but
security remains an issue

By KENNETH AARON, Business writer
First published: Sunday, June 1, 2003

The pale blue Chevy parked on a Pine Hills side street Wednesday night
might have been the most technologically advanced Cavalier to ever hit
the road.

A Pocket PC sat in a cradle fastened to the dashboard. A laptop rested
on a passenger's knees. Wi-Fi Internet cards were inserted into both
computers, which also had their own global positioning systems atop the
dash. Two antennas, the kind with the little squiggle that look like pigs'
tails, were stuck to the car's rooftop. A hot pink power inverter was on
the floor. (A satellite radio receiver was in the sedan too, but it wasn't
turned on.)

"Are you guys with NASA or something?" one man asked as he walked
by the parked car, peering inside the geekmobile.

Nope. They're war driving.

Over the past month, Tom Morgan, 31, and Anthony Hersko, 34, have
spent one night a week cruising through Albany's neighborhoods to sniff
out wireless Internet signals.

So far, their weekly war drives -- so named after war dialing, the
old-school practice of using automated dialers to blitz sequential
telephone numbers to find those with computers on the other end --
have proven two things. First, there are more people using Wi-Fi in
Albany than even they expected -- Morgan and Hersko have found
nearly 600 access points on their travels. And second, that the vast
majority of those people have little regard for computer security, an
oversight that could lead to interlopers filching free Internet access, or
worse.

They do it because they're interested in the data. ("But I'm a nerd, so
most people don't find it interesting," Morgan admitted.) But they're also
in it for the techno-evangelism.

They want more businesses to install access points for customers. They
want more residential users to create neighborhood networks. And,
finally, they want more people to pay attention to security before a
hacker forces them to.

Growing numbers of cigar-box-size wireless access points are out there,
used by people who surf the Internet on laptops from the comfort of
their sofa or create a wireless network where computers can talk to
each other without cables.

But those wireless signals don't stop when they reach a wall. In some
cases, they can travel hundreds of feet. So as Morgan and Hersko drive
along, they pick up those signals, just as if they were picking up a radio
station.

The free "NetStumbler" software they use marks signal locations with
latitude and longitude derived from the GPS units. Eventually, they'll
assemble a map showing all the points. There already are early versions
posted on Morgan's Web site, http://www.albanywifi.com, which also
offers a forum for those seeking security tips and other techie
information.

Morgan (screen name "r00t 4orce") and Hersko ("termnatr") say they
just want to figure out where the points are, not hijack them. "I find it
interesting information," said Morgan, a confessed data junkie who is a
computer technician in Albany. "What we'd like to try to do is start
pushing cafes and stuff to offer wireless access."

The men figure that if businesses see how many people are using the
technology, they may feel more compelled to jump on the Wi-Fi
bandwagon. Not many area businesses have taken the plunge so far.

On Wednesday's drive alone -- a two-hour loop concentrated mostly
around Central Avenue, Lark Street and several residential
neighborhoods off New Scotland Avenue -- Morgan and Hersko found
154 spots issuing Wi-Fi signals.

As they drive along, their computers bleep regularly, indicating when a
signal is found. Near Lark Street, the units started sounding like pinball
machines. "I told you Lark Street is pretty hot," Morgan said.

If their owners have thought to lock them down with computerized
security measures, those hot spots aren't of much use.

But most owners don't think to lock them down. Of all the access points
Morgan and Hersko drove by last week, just 42 had activated a
security standard known as Wireless Encryption Protocol, or WEP.
Wardrivers know who's using what because NetStumbler tells them.

In fact, many owners take their shiny new Wi-Fi equipment out of the
box, plug it in and let it go -- not even touching the protection-free
default settings.

"Default is very, very bad," Hersko said.

It leaves users wide open to attack, security experts say. "When people
are running without any sort of encryption on their network, it allows you
to become part of their network," said Christopher Labatt-Simon,
president of D&D Consulting Ltd., an Albany computer networking
firm.

And while businesses typically lock down their systems, an unprotected
home user who connects to a workplace network can open that system
up to outsiders, Labatt-Simon said.

Lance Biesele, a Pine Hills resident, was among the many whom
Morgan and Hersko stumbled across Wednesday who was using a
wireless network without WEP. Reached Thursday, Biesele said he had
considered using WEP but decided against it because it was
cumbersome and he has other protection in place.

Will he change things now?

Probably not. But "I'd like to see that map," he said of albanywifi.com --
so he could figure out where in Albany he could get free access.

That's not necessarily legal. While there's nothing illegal about war
driving, piggybacking atop another's Internet access constitutes theft of
service; more serious mucking about can mean felony charges. And
while Morgan, Hersko and others would like if people invited outsiders
to use their Internet service to create a kind of community network,
Web service providers like Time Warner Cable aren't thrilled with the
possibility.

The terms of service agreed to by the company's Road Runner
subscribers prohibits that kind of activity.

Morgan isn't worried that the maps on his Web site will be used to
propagate mayhem. "My Web site, as much as I want it to be the next
Yahoo, doesn't get a lot of traffic," Morgan said. "I want to provide the
information. What people want to do with it after that is up to them."

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story...S&newsdate=6/1/2003

Also see:

http://community.albanywifi.com/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=3

Panel: Wi-Fi Needs Telco Boost

ATLANTA--Wi-Fi has its hotspots, but it'll take a big cash
investment from established carriers before the technology really
becomes hot and takes off, according to a panel discussion Monday
at SuperComm. "[The incumbent carriers'] participation in the
[Wi-Fi] market in a large capitalization will be critical to pushing it
forward," said Mark Wolinsky, co-founder and co-CEO of Spotnik
Mobile Inc. and one of five panelists speaking during a forum titled
"Everywhere Wi-Fi Access: Technology Solutions and Business
Models for Public WLAN Services."

Participants said many wireless operators are recognizing the
advantages of using public WLAN access to complement GPRS and
CDMA2000 1X wireless data devices. In response to this demand,
vendors are promoting solutions for one-bill integration of WLAN and
cellular/PCS services, the panel said. Other critical issues that have
to be addressed before Wi- Fi can take off, they said, include
addressing roaming issues and finding ways to reduce customer
churn. Wolinsky said it will take some time before Wi-Fi will make its
way to more rural areas.

"I think the rural markets will start to see some solutions, but they
will be more expensive than what is traditionally available in the
urban areas," Wolinsky told Communications Today. "The question
becomes is there a market there that supports this additional cost."

For more on wireless news at this year's SuperComm conference,
go to:
http://www.telecomweb.com/reports/supercomm2003/index.html.

Cisco Systems, Inc. today introduced the Structured Wireless-Aware Network, a
framework for an integrated highly secure wired and wireless network. This
framework extends Cisco's leadership in local area networking (LAN)
infrastructure capabilities to the wireless LAN and provides the security,
scalability, and reliability that customers depend on to enable core business
applications. The advantages of a "wireless-aware" Cisco switch and router
infrastructure combined with a Cisco wireless network include a common
management and robust security scheme, simplified deployment and operation,
centralized control and configuration of thousands of networking devices, the
ability to detect rogue access points, fast secure roaming for mobile
applications and self-healing networks for improved wireless up-time.

http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/cb_hea...der.htm&footer_file=

ViXS Systems, a leading developer of video
networking chipsets and software for digital video applications, today
announced the availability of the industry's first fully manufacturable
reference design platform for wireless video distribution over local 802.11
networks. With ViXS' Wireless Media Center, OEMs can significantly lower the
costs of development and shorten the time-to-market for delivering consumer
electronics platforms that reliably distribute high-quality digital video
streams from point to point, or to multiple display devices, such as plasma
TVs, LCD TVs, HDTVs, and standard definition TVs, all over a WLAN or WiFi
network.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories....n+02+2003,+08:08+AM

Vivato Wi-Fi Switch Goes the Distance in Georgia World Congress Center


Vivato, a wireless networking infrastructure company, announced today that it
successfully completed trials of the Vivato 2.4GHz Indoor Wi-Fi Switch at the
Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC), one of the nation's top five largest
convention centers with a total 1.4 million square feet of prime exhibit space
in downtown Atlanta. Vivato's Wi-Fi Switch System is being evaluated by the
Georgia World Congress Center Authority, which operates the Georgia World
Congress Center, the Georgia Dome and Centennial Olympic Park, for expanding
its wireless networks.

http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/cb_hea...der.htm&footer_file=

Roads diverge to wireless net QoS

Engineers hammering out a quality-of-service (QoS) standard for 802.11 networks
have agreed to disagree by writing two distinctly different mechanisms into a
draft standard that could be ratified early next year. Computer and consumer
electronics companies are working to ensure their competing approaches will not
raise interoperability issues, although they fully expect the approaches will
have to battle it out in the marketplace.

http://www.commsdesign.com/news/tech_beat/OEG20030602S0020

Proxim makes enterprise-level move


Proxim Corp. looks to strengthen its position in the enterprise wireless-LAN
market with the release this week of two access points and four PC cards
developed around the emerging 802.11g specification.

http://www.commsdesign.com/news/product_news/OEG20030602S0028

Cisco Systems Inc. and Atheros Communications Inc. are each introducing new
products that address WLAN administrators' biggest concerns: management and
security.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1114606,00.asp

WiMAX standard will augment Wi-Fi, report says
By John K. Waters

There is a more robust standard than 802.11, better known as Wi-Fi, for delivering high-speed broadband wireless to laptops and desktops, analysts at market research firm Visant Strategies concluded in a recent report. 802.16a, an extension of the 802.16 WirelessMAN (Metropolitan Area Network) fixed wireless broadband, has a range of up to about 30 miles with data transfer speeds of up to 70mbps, according to the report, and companies will begin to use it to augment Wi-Fi solutions beginning in late 2004.

"Under the current conditions, 802.16a could emulate 802.11's rise several years from now," said the study's author, senior analyst Andy Fuertes. "Many chip and equipment vendors ignored the chance to get into the 802.11 market early and to create market share due to market-size limitations created by high equipment costs, a much smaller potential audience and no need for all things Internet and [i]ntranet yet. WiMAX offers these technology companies a fresh start."

WirelessMAN 802.16 was initially approved by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) in December 2001, and provides up to 50 kilometers of range. It has a single-carrier modulation scheme that operates between 10GHz and 66GHz radio frequency and requires line-of-sight towers for the connection to work. The new 802.16a extension was ratified by the IEEE in January 2003. It uses a lower frequency range of 2GHz to 11GHz, and does not require line-of-sight towers to work.

In April of last year, several communications component and equipment companies formed a non-profit corporation called the WiMAX Forum (short for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), through which they have been promoting the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless-access equipment. Specifically, the group is seeking to accelerate the introduction of 802.16a wireless broadband equipment into the marketplace, speeding up last-mile broadband deployment worldwide.

Last month, the WiMAX Forum added some muscle to its membership roster when Intel, Fujitsu, Nokia and Proxim joined the group. The WiMAX group's membership roster also includes Airspan, Alvarion, Aperto Networks, Ensemble Communications, Hughes Network Systems, OFDM Forum and Wi-LAN.

According to the group, 802.16a is the technology that will connect 802.11 hot spots to the Internet and provide a wireless extension to cable and DSL for last-mile broadband access.

"Wireless Internet service providers are deploying wireless broadband access in over 6,000 under-served markets in the United States by using proprietary technology solutions, which can be costly," said Margaret LaBrecque, WiMAX president, in a statement. "By employing 802.16 solutions, these service providers will increase system performance and reliability while lowering their equipment costs and investment risks."

802.16 WirelessMAN is increasingly referred to as WiMAX because of the WiMAX Forum's advocacy of the technology (much as 802.11 became known as Wi-Fi after the Wi-Fi Alliance pushed that standard).

The report by Visant Strategies, entitled "802.16/WiMAX Technologies: World Market Forecasts 2003-2008," concluded that, because they are optimized for different tasks (local vs. metro-area networking), Wi-Fi and WiMAX are complementary standards. Last-mile access will be the first application for 802.16a, the report predicts, but mobility will follow via another extension: 802.16e. 802.16a is also expected to play a role in outdoor and private networks, the extension of hot spots and backhaul applications that lack line-of-sight, according to the report.

Cisco Wi-Fi Becomes Available To Tenants As Part Of Their Commercial Lease

    Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

    SYDNEY, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 2, 2003--


Business-Class Wireless Networks to Be Offered as a Utility to Tenants, Cutting Costs and Improving Network Availability

    Cisco Systems, Inc has supplied networking equipment for the world's first commercial office with in-built wireless data communications. The Cisco (R) Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) technology will be deployed by leading property services firm, Colliers International, at 332 Kent Street, Sydney.
    Colliers has teamed up with Cisco, Intel and systems integrator Logical Australia, to provide Wi-Fi in the entire four storey building at 332 Kent St. The heritage building is undergoing refurbishment and will be open for tenants in October 2003.
    Traditionally, tenants taking commercial leases are required to design, deploy and maintain data networking services. Under the "Business-Class Wireless Networks" model developed by Colliers and Cisco, high-speed, wireless data facilities and support will be available to tenants as part of their lease - in the same way that they use other vital utilities, such as water, electricity and heating. This provision will enable tenants to reduce costs, time and resources normally associated with planning, installing and maintaining their data service.
    The network deployed at 332 Kent St is based on a combination of Cisco Catalyst (R) 950 and 3550 Series switches and Cisco 1200 Series Aironet (R) access points. The Cisco Aironet 1200 Series Access Point supports the 11 Mbps data rate, ratified in 802.11b standard by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). The 1200 Series can be upgraded to support 54mbps data in the 802.11a standard.
    This provision of Wi-Fi at 332 Kent St will allow tenants to take advantage of the inherent productivity benefits of wireless local area networking (WLAN). According to a study of WLAN by NOP World and Cisco, the use of WLAN technologies can increase workforce productivity by up to 22 percent. IDC has forecast the Wi-Fi market in Asia Pacific to grow from US$81 million in 2001 to almost US$680 million by 2006.
    Internet security at the site will be provisioned by the deployment of virtual LANS. The provision of VLANS over wireless enables each tenant in the building to specify their security policies independent of the other tenants or visiting users. Security is further enhanced by the deployment of industry leading security protocols such as Cisco Lightweight Extensible Access Protocol (LEAP).
    Cisco Australia and New Zealand director, Channels and Commercial, Kip Cole said; "This development means Wi-Fi technology is now available to tenants in the same way as traditional utilities, such as water, air-conditioning or power. It is the next logical market for Wi-Fi."
    Colliers International National Executive Director, Chris Nicholl said; "Colliers sees this as a groundbreaking opportunity to deliver better building technology to all stakeholders. 332 Kent Street will offer tenants advantages unique to wireless networks, such as lower cost deployment, greater flexibility and the ability to establish a network where wiring is not feasible, for example in a heritage building re-development."
    Sean Casey, manager, Intel Communications Group Australia and New Zealand said; "Intel is working with many leading companies to accelerate the deployment of 802.11 wireless communication capabilities in both private and public places. This style of deployment will allow users of wirelessly enabled PDAs and Intel(R) Centrino (TM) mobile technology-based laptops to make the most productive use of the network and their time."
    Logical managing director, Stuart Hendry said; "The flexibility of a wireless solution is at the cutting-edge of the 'new' work environment. The skill that Logical brings to the table is making it all work".

AT&T Pledges $500M Upgrades, Wi-Fi Too
By Erin Joyce <mailto:ejoyce@jupitermedia.com>;
June 3, 2003

AT&T said it would spend $500 million on a range of next generation networking services for businesses, including corporate intranet access via Wi-Fi hotspots it plans to install in hotels and airports around the country.
During the "SuperComm 2003" telecommunications conference in Atlanta, AT&T's Chairman and CEO David Dorman unveiled a number of improvements the company plans as part of its half billion investment, all of them designed to "raise the industry" bar on customer service.
Included on the list of improvements is a plan to deploy wireless networks that would help customers access their corporate networks from hotels and airports via the popular WiFi, or the 802.11 wireless networking protocol.
The announcement is part of an almost daily flurry of announcements about wireless networking services to businesses and consumers, as the popularity of Wi-Fi spreads.
AT&T is also one of the investors in Cometa <http://www.internetnews.com/wireless/article.php/1553001>;, a new company launched last December to provide wholesale wireless Internet access services to businesses.
But AT&T executives said the $500 million investment is about more than Wi-Fi access for business travelers. The investment is about improving the customer experience, they added, such as simplifying contracts, slashing provisioning time, improving billing accuracy, rolling out powerful electronic servicing capabilities, and linking customers' computers directly into AT&T's network-support systems.
During a keynote address at the conference, Dorman said AT&T has been steadily raising the "industry bar" in order to improve customers' experience and deliver next generation networking services.
"From ordering and provisioning to maintenance and billing, nearly all aspects of customer experience in the telecom industry have been broken for more than 20 years," he said.
In addition to the attention-catching news about Wi-Fi hotspots for corporate customers, the New York-based AT&T said that within a year, its Frame Relay customers would be able to implement network-based Internet Protocol Virtual Private Networks . Customers will be able to overlay the next generation networking services by using AT&T's new "BusinessDirect" Web-based tools that help customers self-provision services within one hour.
AT&T officials said the latest investment news comes as the company is already in the midst of consolidating its legacy networks into a single global IP infrastructure (a Multi Protocol Label Switching or MPLS-based network over an intelligent optical core) by 2005.
The company is building out its IP network and beefing up the underlying security, as well as messaging and directory capabilities so that customers can run major enterprise applications from different vendors on one integrated networking environment, officials said. The change is a major shift from the multi-platform architecture involved in traditional networking.
AT&T said it would enable WiFi access to its business Internet and VPN tunneling services in order to help business travelers connect to their corporate applications and secure data from multiple public locations.
Dorman also said by the end of this summer, AT&T would offer customers a simplified contract structure that lets customers order up AT&T services on a single master services bill.
In addition, the company pledged to cut negotiating cycle times on service agreements with customers as part of its half billion dollar pledge; The Frame Relay customers will be able to upgrade to network-based IP-VPN within a year;
Other new developments in the pledge include "e-capabilities," which uses the company's "BusinessDirect" portal for management of enterprise systems, which includes what it called enhanced sales and servicing tools that help business customers order, manage and monitor their networking services in real time.
"By directly linking to our customer's automated systems and processes, AT&T is taking a major leap forward from the traditional customer/vendor paradigm to a strategic and trusted partner that helps a company ensure business-flow continuity, manage network complexity, realize higher returns on investment and improve productivity," Dorman said in his prepared remarks for the conference.

Verizon Hotspots: The End of Costly Public Wi-Fi
June 3, 2003


Wireless providers looking to profit from public Wi-Fi hotspots may have ordered an extra double mocha latte upon hearing of Verizon's plans to enter the free wireless broadband arena. Some analysts say the phone company's recent announcement that it will offer free public 802.11 access via New York City pay phones is the death of fee-based public hotspots while potentially placing the telecom giant in head-to-head competition with other Wi-Fi services.

Although Verizon has launched in Manhattan just 150 of an eventual 1,000 public payphones converted to Wi-Fi hotspots, analysts say the move will redefine hotspot customers and venues.

Verizon's announcement "kills the consumer Wi-Fi goose," according to Charles Golvin, a Forrester Research analyst. By offering Wi-Fi as part of their broadband service, Verizon is driving the price for consumers down to zero, forcing phone and cable companies to "forgo Wi-Fi access revenues to retain their competitive edge," says Golvin.

Golvin believes the current rag-tag group of companies attempting to eek out profits while serving up Wi-Fi connections to consumers over a cup of designer coffee or a slice of pizza will be replaced by AT&T and Sprint using a wholesaler like Cometa Networks to bundle Wi-Fi access with dial-up services for mobile employees.

If Verizon's HotSpots, costing $5,000 per modified payphone, extend beyond the street corner and into a Hyatt hotel or airport lounge there could be some costly conflicts as hotspot operators vie for the same Wi-Fi customers, according to Julie Ask, a Jupiter Research analyst (Jupiter Research is owned by Jupitermedia, the parent company of this site.)

Verizon, with little or no connection to the buildings hosting their phones, would have a distinct advantage over other operators who must split hotspot revenues with venues. For example, a large portion of T-Mobile's Wi-Fi revenue reportedly goes to Starbucks.

By using its own DSL infrastructure, Verizon would save even more. T-Mobile must pay for the T1 lines going into each of its hotspots.

How will hotspot operators react to such competition? While T-Mobile refused to comment, Wayport is already working with Verizon Wireless on reselling access to hotel and airport-based Wi-Fi networks.

Ask believes Verizon's Wi-Fi experiment won't cut into other operator's profits until the carrier takes the New York City trial nationwide. Then there are quality of service questions as such a service gains momentum and usage.

Amy Cravens, a senior analyst and hotspot guru for In-Stat/MDR sees predictions of Verizon's entry into the field as the death-knell for fee-based public Wi-Fi being only a statement of the inevitable. Cravens says cafes serving up wireless broadband are not profitable and are better suited as a free amenity -- like good lighting or air-conditioning.

Cravens says there are two types of hotspot users. The true business user is found in airports. Cafes tend to serve more on-the-road sales people, says Cravens. If Verizon's Wi-Fi venture expands, it would meet the needs of the core enterprise user, says Cravens.

In order for Verizon to expand the reach of its new free Wi-Fi service beyond Wall Street and the pin-stripe areas of Manhattan, it must first solve the problem of many phones not having the electrical connections to power a Wi-Fi transmitter. At the moment, Verizon is still in the early stages. The 150 company's payphones now Wi-Fi enabled cover just seven acres, or .005 percent of Manhattan's 14,210 acres.

"The Wi-Fi industry is so early in its deployment cycle that I am not sure where it's going to wind up," says Verizon president Larry Babbio.

What Does Apple's New Wireless Technology Mean for the Future of Networking?

By Glenn Fleishman
June 03, 2003
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/21651.html

 
Unlike 802.11b, which is limited to 11 Mbps, AirPort Extreme allows raw speeds as high as 54 Mbps, or roughly half the speed of a 100BaseT network.

With a name like Airport Extreme, Apple's new networking technology might seem to be aimed at the X Games crowd, not business professionals. Nevertheless, the company's latest foray into the wireless world promises to change the way some small businesses, schools, and even home users connect to the Internet and their local networks.

What's so extreme about Airport Extreme? For starters, it's faster -- as much as five times faster than earlier Airport technology. It also features a number of improvements that help reduce interference, boost range, and may even make your networks more secure in the future.

Is Airport Extreme the answer to your wireless needs? To find out, we took a look at how the technology works and who's likely to benefit from it. Then we tested five AirPort Extreme-compatible base stations to see which one offered the best Mac performance.

Understanding AirPort
Looking at the original version of Airport, which appeared with the original iBook in 1999, is helpful in understanding how Airport Extreme improves wireless networking.

The Wireless Boom Airport was Apple's version of IEEE 802.11b, a standard for sending and receiving data wirelessly at a rate as high as 11 Mbps, which is roughly the same speed 10BaseT Ethernet networks offer. (Of course, once you've factored in networking overhead and real-world conditions, such as interference and multiple users, this speed actually translates into about 5 Mbps.)

Apple's Airport was the first truly affordable implementation of 802.11b, making the Mac a wireless leader. Eventually, hundreds of other companies jumped on the bandwagon. Now, 802.11b networking not only is found in homes and offices, but also powers fee-based bot spots, or public wireless networks, at more than 2,200 Starbucks cafes, a couple dozen airports, and hundreds of hotels, not to mention free community networks in many cities worldwide.

Over the years, however, the original 802.11b technology has worn a bit thin. As the demand for more-robust wireless networking grew, Apple began looking to a new wireless standard, 802.11g, which, with its usual flourish, it dubbed Airport Extreme.

Unlike 802.11b, which is limited to 11 Mbps, AirPort Extreme allows raw speeds as high as 54 Mbps, or roughly half the speed of a 100BaseT network. (As with the original Airport, this number is extremely optimistic. But even the more realistic expectation, 25 Mbps, is a big improvement over previous Airport speeds.) Apple is one of several companies currently selling 802.11g gear, and even more products are scheduled to hit the market by summer.

How It Works

Both Airport and Airport Extreme transfer data by first breaking it up into extremely short pulses that vary in frequency and duration. These pulses are then sent out over radio waves in the same 2.4GHz band that many cordless phones use. So there would be room for everyone, the available radio spectrum was divided up into 14 channels, 11 of which are available in the United States. But unlike cordless-phone or even Bluetooth signals, which can hop from one channel to the next, a base station is set to work on just one channel all the time.

If you picture the 2.4GHz band as a highway, a base station is a giant semitrailer that never veers from its one broad lane, no matter how many miles it travels or how much traffic lies in the road ahead of it. This means that the more people who are trying to send their data through a single base station -- and therefore a single channel -- the more clogged this lane becomes.

The Extreme Difference Airport Extreme relieves some of this congestion by raising the speed limit to 54 Mbps. This boost in speed means not only that single users can transfer data more quickly, but also that more users can work on a network at one time. Whereas busy offices might have needed more than one AirPort base station to provide adequate speed to all its employees, Airport Extreme, with its larger pool of bandwidth, can serve many users from a single base station, thus cutting down on equipment costs. (For advice on setting up Airport Extreme with large or heavily populated networks, see "Going the Distance with Airport Extreme.")

Airport Extreme also solves some of the problems of coverage and signal quality found with 802.11b. Even though 2.4GHz radio waves can mostly penetrate solid objects, there's always some reflection, especially off the metal in walls. As a result, the same signal arrives at a receiver at slightly different times. The 802.11b standard wasn't good at differentiating a reflected signal from the original. So the farther you got from a base station (and the more surfaces you encountered), the worse 802.11b performed.

AirPort Extreme can better synchronize these reflections, so it can interpret signals from a greater distance or through more obstacles at higher speeds. (For more on Airport Extreme's range in the real world, see "On the Range with Apple's New Laptops and Airport Extreme.")

For even better coverage, you can attach an external antenna to your base station -- if it offers a connector (of Apple's line, only the $249 Modem Edition supports external antennas). Dr. Bott (877/611-2688, www.drbott.com), for example, offers two such antennas: the $100 ExtendAir Omni, which claims to extend your range as much as 250 feet in every direction, and the $150 ExtendAir Direct, which claims a range as far as 500 feet in any one direction.

[Editor's note: our initial tests with the Dr. Bott extenders didn't show any marked improvement. We are continuing testing and will follow up in a future issue.]

Security Woes

One flaw with 802.11b that Airport Extreme won't immediately solve, however, is security. 802.11b uses a security standard called WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), which scrambles data as it passes over your wireless network. But a number of flaws make it easy for crackers to write software that allows anyone to break into that encrypted traffic. While home users aren't often at risk from crackers, this flaw has made WEP almost useless for businesses or other security-conscious users; smart businesses use their own encryption overlay.

The IEEE group, which sets the standards for wireless networking, has been working to fix WEP via a new standard called 802.11i, which promises government-grade encryption. However, it won't be finalized until the end of 2003. In the meantime, the Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry group that certifies 802.11b devices, came up with a stopgap measure called Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). WPA contains some of the security advancements proposed in 802.11i, is backward-compatible (802.11i will likely not be), and extends AirPort-like simplicity to non-AirPort users.

Starting in May, WPA should be available in the form of upgrades to all existing equipment from non-Apple companies. Unfortunately, Apple hasn't agreed to support either updated security system yet, which could make Macs less secure in networks that use the newer standard. (With WPA, some computers can use WEP, but it forces the whole network into a less secure mode.)

But there is promising news. The chips that Apple uses for Airport Extreme are already designed to take advantage of the most advanced features of 802.11i, should Apple decide to follow the industry.

Going to Extremes

Is Airport Extreme right for you? Well, it depends on how you use it. Having all the bandwidth in the world won't make a difference if you don't actually need it.

If you use Airport only to surf the Net from home, for example, you can almost certainly keep your old Airport gear -- cablemodem, DSL, and dial-up connections are much slower than the maximum speed of even 802.11b (at least for the foreseeable future). But if you often move lots of data around a local network, Airport Extreme may be the answer you've been looking for.

Speed Matters

To see Airport Extreme at its best, take the example of a design shop where 25MB Adobe Photoshop files are routinely sent from designer to designer, or where large projects are moved on and off network file servers. In this scenario, AirPort's 11 Mbps would feel glacial -- as well as burn up nonbillable hours.

When setting up this work environment in the past, companies often turned to Ethernet for the answer. But adding 100BaseT Ethernet requires hiring special installers who drill holes, run cable, and charge what amounts to a few hundred dollars per network outlet.

On the other hand, adding Airport Extreme costs just $50 to $100 per machine and $100 to $250 per base station. So creating a pod of 10 to 25 users sharing one base station could cost the same as wiring that installation.

But what happens when your business grows or changes location? Ethernet offers less flexibility in moving machines around and expanding your network. Adding another Airport Extreme user, even temporarily, is a tiny cost compared with bringing in another jack. And wireless users can coexist on the same network as Ethernet-connected users.

Future Needs

While most consumers aren't yet moving huge amounts of data, this may change as bigger Internet pipes begin offering speeds higher than 11 Mbps, and home electronics begin routinely streaming video and audio to each other.

In fact, this future may not be that far off. Several companies are already demonstrating home networking devices, such as Macsense's $199 HomePod (650/8694828, www.macsense.com), which lets you use 802.11b to stream music from your iTunes library to your stereo for playback.

Still, existing Airport owners should look long and hard at whether they currently need the extra speed before buying a new Airport Extreme base station. The upgrade would require new Macs in some cases (see "Take Old Macs to Extreme"), and the benefits might not be clear until we do live in that streaming-media future.

Compatibility

There's good news for existing AirPort owners who decide to go Extreme. AirPort Extreme is completely compatible with the earlier AirPort standard. This means that if you've got an 802.11b card in your PowerBook, it can connect seamlessly to an 802.11g network -- and vice versa. But keep in mind that you'll be connecting at the slower 802.11b speed.

For full-speed connections, you'll need an Airport Extreme card in your Mac and an 802.11g-compatible base station. But even then you may run into some compatibility glitches. Our tests show that just having an 802.11b machine on your Airport Extreme network can slow down the traffic for everyone. Companies say that this will likely be fixed over time. Airport Extreme Base Stations can be set to work only at the faster speed -- and thus shun any 802.11b equipment -- but most people setting up a network probably wouldn't choose such a restrictive option.

Work in Progress

There is one wrinkle in making the move to Airport Extreme, at least anytime soon: 802.11g isn't fully cooked yet. When Apple, Linksys, Belkin, and other companies started shipping 802.11g hardware in late 2002 and early 2003, the standard hadn't been finalized. And that's potentially dangerous. A wireless specification contains so much minutiae that even tiny changes could render equipment based on earlier versions incompatible.

But here's the good news: The Wi-Fi Alliance recently announced it should be ready to test and certify 802.11g equipment soon after the standard is finalized by the IEEE, which is expected to happen in June or July. In the meantime, Apple and other companies will likely continue to offer software upgrades to bring Airport Extreme in line with the latest draft of the specification.

The Last Word

Airport Extreme is a promising step in making wireless networks a real alternative to stringing wire and drilling holes. For existing AirPort users who don't move huge files over a network, or who aren't suffering from coverage problems, there's no compelling reason to upgrade right now.

But AirPort Extreme's new speed and the Base Station's bridging option make it a natural choice for businesses or schools looking to expand their networks in a more flexible and potentially less costly way than adding more Ethernet. It's also a good investment for users who want to turn their homes into wireless wonderlands with access in every room, on every floor -- not to mention that backyard office.

Atheros Beefs Up WLAN Line
06.03.03

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Atheros Communications, the market share leader in multi-standard wireless LAN (WLAN) technology, today introduced seven new chipsets that cover the gamut of WLAN applications. These chipsets support multiple WLAN standards with optimizations for different market segments and price points. A single driver and firmware code base supports all the chipsets, providing both backward and forward compatibility with Atheros' legacy and next-generation multi-standard designs. The new chipsets feature third-generation wireless technology that boosts throughput and range, while decreasing power consumption and cost.

"Atheros is supporting all the standards, covering all the international tuning ranges, setting new benchmarks for performance and range, and making WLANs both foolproof and future proof," said Allen Nogee, senior analyst at In-Stat/MDR. "Their broad range of design wins and steady stream of new products are testaments to Atheros' power in wireless LANs. We expect Atheros to maintain a position of prominence as the market for multi-mode solutions develops."

"We are announcing availability of our third-generation 802.11a/b/g and 802.11b/g silicon, while competitors still struggle to launch their first-generation products with 802.11a support," said Craig Barratt, president and chief executive officer of Atheros. "Meanwhile, our 802.11g products are dominating benchmarks by the PC OEMs, enterprise and retail vendors, and the industry press. System developers have fielded nearly 200 products based on our chipsets, and both system developers and end users will find more of what they like in our third-generation chips."

The new chipsets introduced today include three client solutions and four access point solutions:


AR5002X client -- Multi-standard 802.11a/b/g support for universal wireless connectivity to any 802.11 network; high performance and future-proofing with backward compatibility
AR5002G client -- Support for the final version 8.2 draft of the 802.11g standard; a value-priced upgrade path for legacy 802.11b networks
AR5002A client -- Reliable quality of service (QoS) and high-performance 5-GHz (802.11a) throughput required for video, audio and voice applications
AR5002AP-2X access point -- Dual-band concurrent support for 802.11a/b/g clients, with enterprise-class security and performance
AR5002AP-X access point -- Multi-standard support for small-office and medium-enterprise customers who primarily want to use 2.4-GHz technology with an interest in upgrading to 5-GHz support
AR5002AP-G access point -- Single-band 802.11b/g support for value-priced, data-centric access points and home gateways
AR5002AP-A access point -- Multi-purpose media-center support for the 5-GHz 802.11a demands of consumer electronics products

These chipsets are the most highly integrated WLAN products available today. They include all of the functionality needed to implement a client subsystem or a complete access point or gateway. Atheros has reduced the bill of materials over the company's previous generations of highly integrated chipsets as well as over competitors' chips.

The third-generation chipsets are shipping with support for draft 8.2 of the 802.11g specification -- the final 802.11g draft version. Atheros is first to market with an implementation of this final version.

In a separate release:

Atheros Communications, the market share leader in multi-standard wireless LAN (WLAN) technology, today announced its third generation of advanced WLAN client chipsets. Now shipping in volume, these chipsets are beating the industry’s previous benchmark records for range, throughput and power consumption, while supporting the latest encryption standards without compromising performance.

The third-generation products include two-chip 802.11a/b/g solutions for universal wireless connectivity anywhere in the world, 802.11b/g solutions for value-priced consumer applications, and 802.11a solutions optimized for high-performance consumer electronics and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications.

“Multi-standard technology is clearly the future of wireless connectivity,” said Aaron Vance, Industry Analyst at Synergy Research Group. “With a multimode 802.11a/b/g client solution, you don’t have to worry about which Wi-Fi standard will eventually win or what technology people will be using tomorrow. You’ve got them all covered. Your investment is safe whether you’re a consumer, a small business or an enterprise. Atheros’ multimode technology opens the way for wide-scale deployment of wireless networks in the enterprise, the home and public hotspots.”

“The key to future-proofing wireless products lies in the multimode client,” said Craig Barratt, president and chief executive officer of Atheros. “By choosing a universal client solution that supports 802.11a, 11b and 11g, users can take advantage of whatever access point happens to be available. Then they only need to upgrade the access point when they really need higher performance.”

In addition to the three new WLAN client chipsets, Atheros introduced several new third-generation access point chipsets. Please see the separate release on these products. All of the third-generation products announced today are now shipping in volume.

The new third-generation WLAN client chipsets introduced today are:


AR5002X—Provides multi-standard support for universal wireless connectivity – high-performance 802.11a and 802.11g functionality at any worldwide frequency plus backward compatibility for 802.11b. This product offers certified DFS/TPC capabilities and more than 12 times the frequency range of 802.11b/g-only products. It is a single chipset that meets all worldwide radio regulations.
AR5002G—Provides support for draft 8.2 of the 802.11g standard, the final version of the specification, for users who want a basic upgrade path from legacy 802.11b networks. Atheros is first-to-market with an implementation of this final 802.11g version. The unique experience gained in refining three generations of OFDM modulation technology enables Atheros to lead in 802.11g range, throughput and power consumption.
AR5002A—Provides the reliable quality of service (QoS) and high-performance 5-GHz throughput required by consumer electronics companies for video, audio and voice applications. This chipset includes support for Wireless Multimedia Enhancements (WME) QoS and client polling from the draft 802.11e specification.

Each of the three new client solutions consists of just two chips—an integrated MAC-plus-baseband chip and a high-performance radio chip. These chips integrate the external filters, memories, power amplifiers and other expensive components needed to implement WLAN client devices, reducing the bill of materials cost even further than Atheros’ previous two generations of chipsets. This integration simplifies system-level designs, increases wireless performance and minimizes overall system cost.

In a separate release:

Atheros Communications, the market-share leader in multi-standard wireless LAN (WLAN) technology, today announced the volume availability of four new wireless-system-on-a-chip (WiSoC) solutions that dramatically increase wireless performance and security while reducing parts count, cost and power consumption. By combining fast network processors with high-performance wireless and wireline technologies, Atheros provides the basis for inexpensive, secure access points, gateways and routers that communicate concurrently with IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g clients.

“Atheros is a leader in the field in 11a/b/g, 11b/g and 11a silicon for wireless networking,” said Connie Wong, director at Semico Research. “Improving on an already high level of integration makes Atheros’ new solutions ideal for wireless infrastructure developers, who can reduce overall costs considerably while offering secure, high-performance enterprise and home-gateway products.”

“With a single-chip wireless network processor and its radios, Atheros provides the industry’s ultimate wireless access point, gateway and audio/video solutions,” said Craig Barratt, president and chief executive officer of Atheros. “We are shipping chipsets optimized for secure enterprise-class access points, cost-sensitive home and small-office gateway and router products, and robust-quality-of-service audio/video products. For market-segment coverage and advanced technology, no one else even comes close to Atheros.”

Now shipping in volume, the new chipsets in the AR5002AP family represent the most highly integrated WLAN infrastructure products available today. They include:


AR5002AP-2X—Supports dual-band concurrent WLAN networks for access points or home gateways. The AR5002AP-2X allows these products to communicate with 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g clients simultaneously with no performance compromises, while operating Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) with TKIP or government-level AES encryption and 802.1x-based authentication.
AR5002AP-X—Provides configurable multi-standard 802.11a/b/g support, enabling universal wireless connectivity for small-office and medium-enterprise customers who primarily want to use 2.4-GHz technology but have an interest in upgrading to 5-GHz support.
AR5002AP-G—Provides 802.11b/g support for value-priced 2.4-GHz data-centric access points and home gateways.
AR5002AP-A—Delivers the high-performance 5-GHz throughput and reliable quality of service required for video and audio/voice applications.

The flagship AR5002AP-2X chipset includes a wireless network processor with dual, concurrent MAC/baseband functionality, dual Ethernet ports with switching capability, dual hardware encryption engines and a 220-MHz embedded MIPS R4000-class processor. This chipset also includes two independent radios for both the 5- and 2.4-GHz bands (802.11a and 802.11b/g, respectively), enabling the concurrent operation of two simultaneous networks with no performance degradation. The AR5002AP-2X takes full advantage of the throughput available from both bands, while reducing the chip count for a complete dual-band access point or router from nine chips to three.

All four of the new access point chipsets feature WiSoC designs that integrate the wireless and wireline functionality needed to implement a complete access point or router. Atheros has significantly reduced the bill of materials compared with the company’s previous generations of highly integrated chipsets and competitors’ solutions.

The third-generation chipsets are shipping with support for draft 8.2 of the 802.11g specification—the final 11g draft version. Atheros is first to market with an implementation of this final version.

In addition to the four new WiSoC chipsets, Atheros introduced three new third-generation client chipsets. Please see the separate release on these products for more details. All of the third-generation products announced today are now in volume production.

Boeing and Lufthansa Technik Receive Pioneering Approval for Wireless Internet and Data Access in Commercial Airliners





    SEATTLE, June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) and Lufthansa Technik have received industry-leading aircraft certifications from the German aviation authorities (LBA) and the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority
(CAA) that will enable the use of airborne wireless applications on select commercial flights using the Connexion by Boeing mobile information service. The groundbreaking rulings pave the way for passengers to use their own IEEE 802.11b Wi-Fi devices within the airline cabin environment.

    "These collaborative authorizations for wireless communications in the cabin are a significant breakthrough for British Airways and Lufthansa and something that we've worked extremely hard to obtain," said Connexion by Boeing Vice President of Global Network Sales Stan Deal. "Our technical teams have worked diligently to demonstrate that wireless applications comply with rigorous aviation standards and also to demonstrate the value-added benefits
that wireless connectivity can bring to air travel worldwide."

    Receipt of the wireless authorizations is the result of unprecedented industry cooperation between Lufthansa German Airlines, British Airways, Lufthansa Technik, Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Connexion by Boeing. As the certification applicant, Lufthansa Technik designed the onboard Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and developed the certification plan. Working together, Connexion by Boeing and Boeing Commercial Airplanes developed a supporting plan for testing and analyses and provided technical guidance to resolve all certification review items levied by the certification authorities.

    Airline passengers will now have the ability to use their own wireless-enabled laptop or personal electronic devices (PEDs) for real-time, high-speed access to the full richness of the Internet including two-way e-mail, virtual
private network access and streaming audio and video content, by accessing an open wireless local area network onboard a 747-400 airliner equipped with the Connexion by Boeing service.

    The evolution of Wi-Fi technology into commercial airliners is expected to provide additional simplicity to the overall cabin environment and will help reduce wires associated with using a traditional hard-wired Ethernet
connection. Airline operations also are expected to benefit through potential customer service applications, enhanced crew communications and the reduction in overall cabin weight.

    To support the service certification, Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Connexion by Boeing conducted extensive laboratory testing of wireless PEDs to demonstrate compliance with stringent aviation standards. Connexion by Boeing also completed human health analyses, radio frequency propagation and field strength analyses and airplane electromagnetic susceptibility tests and
analyses. Connexion One, a flying laboratory used to demonstrate overall system capability and to certify portions of the on-board hardware, systems and procedures, has flown a wireless network for the past two years under an
experimental license approved by the Federal Communications Commission.

    The Connexion by Boeing team has worked closely with the global airlines and with leading mobile technology industry leaders such as Intel and others on the evolution of Wi-Fi technologies. A wireless laboratory established in
Irvine, Calif., is used to study and monitor new technologies, including the 802.11 standards, to ensure that aircraft and passenger safety, and the security and integrity of transmitted data remain the highest priority.

    With the CAA and LBA wireless approvals, Boeing continues to build momentum toward the full-scale introduction of the Connexion by Boeing service
in early 2004. "We continue to work closely with the aviation and government agencies around the world to demonstrate compliance with existing standards
and to gain the necessary approvals to move forward," said Connexion by Boeing Director of Programs and Services Donna Halker. "It is extremely pleasing to have the CAA and LBA authorities working with us to establish this important
precedent. They've contributed to the achievement of a monumental leap forward in aviation passenger services by helping us bring wireless broadband connectivity to the skies."

US Robot Intros Turbo 'G'
06.03.03

ATLANTA -- U.S. Robotics is enabling wireless network users to send and receive data faster, more securely and with greater compatibility. Announced today at SuperComm 2003 (Booth 10819), U.S. Robotics 802.11g Wireless Turbo family is powered by the company’s exclusive “Accelerator Technology,” which increases performance levels up to 100 Mbps1 on a single channel. Available in July throughout North America, the U.S. Robotics 802.11g Wireless Turbo portfolio includes a router, multi-function access point, PCI adapter and PC card.

“U.S. Robotics’ exclusive Accelerator Technology provides our Wireless Turbo users with 54 Mbps accelerated to 100 Mbps performance,” said Kevin Goulet, director of product management for U.S. Robotics. “The new portfolio is actually capable of delivering data with the fastest throughputs available—nearly double over other 802.11g products.”

To ensure the fastest data throughput rates at all times, U.S. Robotics designed the 802.11g Wireless Turbo line for total compatibility with all 54 Mbps 802.11g, 22 Mbps and 11 Mbps 802.11b wireless devices. Competitive products will commonly experience network slowdowns in mixed mode networking environments, which essentially sacrifices data throughput for compatibility. U.S. Robotics 802.11g Wireless Turbo products ensure that each device will securely connect independently at the highest speed possible with any combination of 54 Mbps 802.11g, 22 Mbps and 11 Mbps 802.11b wireless devices.

Unlike other high-speed networking technologies, Goulet added that U.S. Robotics maximizes network capacity by placing all the speed on a single channel. “Our Wireless Turbo users reap the benefits of the speed purchased due to greater compatibility with 802.11g and 802.11b. Each device connects at the fastest speeds possible, which is important for network owners with multiple users who require the highest performance to be maintained,” he said.

Because security is a critical concern in any network, U.S. Robotics 802.11g Wireless Turbo products are designed to be up to 10 times more secure than standard wireless networking products. This high level of integrated security includes a number of features to make wireless networking safe and reliable. Built-in 256-bit Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption, 802.1x network authentication, and MAC address authentication provides a highly secure, yet easily maintained wireless network. Additionally, all U.S. Robotics 802.11g Wireless Turbo products will also support Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption once the 802.11i security standard is ratified. Users can work wirelessly with the confidence of knowing they have the highest level of security protecting their network data and communications.

The versatility and ease of use of U.S. Robotics 802.11g Wireless Turbo products mean a wireless network can be easily set up with an existing wired network without expensive infrastructure costs. A quick and easy three-step installation process instantly allows users to be more productive with their new wireless network. The unique, stackable case design of the router and multi-function access point require minimal space, so that both home network users and small-to-medium size business owners alike can grow their networks with an entire family of other U.S. Robotics networking and broadband devices.

The U.S. Robotics 802.11g Wireless Turbo product line includes the following solutions designed to optimize any network:


U.S. Robotics Wireless Turbo Access Point & Router is ideal for sharing a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection, data files, music and games among multiple computers. The router includes four products in one—an 802.11g Wireless Turbo Access Point, 4-port Ethernet switch, router and firewall. (Model 8054)
U.S. Robotics Wireless Turbo Multi-Function Access Point is a professional-grade access point that has the power and features of a high-performance client adapter for Windows and non-Windows devices. The access point includes five products in one—an Access Point, Bridge, Multi-Bridge, Client and Repeater. The repeater function relays signals across multiple access points for greater wireless range and coverage, and a powerful class-leading ARM9 processor that allows for maximum data transfer in large, critical networks. The device is capable of bridging both wired and wireless networks, includes full SNMP management for network administration, and incorporates configurable transmit/receive power control for optimal network configuration. (Model 5450)
U.S. Robotics Wireless Turbo PCI Adapter allows users to wirelessly connect to the power of an entire network from their desktop computer. The included Site Survey feature makes finding the closest access point easy and simplifies wireless network configuration. (Model 5416)
U.S. Robotics Wireless Turbo PC Card for laptops lets users take the power of an entire network with them to stay connected to e-mail, shared files and the Internet from wherever the user needs it. The PC card’s unique low-power design gets the most from a laptop’s battery to keep users online longer. (Model 5410)

Actual performance may vary depending on operating environment and distance between networked computers.

GoConnect and XONE first to launch consumer killer application on WiFi
June 03, 2003
The GoTrek technology is compatible with Microsoft´s Windows Media technology. [...] Receiving devices for m-Vision can either be the Pocket PC Phone such as the O2xda Phone or the Qtek Phone, which runs the Windows Operating System, or any low-end Pocket PC with 2002 Edition and above with WiFi connectivity.

GoConnect Australia Pty Ltd ("GoConnect"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Australian listed public company GoConnect Ltd ("GCN") announced that it has entered into an agreement with Australia´s largest WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) Hotspot operator, XONE Pty Ltd ("Xone"), to jointly promote and deliver GoConnect´s consumer video subscription service, m-Vision. Xone´s WiFi hotspots will provide convenient access for m-Vision subscribers to download and update their m-Vision video content. GCN and Xone believe strongly m-Vision will be one of the first consumer killer applications to be deployed for the WiFi industry. Powered by GCN´s patented GoTrek technology, the m-Vision videos will be of TV quality on the receiving device regardless of the Internet access speed of the subscriber. The GoTrek technology is compatible with Microsoft´s Windows Media technology.

In July last year, GCN announced its wireless Internet strategy for its GoTrek technology and early this year the company also announced the launch of the m-Vision video subscription service to be delivered over wireless Internet. While initial efforts had focused largely on the mobile phone industry to deliver m-Vision over the GPRS mobile phone network, GCN has since early 2003, added its significant WiFi focus to the development of m-Vision. The agreement with Xone represents the first step in GCN´s business plan in working with the WiFi industry, and in capitalizing on the tremendous expansion in WiFi network capacity around the world.

m-Vision will be a multi-content channel interactive video subscription service with content including movie trailers, music videos, sports, finance and investment program, video horoscope, weather report, and more. A basic package of the service can be subscribed for on a prepaid 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months basis. Premium content channels will also be available for subscription for additional payment. The m-Vision service will go live at the beginning of June this year. As well as marketing the service through various channel partners, GCN will also provide the m-Vision subscribers with easy online purchase from www.m-vision.tv.

Receiving devices for m-Vision can either be the Pocket PC Phone such as the O2xda Phone or the Qtek Phone, which runs the Windows Operating System, or any low-end Pocket PC with 2002 Edition and above with WiFi connectivity. Subscribers to m-Vision will be able to convert their Pocket PCs or Pocket PC phones into portable video playing devices with video content regularly updated by the m-Vision service.

m-Vision subscribers using Pocket PCs in Australia, will be able to visit Xone´s hotspots to update m-Vision content without downloading cost as this cost will be included in the subscription price. With WiFi connectivity and GoConnect´s agreement with Xone, m-Vision subscribers will be able to have their video content updated regularly via Xone´s many WiFi hotspots. While GoConnect and Xone are providing a win-win formula to each other under this agreement for revenue generation, with attractive subscription prices, convenience of access to update content, and with the cost of downloading m-Vision content already bundled in to the subscription price, m-Vision subscribers will be major beneficiaries as well.

In recent months, the WiFi industry has started to gain significant growth momentum with projected explosive growth rates of up to 1,000 per cent in the number of WiFi hotspots this year globally. Using the unregulated 2.4 MHz radio spectrum, WiFi or the 802.11b technology, offers broadband speed of up to 11 Mbps to online consumers without the need to "wire up" their computing devices to be connected to the Internet. Fueling this rapid WiFi growth is not just the proliferation of WiFi hotspots but also the introduction of mobile computing devices, laptops and Pocket PCs, with built in WiFi capability. For the cost of up to US$100, consumers can now turn their existing laptops and Pocket PCs into WiFi enabled devices by adding plug-and -play WiFi cards to such devices. The recently introduced Intel Centrino chip for the laptop PC, backed up by a reported US$300 million global marketing campaign by Intel, is just part of the giant movement to encourage everyone to go wireless on the Internet and to adopt the WiFi technology. Yet, despite the projected explosive growth in the number of WiFi hotspots this year globally, there has been scant discussion of what kind of consumer killer applications will drive the average consumers to the hotspots, until the arrival of m-Vision.

Commenting on the signing of the agreement with GoConnect, Mr Paul Pettersen, CEO of Xone, said,

"Xone is currently one of the largest WiFi hotspot operators in Australia with 38 hotspots in the 4 Australian capital cities of Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. Within 12 months, we expect the number of Xone hotspots to have grown nationally to 100 in 10 Australian capital cities.

While we are a pioneer in the WiFi industry and have now established a substantial market share with 38 out of the total of about 100 existing WiFi hotspots in Australia, we see the tremendous importance of the consumer sector in underpinning the continuing growth and profitability of WiFi. We are absolutely delighted to have established this working relationship with GoConnect. GoConnect´s m-Vision service provides the first compelling consumer application that we have come across for the WiFi industry. We expect m-Vision to deliver to our hotspots the regular consumer traffic. With the high Internet access speed and the wide spread of our hotspots in already 4 capital cities, m-Vision subscribers will have the best Internet experience and the convenience of access from many of our hotspot locations.

"From now on, having a cup of coffee at one of our WiFi hotspots may take on a whole new meaning for consumers. It may simply be an occasion to update your m-Vision video content."

Mr Richard Li, Chairman of GCN, said,

"We have been very impressed with the phenomenal growth the WiFi industry has generated to-date. We are delighted to have entered into this agreement with Xone. Xone´s founders have been visionary in establishing their early and now strong presence in the Australian WiFi industry.

"From the research we have conducted of the WiFi industry, we know, however, that whatever growth we have seen to-date represents only the tip of the iceberg for the potential of this rapidly growing industry. Our patented GoTrek technology, which powers m-Vision, is network independent. Accordingly, we are able to quickly position GCN strategically in the WiFi industry. With partners like Xone and Microsoft, we will be able to take advantage of the substantial expansion of WiFi network capacity, and the existing large but growing population of WiFi enabled Pocket PC users for conversion to m-Vision subscribers.

We estimate annual global sales of Pocket PCs to be approximately 10 million units. With the recent large reduction in Pocket PC prices to more mass consumer friendly levels, we believe not only will the number of Pocket PC users grow significantly, but also exciting consumer entertainment application such as m-Vision will contribute further to this growth. We have been fortunate that Microsoft has provided significant support to us in our development effort to deploy the m-Vision service on the Microsoft Pocket PC devices. With their ongoing support, we believe we will be even more successful in expanding the m-Vision subscriber base internationally."

Commenting on the signing of this agreement, Mr Peter Davidson, Asia Regional Manager, Digital Media Division of Microsoft said,

"At Microsoft, we are eager to provide the necessary support to our development partners, such as GoConnect, so that they are able to commercialize their product successfully.

m-Vision provides a compelling consumer application for the mobile computing and WiFi industries."

May 30, 2003
Wireless Mt. Washington
By Gerry Blackwell

The winter weather at the top of Mount Washington, the highest peak in New
Hampshire and in the whole northeast United States, is, in a word, foul.

On one record-breaking occasion, the wind speed measured at the Mount
Washington Observatory reached 230 miles per hour. While it may be true that
you can't fall off a mountain, in those conditions you could easily get
blown off one.

If Wi-Fi can work here, it stands to reason, it can work just about
anywhere. Thanks to some canny engineering by Robert "Hobbes" Zakon, chief
technology officer at Zakon Group LLC of North Conway, N.H., Wi-Fi does
indeed work here.

Zakon engineered a five-mile point-to-point shot using ORiNOCO
(http://www.orinocowireless.com)
equipment from Proxim to connect a remote Web cam to the Observatory's wired
frame-relay link to the Internet.

"Mount Washington is renowned for having the worst weather in the
northeast," Zakon says. "The highest ground wind ever recorded in the U.S.
was recorded there. It's a whole lot of weather -- snow, ice, winds.
Engineering a solution was a big challenge."

His firm, a consulting/engineering jack of all trades, counts wireless as
one of its specialties, but only one of many. "We work mostly with advanced
and emerging technologies," Zakon says.

Mount Washington Observatory is a non-profit weather research station. The
facility is shared by the US Forest Service and is also a tourist center in
the summer. The Observatory already had some Web cams in place to show
weather conditions on the mountain, but it didn't have any outside, and it
didn't have any that showed a key feature: the Tuckerman Ravine on the
southeast side, an area popular with spring skiers and summer hikers.

A Web cam would be a boon to the hikers and skiers. "Sometimes it's snowing
up there when it's a perfectly sunny day down below [in North Conway],"
Zakon says. "And you get some amazing cloud cover up there." If it was
properly done, if it could show enough detail, a Web cam might even be
useful in helping guide rescuers to avalanche survivors.

The Observatory secured a government grant to install a Web cam that would
show the ravine. Observatory members who use the recreation facilities on
the mountain also chipped in. Securing funds was the easy part, though. It
was left up to Zakon to solve the real problems: how to provision and power
a communications link 6,000 feet up a desolate mountain.

The logical place to put the Web cam to get the view the Observatory wanted
was across Pinkham Notch (a notch is a gap in a mountain range) at the
Wildcat ski area, a seasonal facility only open in late winter and early
spring.

Whatever communications technology they used, it would need power. The ski
area uses gasoline generators, which the Web cam station could also have
used -- but only during the short skiing season. The Observatory could also
have installed its own generator, but that would have meant hauling fuel up
the mountain in winter, which would be impractical.

That left solar or wind. Wind power involves moving parts exposed to
extremely high winds which could result in damage or jamming. Zakon went
with solar from SunWize Technologies of Kingston, N.Y.

An affordable system couldn't be counted on to provide continuous power year
round, but the communications and camera technology wouldn't need to be
switched on all the time as the plan was to transmit an image only every 15
minutes.

"We're not looking at people in an Internet cafe here," Zakon points out.
"Things aren't going to change that fast." So the system was engineered with
a photo-cell switch and timer that would switch the system on only during
daylight hours for three minutes at a time every 15 minutes.

That solved the power source problem.

Getting a phone line to the ski area was out of the question. The ski
operators use walkie-talkie-style radios for communications. While surveying
the area, though, Zakon noticed that he could see the roof of the
observatory from Wildcat. That meant fixed wireless was a possibility.

After researching the market, he decided the best bet was standards-based
2.4 GHz -- Wi-Fi. It provided the bandwidth required to transmit
high-quality images, it was inexpensive -- and going with a standards-based
solution would make it easier in the future to turn the Wildcat site into a
hub for a wireless network of remote stations feeding weather data.

Zakon considered off-the-shelf components from Young Design Inc. (YDI) and
HyperLink Technologies Inc., but in the end opted for the all-in-one-box
ORiNOCO Point-to-Point Backbone Kit, built around the OR-500 Outdoor Router.
(Proxim has since replaced this product with the Tsunami QuickBridge 11.)

The ORiNOCO gear barely met the five-mile range requirement, but a
single-vendor, pre-engineered solution was easier to sell to the
Observatory, which would be maintaining the system after Zakon got it up and
running. "ORiNOCO technical support said, 'Yes, it'll probably work,'" he
recalls. "We didn't get the warmest fuzziest feelings from ORiNOCO."

Zakon also gave careful consideration to an antenna, selecting a Yagi model
from ORiNOCO in the end. It had to be directional to reduce the potential
for interference with other RF activity on the mountain, including military,
government and broadcast. With a parabolic antenna, there would be the
possibility of ice accumulating in the dish and attenuating the signal. A
whip antenna would be too prone to snapping in the wind.

Placement of the antennas and radios was critical -- especially at the
Wildcat end where the camera would also be placed. Zakon found an ideal
spot. The ski area at one time had a gondola ski lift. The structure at the
top of the mountain remained. Zakon had a custom enclosure built for the
wireless, solar power and camera technology and mounted it in one of the
gondola bays.

At the Observatory end, he found he could mount the antenna and radio inside
in a window well behind hurricane-proof glass.

In the end, though, all the careful engineering amounted to best guesses as
to what the equipment could withstand in the way of weather. The Observatory
made the decision to go ahead and buy the equipment and test it this winter
before going live. As it happened, it was a good year to test -- it was one
of the worst winters in a long time. The network came through with flying
colors.

The camera is a Canon VC-C4 pan/tilt/zoom (PTV) model. It's controlled by a
purposely-built AXIS 2401 Video Server from Axis Communications, a Swedish
company, which allows an operator to control its angle of view and zoom the
lens in and out over the Internet.

To see output from the Wildcat Web cam, go to this page at the Mount
Washington Observatory site. To learn more about the engineering project and
see pictures of the technology in situ, go to this page at Zakon's site.

http://boston.internet.com/news/article.php/2214541

Sybase pumps $25m into Wi-Fi bubble
By Drew Cullen
Posted: 04/06/2003 at 12:31 GMT


The Register's Wireless LAN Channel

Sybase is to speed up the development of enterprise apps over Wi-Fi in a $25m push.

The database firm is setting up some Wi-Fi competency centres, appointing the University of Waterloo as its first. And it is to spend some of the $25m on a global marketing campaign conducted through its resellers.

Sybase is big on mobility: it claims 10,000 corporate customers for mobile and wireless information access technology supplied by its iAnyware Solutions subsidiary. And it owns the "world's biggest mobile content service", MyAvantgo with eight million registered users.

The company notes the huge upswing in corporate interest in WiFi. There is "enormous pent-up reliable enterprise Wi-Fi applications that deliver measurable ROI".

However, an "estimated 30 per cent of executives cite significant barriers to deployment of Wi-Fi including inconsistent connectivity, low network security, short device battery life, a lack of reliable 'unwired' applications and technology infrastructure that is not wireless-enabled.

Sybase says its WiFi technology already addresses successfully the issues of connectivity, security and battery life. And it has brought Jack Gold, veep at analyst firm META to deliver the following quote:

"Although enterprises see great potential in applying Wi-Fi technologies to their business, many are still confused about employing Wi-Fi, with security, application persistence, and ease of deployment/use as primary concerns. There are significant opportunities for vendors to take a leadership position by enabling one-stop, complete solutions, thus easing the way for enterprises to apply these technologies to their business."

Is $25m enough? ®

5G Wireless Expands Wi-Fi Footprint in Garden
Grove to Include Fire and Public Works Departments

    5G Wireless announced it is expanding its footprint in the City of Garden Grove, California, with the addition of 12 new locations to the 9 existing high-speed wireless 802.11b (Wi-Fi) connections it currently provides.

    "We regularly demonstrate successful service up to 5 miles away from our Access Points and we were confident that our proprietary technology would have little difficulty making these connections for Garden Grove," stated Jerry Dix, President and CEO of 5G Wireless. "We're developing a reputation for not only delivering the `last mile' but going the extra mile in exceeding customer expectations."

    Charles Kalil, Information Systems Manager for the City of Garden Grove, stated, "In phase one, we were hoping for bandwidth of 1 to 1.5 Mbps, but with the 5G solution, we consistently receive speeds of up to 3 Mbps from distances of over four miles as well as from non-line-of-sight shots through trees and buildings. It has been very impressive, since 5G has been able to make connections where another wireless provider had failed. They actually penetrate buildings while delivering speeds consistent with line-of-sight locations. They delivered more than what they promised."

    The Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) for the City now links City Hall and other municipal buildings, including police stations, and with the addition of these 12 new locations, the Fire stations and Public Works departments will also benefit. The 5G solution has allowed the City to eliminate additional connectivity and consolidate broadband operations at a central location, decreasing management and service costs.

    "Having a wireless infrastructure is critical to our Public Safety operations," added Kalil. "We now have a reliable means of providing critical information as well as normal municipal functions in the event of an emergency. And it's gratifying to know we're doing it at an affordable level at a time when we are under intense pressure to reduce costs due to the State's budget crisis."

Edited by author 06-04-2003 03:36 PM
Why Centrino and VPNs Don't Mix


Story location: <http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,59050,00.html>;

02:00 AM Jun. 02, 2003 PT

Intel has a problem on its hands with its new chipset for wireless laptops: The Centrino chipset can freeze laptops trying to run software for creating Virtual Private Networks.

Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, are widely used "tunnels" that allow a user to connect to internal computer networks at businesses, schools and governments through the Internet.

VPNs are especially important when using public wireless hotspots, which are notoriously insecure. Intel's new Centrino chipset is designed to connect laptops to the Internet wirelessly, but without a VPN, a connection can be snooped on by a knowledgeable computer cracker.

According to Intel's website, only five VPN software clients are compatible with the new Centrino chipset, and only after a key software driver for the chipset is disabled.

The company recommends that users shut down a utility for automatically switching between wireless hotspots called the Adapter Switching Feature.

If the utility isn't disabled, users risk the dreaded "blue screen of death," a complete system lockup that requires the computer to be unplugged and rebooted.

The VPN incompatibility, first reported by Wired News, was initially thought to be isolated to VPN software from Nortel Networks.

But Intel now admits that users of other VPN systems also may be affected, although the company refuses to specify which VPNs are not supported by the Centrino chipset. According to market research company Gartner Dataquest, the most popular VPNs are supplied by Cisco Systems, Check Point Software Technologies, Nokia and Nortel.

Intel's website says only that the chipset supports two of Intel's own VPN clients, and VPNs from Cisco, Check Point and Microsoft if the Adapter Switching Feature is disabled when the VPN software is in use.

"We are aware of an issue where in some configurations of the VPN connection with our (Centrino) Proset software and the adaptive switching feature is enabled, it could cause a notebook PC to not work properly," said Intel spokesman Dan Francisco.

Francisco would not say whether the company was recalling any notebook computers or tweaking the Centrino chipset to address the issue. He encouraged workers with problems to consult with their companies' IT departments or the VPN software publishers.

The Intel chipset, which enables users to connect to Wi-Fi networks without a PC card, debuted in March. By the end of 2003, approximately 35 percent of notebooks will be wirelessly equipped, according to market research company IDC.

Uninstalling the problematic switching utility would make it more difficult for people to use public wireless Internet hotspots, which the company touts as a primary feature of the Centrino <http://www.intel.com/ebusiness/notebook/in...tspots_03ww21b&/>; chipset.

Without the switching utility, users would have to fill out a special profile with a different IP address every time they switched to a new wireless hotspot, experts said.
"You would need to be an absolute expert to configure a wireless system, unless you had this utility," said Sheung Li, product manager at wireless chipmaker Atheros Communications <http://www.atheros.com/>;.

Industry analysts said the incompatibility could present a problem for Intel if businesses are discouraged from purchasing Centrino-enabled laptops because they can't easily run VPN software on them.

"Our research indicates that Centrino is ramping very quickly," said Shane Rau, an analyst with IDC. "I think any glitches like this that delay the ramp are not as fundamental a problem now as if they were discovered six months or 12 months from now when Centrino would represent a bigger part of overall notebook PC sales."

Some users are griping about other mobility-related features of Centrino. Derek Kerton, principle consultant at the Kerton Group <http://www.kerton.com/>;, is one of a handful who has posted complaints about Centrino on various blogs <http://www.techdirt.com/news/wireless/article/1820/>;.
Kerton recently purchased two Centrino-enabled laptops and, to his dismay, he cannot connect to a Wi-Fi network. When he does get a signal, he is kicked off immediately, he said. The problem, which Kerton believes to be a software issue, has forced him to use his old PC card instead.
"Those of us who bought these first-generation chips from Intel should be more careful," he said. "You shouldn't buy a first model year car. I shouldn't have bought a first model year chip."

Intel plans to release a faster, cheaper version of the Centrino chipset next month, according to The Inquirer <http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=9490/>;.

Intel stock (INTC) on Friday afternoon traded for $20.82 a share.

Cisco touts plan to tame WLANs
By John Cox
Network World, 06/02/03

Cisco this week will answer the challenge of a pack of aggressive wireless LAN switch vendors with a plan for managing WLANs across an enterprise network.

One big difference: Cisco will do it without introducing a dedicated WLAN switch.

Cisco's plans feature new software that will add more intelligence to the company's Aironet access points, while laying the foundation for more-centralized management of these devices and of the actual radio medium.

Management of access points and of the radio frequency are areas in which Cisco has been weak, despite the company's overall strength in the WLAN market. As a result, network executives trying to deploy big WLANs have turned to third-party suppliers for these needs. Or, like Cisco's internal IT group, they've written their own management tools.

As part of its WLAN management and operations framework, which Cisco says follows its efforts over the past two years to improve WLAN security, the company will release a series of software upgrades to several hardware products starting late this summer. The new code is designed to add several key security standards, enable customers to configure thousands of access points at a time, and let administrators read and adjust radio signal strengths. It will also identify radio interference, and detect unauthorized (or rogue) access points. In addition, Cisco is relying on its Access Control Server appliance to handle authentication in the network.

Partners in WLAN

Cisco also is partnering with companies that have committed to incorporating Cisco WLAN code into their semiconductors. Laptops and PDAs with adapter cards using these chips will become "visible" to back-end Cisco management tools, including the new radio frequency tools. The company says these client products will appear in late summer.

"[This announcement] is the piece that's been missing," says David Hemendinger, CTO for Lifespan, a Providence, R.I., healthcare system with about 400 Cisco Aironet access points in five hospitals. The hospital group has beta tested Cisco's upgraded Wireless LAN Solutions Engine and access points with the upgraded software. "Cisco has great management tools for the wired side, but they never had this capability for their wireless infrastructure products."

Hemendinger says the new code helps him in three key areas: WLAN design, administration and rogue access point detection.

Traditionally, designs are created via a labor-intensive site survey, often with the help of specialists. With the new radio frequency tools, and the newly visible client adapters, Cisco now gives him an overview of the actual coverage of the WLAN and its signal strengths. He says the Aironet access points automatically can configure themselves to values set by the administrator. "This will take out of the picture a lot of . . . the mysticism of creating a coverage plan for your wireless LAN," he says.

 
Managing the wireless devices will be simplified with new code in an improved version of CiscoWorks Wireless LAN Solutions Engine, the first version of which was announced about a year ago. The upgraded box is set for delivery in July for about $8,500, Cisco says.

"I can collectively manage all the wireless devices, just as I do with switches and routers in my wired environment," Hemendinger says. "I can download a configuration to the access points, based on the analysis I've done [in the design phase]."

The new code also will let Lifespan automate the detection of unauthorized access points. Today, two network technicians spend nearly a full day each week walking around the hospital sites with handheld scanners to find new access points. The code turns each access point and wireless client into a radio monitor that can pick up new radio broadcasts.

Cisco says it will develop this strategy further in 2004, when it starts to release what company executives call wireless-aware upgrades to IOS, the brains in its routers and switches.

This upgraded code will support the IEEE 802.1x port authentication standard, start to offload from the Aironet access points a variety of functions, and give these network devices the ability to see and manage radio frequency.

"We don't believe in 'dumb' access points," says William Rossi, vice president and general manager for Cisco's wireless business unit. "The access points will eventually become smart antennas." However, Rossi says that the work done today at the access point, such as communicating with other access points for handoffs and roaming, SNMP processing and so on, will shift to switches and routers.

Cisco's critics and rivals are unimpressed.

"Nothing in their announcement is significant," says George Prodan, vice president of marketing with Trapeze Networks, a wireless switch start-up. "Everything on this list is a 'me, too' function, and they still fall short of several requirements." Prodan says Cisco lacks tools for capacity planning and user management, and doesn't support dynamic virtual LANs for wireless.

Because wireless clients can move between access points over subnets, among buildings, VLANs are a more complex issue in wireless than in wired LANs.

"The big problem here is how long will enterprises wait for this solution from Cisco?" says Jeff Aaron, senior manager of product marketing, with Airespace, another wireless switch start-up. "A year is a lifetime in this industry. In 2004, vendors such as Airespace will be on the third generation of products already. Why should an enterprise wait for a first-generation product from Cisco?"

Cisco's Rossi says his company's plan treats access points as part of the enterprise network, not as a network overlay that requires a specialized appliance - a wireless switch - in every wiring closet (some vendors let their wireless switch sit in the data center at the network core).

Wireless switches, Rossi says, are essentially access-point aggregators that can't compare with Cisco plans to upgrade its CiscoWorks Wireless LAN Solutions Engine to configure and upgrade as many as 2,500 access points with a mouse click.

"Why was there ever a limit [for that product] to start with? Why is there any limit on access point count?" Trapeze's Prodan asks. "We have no limit here."

Other vendors say their boxes will fit into Cisco's approach, but add a range of features that Cisco doesn't offer, such as hand-offs across VLANs, and security and access policy management. That's the strategy being pushed by vendors such as ReefEdge, which announced its CS200 WLAN concentrator in April.

"The Cisco announcement validates the concept of a controller function that sits behind the access points," says Sandeep Singhai, CTO for ReefEdge.

Network executives will have their hands full sorting out these claims, and changing their perspective to accept a new WLAN architecture, says Aaron Vance, WLAN analyst with Synergy Research Group.

"At this point, enterprise IT people don't really know how they see wireless LANs," Vance says. "The majority of enterprise wireless deployments today are departmental in nature. They're not large-scale."

The migration of IOS into the Aironet access points, and the ability to tie them back, via IOS, into existing products such as the Wireless LAN Solutions Engine and the Cisco Secure Access Controller, will make sense for a lot of corporate customers, Vance says.

The argument by Cisco rivals that IOS in the access points is needlessly complex and burdensome is the kind of argument that might make sense to an outsider, Vance says, but Cisco customers understand the software thoroughly.

Location: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2135519,00.html
Virgin leaps on board with Wi-Fi


Graeme Wearden

Virgin Trains is rolling out wireless networks at several of the railway stations it serves, and is also aiming to crack the holy grail of Wi-Fi access on a moving train.

The train operator announced last week that it is installing Wi-Fi hot spots at Birmingham International and Manchester Piccadilly. These will give high-speed Internet access to Virgin customers if they are on the station concourse, in one of the station's cafes, or in the first class lounge. Both sites should be live within a few weeks.

The rollout is being conducted in partnership with Broadreach Networks, following a trial at London's Euston station earlier this year. "We are very excited about launching the first seamless and secure Internet access service at railway stations and on trains," said Magnus McEwen-King, chief executive of Broadreach, in a statement.

"Rail passengers will shortly be able to connect to the service via a wireless-enabled laptop or PDA and enjoy high-speed email and Web access throughout their journey," McEwen-King added.

As ZDNet UK reported last month, there is considerable interest in creating Wi-Fi networks within moving trains, but also thorny technical obstacles such as creating a high-speed Internet connection on a moving train. It is understood that Broadreach will be making an announcement about its on-train Wi-Fi plans within weeks.

Railway stations are one of the pivotal battlegrounds for the UK's nascent Wi-Fi market, along with hotels, airports and coffee shops.

Swisscom Eurospot (which took over Megabeam earlier this year) and BT Openzone have both expressed firm interest in operating services at train stations as operators scrabble to win the loyalty of mobile business workers.

This has led to concerns that there could be interference between networks if too many operators install services at the same place.

A Broadreach spokesman played down these fears, though, telling ZDNet UK that Broadreach and Swisscom Eurospot each operate a hot spot at Paddington station, with no problems so far.

Broadreach operates a total of 50 Wi-Fi hot spots in the UK at the present time. Access at all of them -- including Euston, and Birmingham International and Manchester Piccadilly when launched -- is currently free, but charges are likely to be introduced in the future.

The NEW new networked home
By Dan O'Shea
June 3, 2003

There are as many different visions of the home of the future as there are paint colors, furniture designs and cabinet styles. Every company, from the major telcos and cable TV companies to Microsoft, has an idea in mind about how that home will be networked. Intelligent appliances, media equipment and burglar alarms could use DSL, cable, wireless, a combination of these technologies or others, like Microsoft's Smart Personal Object Technology that uses FM frequencies.

Now, Wi-Fi is offering its own vision, and though it's a long-term vision, it's still fairly compelling. Wi-Fi's still negotiating the transition from grassroots novelty to popular service, but its presence in consumer homes is growing rapidly. Innovation may take that growth a step further.

For example, PCTEL is set to launch a soft access point product that puts many of the capabilities for an access point and router--now sold and deployed as separate peripherals--into a client card for a PC or laptop. This could change the model for installing Wi-Fi in the home, particularly the amount of work and expense that is required. It also could make it easier for a consumer to set up a home network from a PC without requiring coordination of multiple hardware, drivers and long calls to technical support.

Another step forward in the vision of the new networked home is put forward by Atheros Communications CEO Craig Barratt. "Video could be an important growth area for Wi-Fi," he said. "There's increasing interest in the idea of moving content around the home between different devices." Consumers could download a movie from the Internet on a Wi-Fi-enabled laptop in one room, transfer it to the big-screen TV in the family room, and then transfer it again to a different TV in the bedroom.

Barratt eventually sees the Wi-Fi chips Atheros makes going into portable TVs, digital cameras, TV set top boxes, camcorders or other devices. "It could be an alternative to the wired broadband home. It could be cheaper and also more easily configured by the user than the broadband operator," he said.

That could be a scary thought for some broadband operators that are adamant about making their visions for the new networked home the ones that pan out. Although Wi-Fi seems to have a way of advancing with or without their approval.

ADC launches LoopStar Wi-Fi system

TelephonyOnline.com, Jun 2 2003

 

ATLANTA--ADC Telecommunications, following recent news and speculation about public network carriers offering Wi-Fi access by leveraging existing infrastructure, unveiled its new LoopStar Span Powered Wi-Fi system Monday at Supercomm.
The system supports applications in which Wi-Fi access points are extended from customer DSLAMs or from an ADC G.SHDSL PG-Flex Plus line shelf. In the first model, DSLAM capacity is used to apply span powering over G.SHDSL transport to the access point. In the second application, the PG-Flex Plus is deployed in a central office or outside plant cabinet to power via G.SHDSL to the access point.

The LoopStar configurations are expected to streamline the expense of deploying public Wi-Fi hot spots for carriers because skilled manual labor and AC power will not be needed.

ADC Chairman and CEO Rick Roscitt said the new system will help carriers decide how they want to be involved in the emerging Wi-Fi market because it helps them leverage existing assets.

Meanwhile, the company is considering how it will put the $400 million it raised in a convertible subordinated notes offering it issued last week to use, said Roscitt.

Roscitt said he has asked all of ADC’s business units to submit their growth plans so that the company can decide how best to invest the $400 million. While he offered no specifics, he did not rule out the possibility of acquisitions or strategic partnerships.

“What I want to do now is grow organically, and use this money we raised to do some inorganic growth as well,” Roscitt said.

law firm wins with wireless networking
 
 
 
 legal facts

firm: Cosho Humphrey Greener & Welsh PA
size: 50 employees, including lawyers, paralegals,and support staff
business challenge: increase operating efficiency to provide greater value to clients and additional billable time
IT strategy: create a computing environment that enables lawyers and support staff to access files and print any time from anywhere
solution: deploy a wireless LAN with access points in public areas and key conference rooms, expand the number of laptops and handheld computing devices, and equip all computing devices and the primary workgroup printer with wireless access capabilities
 
 
making the case for wireless networking
Cosho Humphrey Greener & Welsh is a medium-size firm specializing in civil litigation.The firm occupies a handsomely restored, turn-of-the-century building that once served as the city’s central library. While impressive to behold, the building’s "Carnegie Classical" architecture sometimes poses a challenge to the deployment of information technology.

Casework is a collaborative endeavor usually requiring frequent meetings between clients, lawyers, and support staff. For the sake of expediency, most meetings are conducted on site in one of the firm’s two conference rooms. Architectural appointments make it difficult to wire conference rooms for LAN or Internet access. So when team members who were meeting on a client case needed access to networked files or Web-based resources, they had to resort to a networked computer outside of the conference room -- an interruption that put the entire team on idle. With team members billing out at rates ranging from $50 to $250 an hour, any interruption can be costly -- for the firm as well as for the client.

Samuel Barker, systems administrator for CHGW, saw the building’s challenge to his wired network strategy as an opportunity to try something new. "I had been evaluating wireless networking options at home for some time and I was convinced the technology was viable, "Barker says. "The company’s push to improve efficiency, coupled with recent improvements in transfer rates and the lower cost, made this the right time for me to build a solid business case for deploying an HP wireless network."

hp provides a legal advantage
After conferring with firm lawyers and support staff, Barker determined that the best approach would be to deploy wireless access points in the central common area, as well as the two conference rooms. To maximize access to the wireless network, he decided to deploy more HP laptop computers and expand support to include mobile devices, adding powerful HP Jornada handheld computers to his product mix.

Equipped with mobile computing devices, users could work and be productive at any time. And with the support of a wireless network, users would be able to access network files, check e-mail, browse the Web, or send a print job from anywhere in the office -- even the conference rooms -- without having to worry about a hardwire connection.

tangible ROI wins the case for hp’s wireless solutions Tom Walker, senior partner and bona-fide early adopter, often serves as a technology liaison between systems administrator Barker and the other senior members of the firm who must approve IT expenditures. While the wireless solution has only been in place for a short time, expectations are high. "We have to be able to deliver client value and maximize our billable time,’’ Walker says. "If the HP wireless solution saves me just 20 minutes a day -- that’s 20 minutes of additional time I can apply to a client’s case. Considered over the course of an entire year, that additional time is financially significant. Multiply that amount by 10 or 20 lawyers and we’ve paid for the technology and increased our profitability."

WLAN Case Study:
University Uses ReefEdge for Security

When California Lutheran University recently installed a wireless LAN connecting a dozen campus buildings, it needed a cost-effective security system.

by Allen Bernard
of 80211-Planet.com
[May 6, 2003]

To make the most of a $500,000 network expansion grant, California Lutheran University sidestepped hard wiring in favor of a wireless LAN (WLAN) that connects 12 buildings including the campus coffee shop (ŕ la Starbucks) and the library for half the price.

For just $40,000 CLU was able to install an 802.11b network running Cisco AP1200 access point servers and, more importantly, protect those nodes with a security layer provided by the ReefEdge Connect System. Going wired would have run upwards of $80,000, said Zareh Marselian, CLU's director of Technical Services.

"So, for the cost of adding about 400 ports (in the science buildings) to the network we were able to deploy a wireless network and get the laptop cart and get additional faculty laptops as well," he said. "We're using Reefedge as an authentication tool and also basically separating the wireless network from the wired net so that we can limit access to critical data from the wireless network."

Not quite a virtual private network (VPN) level of security, Reefedge's products were a cost-efficient alternative for a number of reasons, he said. The user interface is very intuitive (just a user name and password) and Reefedge's products are vendor agonistic, something a university with a diverse student population and visiting faculty has to take into account. Cisco's edge-of-network, gatekeeper products, although more robust in security terms, were also considered but are proprietary so Reefedge got the contract.

"You're limited to using Cisco products, Cisco NICs, and being in a university environment, we can't enforce using a single vendor," Marselian said. "So we kind of looked at leaving the system as open as possible without compromising security."

So far, about 130 users have accessed the network since September 2002 and only 15 needed help getting connected, meaning Reefedge gets high marks for its user interface and low maintenance. "It does what we want it to do. It's not the highest level of security but the functionality is there. The convenience is there."

As far as performance goes, the Reefedge products do add a bottleneck to the WLAN since all data going in and out must go through the Connect Server appliances but the bandwidth loss is not significant and no worse than other solutions, Marselian said. Speed is about the same as a good dial-up connection.

"It is a little bit slower going though the Reefedge product because the Reefedge, basically, funnels all the traffic through it so there's a little bit of latency there, but it's not considerable," he said.

Although pleased with the WLAN so far, Marselian will continue pursuing a combination approach to expanding CLU's network. Wireless is good and it works, but a wired network is still more reliable and is much more predictable, as well as providing better performance, he said.

"I think because of performance and reliability, the wired network, at least for the foreseeable future, it's going to be dominant and the wireless is going to be an overlay and enhancement to the network."

That said, however, Marselian is considering just a wireless network for the next new dormitory that gets built. It is cheaper after all and ROI is what IT is all about these days.

Investing in Wi-Fi: Finding the ROI
 
April 2, 2003
By: Melanie Hollands


In the current economic climate, corporations have little incentive for increased investment in IT in general, let alone upgrading from fixed to wireless network infrastructure. Contrary to popular market wisdom, wide-spread installation of wireless networks and accompanying hardware upgrades for seamless, reliable wireless delivery of information services and/or interactivity with fixed networks is likely to be several years away. Longer-term, however, wireless should present a substantial global revenue opportunity.

In general, interviews with IT managers and purchasing consultants indicate that companies are placing a higher priority on security, storage, and hardware replacement over wireless infrastructure. While field interviews reveal that there are unlikely to be widespread increases wireless spending in 2003, few actually plan cuts to their wireless budget in 2003 versus 2002.

   
 
    
 
     Wireless Interference: Smashup On Interstate 2.4
 
     Investing in Wi-Fi: Issues and Infrastructure
 
     Wi-Fi Security: Risks Amid the Success
 
     Netgear Wi-Fi Card Supports All Major Standards
 
     Wi-Fi Developers Pursue Plans for More Services
 
   
 

A switch to wireless means considerable equipment replacement. When wireless takes off, it will be a huge boon to infrastructure and notebook PCs. However, in industries where many employees are already working with notebooks - financial services, media, technology, telecom, and healthcare - the phase-in of wireless equipment should be relatively painless and inexpensive since IT personnel need only to plug a WLAN card into the notebook.

Field interviews with IT purchasing managers and consultants indicate that wireless IT, while not an increasing proportion of total IT, is also not being cut significantly. Spending increases on wireless technologies are generally occurring in larger companies; in particular, in companies in the defense, healthcare, and media industries.

This makes sense for four reasons. First, larger companies have proportionally larger IT budgets. Second, larger companies have more ability to connect wireless hardware to secure nodes in the existing wired network. Third, the healthcare sector in particular (and to a lesser extent the media companies) is one of the few with stronger, or growing, fundamentals. The defense companies are benefiting from increased military activity. Finally, companies with more wireless workers have more to gain from improved efficiencies offered by wireless in the mobile environment.

Leaning Toward the Low End

Companies are purchasing low-cost wireless solutions rather than implementing large-scale infrastructure and hardware upgrades. Such solutions include notebooks, WLAN cards, PDAs, and related software. Larger companies seem to favor notebooks with integrated wireless LANs while smaller firms are tending to purchase add-on WLAN cards for existing notebooks. Specific wireless products that a company needs to reach minimum wireless capability include wireless-enabled notebooks, WLAN cards, tablet PCs and/or wireless PDAs, depending on the work environment.

In some cases, some network access points would need to be spread about the facility, probably hooking into the existing and primary fixed wired network. There is respectable growth in such 'early stage", less expensive wireless technologies. However, such low-end solutions constitute a smaller portion of the long-term wireless opportunity; the lions share of the growth opportunity lies with the more extensive, and lucrative, network upgrades (which are discussed in Part 2).

It is difficult to generalize by industry which companies have more interest in WLAN. It is more the matter of a particular work style (one where workers are highly mobile). In general, increased wireless spending has been occurring at companies with: 1) a dispersed, project work environment, 2) higher revenues, 3) highly mobile employees, and 4) higher needs for real-time access to data. Healthcare companies are among those that have been increasing wireless IT spending. This makes sense since there is a greater need for wireless technology to transmit "real time" information between medical professionals who are often mobile.

Tablet PCs are likely to feature prominently in environments like medicine where real time communication and easy use will matter. Education and media were two other sectors where companies indicated interest in increasing their wireless budgets. Companies in the distribution and wholesale industries have also been spending on wireless technologies. These four industries aren't usually "sit at your desk" type businesses, and WLAN can enhance efficiency in such mobile, project situations.

ROI horizons for investment in wireless technologies are running relatively short at one-to-two years. Corporate IT customers are taking more time to analyze their spending decisions than in the last few years. There is increasing pressure to optimize returns on IT investments considering the ongoing weakness in the economy. This elongates the IT sell cycle as CFOs, CTOs and corporate Boards become more involved in spending decisions. ROI is part of the reason. The benefits from wireless IT are tough, and very "soft", to measure since the savings and returns on investment are largely measured in enhanced leverage of expensive employee time.

Determining the Likeliness for ROI

Relatively aggressive ROI targets are consistent considering that, for the most part, companies are tending to purchase less expensive wireless technol ogies such as notebooks, devices and WLAN cards. WLAN and other wireless technologies are more cost effective and efficient in environments where people are highly mobile, yet in constant need of real-time data and/or network access. Companies with highly mobile employees place higher priority on such benefits. A lot more can be accomplished in meetings, given the way they work, and a lot less paper could be used, making such purchases easier to justify on an ROI basis.

Companies that are looking to install full-scale wireless infrastructure, and would therefore need to replace thousands of desktops, would find wireless networks more difficult to justify. Justifying the time and cost for further wireless access and infrastructure upgrades is even tougher to do considering that there are less expensive wireless solutions such as cell phones, text pagers, Blackberries and wireless PDAs. Replacing fixed networks with wireless in large companies can be a daunting, disruptive and expensive undertaking. It also requires training, and potentially hiring new IT personnel to maintain new wireless networks.

WLAN is one of the few wireless segments exhibiting strong unit growth. These networks look to be in the first stage of a large, long-term opportunity to allow wireless connectivity outside the fixed office network. A WLAN environment provides access to corporate applications such as the corporate Intranet, email and databases.

Penetration levels are still quite low, but are likely to accelerate as, eventually, WLAN cards will be integrated into notebook and PC hardware. Estimates vary from 40%-to-50% year-over-year WLAN chipset unit growth for 2003. The most important variable is the attach rate on notebooks produced by companies like Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and other OEMs.

Notebooks represent one of the larger components of corporate wireless spending. While it generates more demand for these hardware manufacturers, wireless still represents a relatively small portion of their total business. Consequently, growth from wireless (rather than non-wireless) hardware sales is limited until wireless contributes a much larger share of their total business.

Hardware Companies Show Increased Interest

Increasing interest by major hardware makers indicates that WLAN is gathering momentum. Dell Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Toshiba have joined in the production of WLAN-enabled laptops, in some part because WLAN can boost, and justify, sales of higher margin laptops. As WLAN chips continue to get smaller, this should lead to increased usage in PCs and notebooks.

Intersil is the chip maker having the greatest direct exposure, with 55% share of WLAN chips and 35% business exposure to WLAN. The other WLAN market share leaders are Agere (around 20%), RF Micro Devices (10%), Atmel (5%), Texas Instruments (5%), and others account for the balance of 5%. Increased competition in the space is unlikely to impact current producers before the second half of 2003, and more likely in 2004.

WLAN chips can also be included in PDAs to support networking both inside and outside the corporate environment. In general, larger rather than smaller companies have been buying more wireless devices. While a device is a more affordable wireless solution for a smaller firm, smaller companies have fewer mobile users to justify the not insubstantial costs of installing Blackberry servers to provide secure "behind-the-firewall" access. This could also suggest increasing interest in Palm-powered devices, which do not require such server installations.

On the other hand, Blackberry is a relatively inexpensive and outsourced infrastructure for larger companies that are not yet ready to install a full-scale wireless network. In part, demand for devices is driven by the degree of external access needed for such applications as data and email, versus internal access across dispersed operating facilities.

SUPERCOMM: Wi-Fi hits hot spot with Internet users
Mary Lou Pickel - Staff
Wednesday, June 4, 2003

Russell Girten connects to the Internet wherever he goes, and he doesn't need a phone line.

The IBM executive listens to the radio on his laptop in hotels and surfs the Web at airport lounges.

He even equipped his Chicago condominium with wireless Internet access. Neighbors can log on for free.

"If people want to stop by and borrow a 'cup of bandwidth,' I don't mind," said Girten, who sat at the IBM wireless Internet hot-spot exhibit at the SuperComm conference Tuesday, sending instant messages to a colleague.

Girten's connection to the Internet was via Wi-Fi, or wireless fidelity. It is a fast Internet connection using radio signals that provides a few hundred square feet of access, or a "hot spot."

The new technology differs from cellphones because those rely on large towers to receive and transmit signals. Laptop computers or other portable devices need Wi-Fi cards or built-in radios and antennas to tap into the system.

All the tables and chairs at the exhibit at the Georgia World Congress Center were occupied by people using the small antenna above them to connect to the Internet.

Wi-Fi is a hot topic at the five-day SuperComm conference.

"We didn't expect such large interest," said Gabe Jakobson after more than 300 people crowded into a room Monday to hear a panel on the wireless market.

Wi-Fi works much as does a cordless telephone, said IBM Vice President Michael Maas.

The consumer installs a small box with antennas, plugging into either a dial-up or DSL computer line or a TV cable. That box is like the base unit of a cordless telephone. Its antennas beam radio signals to a laptop that's equipped with a radio and antenna. The consumer can wander around within a 300-foot radius of the base and have Internet access, just as the cordless phone user can talk in different rooms or by the pool.

"I use this every day at my house," Maas said. "I tend to come home and sit on the couch and do e-mail as I watch the news," he said. "I don't have to be tethered to the wall. That's the big benefit."

There are now 12,000 publicly accessible Wi-Fi hot spots around the world, said John DiGiovanni, director of marketing for Nomadix, a California-based company that sells computer networking systems. In 2006, there will be up to 300,000 spots, he said.

There are several hot spots in Atlanta, including frequent flier travel lounges at Hartsfield International Airport.

The first users of the technology have been business travelers and those seeking solutions for business problems, said DiGiovanni, a SuperComm panelist.

Joe Lardieri of BellSouth agreed, but said the business traveler won't be enough to sustain widespread wireless connectivity. People using wireless Gameboys and downloading MP3 files is what will drive the market, Lardieri said.

Other problems with Wi-Fi include the lack of security of data because the information travels via thin air. Creating a way to allow users to roam from one area to another and use the service and yet figure out a way to keep track of the use and charge for it is still a challenge.

Scott Shamp, director of the New Media Institute at the University of Georgia in Athens, says the future of Wi-Fi is all about content and leisure usage.

His institute created a 24-block Wi-Fi area in downtown Athens in December, and he's encouraging people to use Palm devices to access information because they're such a portable device.

Students worked on Wi-Fi applications for leisure use. One group created a Web page to help friends locate each other for parties.

"You take your [personal digital assistant] and say, 'I'm going to be at Starbucks studying for the next two hours,' '' Shamp said. "So the Web page says Scott is at Starbucks and Joe is at the Globe getting a beer and someone else is shopping."

The user has to have a buddy list so he can recognize his friends' log-ons, Shamp said.

Making money off of wireless Internet technology is going to be "hard to figure out," Shamp said. "They're not focusing on content.

"Everybody keeps talking about Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi," Shamp said. The focus is still on the technology.

"The real problem is companies just haven't focused on all those things [content] that will make us jump up from our chairs and say 'I gotta go buy that.' ''

Edited by author 06-04-2003 04:21 PM
Free to roam
City is establishing wireless Internet networks in two downtown parks
By STANLEY A. MILLER II
smiller@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: June 3, 2003
This summer, you will be able to lounge in a park downtown and surf the Web for free, courtesy of the City of Milwaukee.
 
City Hall is setting up high-speed wireless networks in Pere Marquette Park and Cathedral Square Park that will let anyone with a properly equipped computer or handheld device connect to the Internet. The networks should be up and running this summer, possibly this month.

Randy Gschwind, the city's chief information officer, said the project will use few tax dollars because of arrangements with a few private companies that are donating the equipment and Internet service, including Cisco Systems and SBC Communications Inc.

Milwaukee is among the first cities in the United States to provide wireless Internet access in public spaces, modeling the project after an effort in Long Beach, Calif., in which that city's Economic Development Bureau set up wireless Internet zones in a downtown restaurant district.

The City of Milwaukee still is working out some technical details, including a way to power some of the network equipment that will be mounted on top of street lights near the parks.

The system should be able to handle hundreds of users, allowing park visitors to use laptops and handheld devices to surf the Web, check e-mail and play games while sitting at a picnic table.

City officials say the wireless zones will be a boon to the downtown crowd, from professionals on their lunch breaks to students who want use their portable computers to study in the sunshine. People attending the Jazz in the Park concert series in Cathedral Square will be able to log on to the Web and look up information on the songs they are listening to.

"They are going to sit with wine bottles out and their laptops right next to them," Gschwind said.

Wi-Fi in the parks
The wireless networks use a popular technology called Wi-Fi, which is short for "wireless fidelity" and sometimes mentioned by the technical description 802.11b. The system creates short-range wireless communication using high-frequency radio waves that are transmitted by devices called access points.

In general, Wi-Fi works a lot like a cordless phone. Radio transmitters are linked to a high-speed Internet connection, and then any computer with a receiver within a few hundred feet can potentially pick up the signal.

The city's system will be similar, but "industrial strength," Gschwind said. The city's wireless antenna - which will be linked to a high-speed digital subscriber line - will be on top of the Zeidler Municipal Building, 841 N. Broadway. Network transmitters on street lights near the parks will relay the Net signals from that access point, connecting people remotely.

People with laptops, personal data assistants and other devices that have Wi-Fi access cards will be able to link up with the network at 128 kbps, more than twice as fast as typical dial-up modems. Adapters that let laptops connect to the Net via Wi-Fi cost around $50.

The access points around the parks will have a range of 500 to 600 feet each, he said, and there will likely be some wireless network "bleeding" where the field of Internet connectivity extends beyond the borders of the parks.

Network open to all
Ben Sherwood, a privacy adviser and president of Sherwood Personal Security, based in Oakbrook, Ill., said people using a wireless network should not conduct sensitive or private communication over the system.

"It's a huge security risk. Whenever you use a wireless network, you are opening yourself up to the information you're sending being snatched out of the air by someone else," he said.

Sherwood said buying items over the Internet or checking an online bank account using a wireless network would be a bad idea.

Gschwind said the city will run an open wireless network, with no content filtering or time limits. People logging onto the network will be required to agree to an acceptable-use policy, promising, among other things, to use the connection responsibly. The system will track the number of users and other data to see how popular the network becomes.

"We will learn as we go and evolve this thing," Gschwind said.

The wireless project is scheduled to last a year, and although the network equipment should be fine during the summer and fall, the city is still contemplating what to do when winter comes.

"Realistically, you could see people using it into October," Gschwind said.

Fields of wireless Internet access are floating all over downtown, from colleges and cafes to home networks and private businesses. Many of the open wireless networks in Milwaukee are commercial services that charge hourly fees, such as Alterra Coffee by the lakefront or Bella Cafe in the Third Ward. Wi-Fi networks have been around for years, and there are about 8,000 "hot spots" in North America with commercial Wi-Fi service, said Amy Cravens, a senior analyst with the research firm Instat/MDR.

But Milwaukee's plans for a city-sponsored wireless network is "somewhat unique," she said.

"There are only a handful of cities that have implemented similar networks," Cravens said. "This approach is still relatively new."

Industry experts and observers say the city's strategy is progressive and likely to be popular with tech-friendly residents and tourists.

"I think this is a wonderful thing that can happen to Milwaukee," said Greg Ryan, president of eCommandos, a technology consulting company in the Third Ward. "It shows that the movers and shakers in the political scene can see the writing on the wall."

Nigel Ballard, a public-access Wi-Fi advocate in Portland, Ore., and wireless director of Matrix Networks, said communities and governments setting up free networks are "forward thinking and progressive."

"If you want to attract attention, and you want to be looked at by outsiders as a hip, happening place, then you need to put in some city-backed Wi-Fi," Ballard said.

People enjoying a brief bit of sunshine in Cathedral Square Park on Tuesday said they generally liked the plan, depending on how much it costs taxpayers when it's complete.

"It's not a bad idea," said Dave Pennington, on a break between his shifts at nearby Louise's Italian restaurant. "Whatever money they end up spending could go to something else, but I don't think it's a bad way to spend it. The problem is that people will only be able to use it for a few months out of the year."

Still, Pennington said the city's wireless networks could draw more people to the parks, and others relaxing in Cathedral Square Park agreed.

"Personally, I would rather do some work in the park and be outside," said Rhonda Golson of Milwaukee, who was sitting at a picnic table with a friend.

Gartner: War drive illustrates wireless problem

By Michael S. Mimoso, SearchSecurity.com News Editor
04 Jun 2003, SearchSecurity.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- It's not every day you get to ride shotgun on a war drive in the most strategic and sensitive city in the world.

 
 
 
But that's just what I got to do Monday morning.

Packed into a jet-black Hummer as wide as Massachusetts Avenue, myself, a driver, and three representatives of security services provider Guardent Inc. toured the busy streets of the nation's capital, on the prowl for unsecured wireless access points. Security companies have dubbed these trips war drives because they are an offshoot of war-dialing where computers dial hundreds of telephone numbers in order to find a receptive modem.

Wireless computing is in big demand in the enterprise, and it's up to security officers and IT administrators to figure out how to implement these architectures and technologies securely. Yet wireless is currently one of the biggest security concerns in play, because of faulty security in the wired equivalent protocol (WEP) standard. WEP's encryption technology is based on static keys that do not change and which can be deciphered using readily available software, according to the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is expected to cure those ills this summer, by assigning different encryption keys for each data packet that passes through a wireless network. WPA is already being integrated as standard into many LAN products, but that doesn't help those still mired in the mud with WEP.

And, in D.C., apparently quite a few are still spinning their wireless wheels.

During our 20-minute war drive through Washington's residential and business districts, 221 access points where detected; 138 of those had WEP turned off. As Guardent director of security services Todd M. Waskelis pointed out, just because WEP was not turned on did not mean a particular wireless network was wide open. Some could be using a third-party virtual private network or authentication technology, or could be restricting entry according to MAC addresses.

The frightening reality, however, is that war drives like this one are inexpensive journeys for hackers. All the hardware we needed for our trip was a standard laptop, wireless network card, a 12 DB directional antenna and a global positioning system receiver. On the software end, we downloaded NetworkStumbler freeware off the Internet. It provides information like whether WEP is turned on, signal strength, Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs) being broadcast, the access point's name and even longitude and latitude of the access point, among other information.

All of these details are invaluable to a hacker who has malicious intent, and they're dangerous to expose if you're an enterprise transmitting intellectual property or other sensitive data.

"It depends on a hacker's end goal," said Waskelis. "If they are targeting an organization, they are going to look for access points within that organization. Some just want free Internet access. The thing there is that the outsider assumes your identity online and could use that connection as a launching pad for a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS). Then the liability would be yours."

Once on a local network via an unsecured wireless access point, a hacker could eventually deface an enterprise Web site or, worse, crack a database or DMZ and enter back-end systems that way.

"All you need is an entry point, and you are a hop, skip and a leap away from your eventual target," said Waskelis.

War drives get a lot of attention because they're a dramatic statement. But they're probably the hardest and least efficient way to attack a wireless network, Waskelis said.

"If your neighbor is also your competitor, all you have to do is sit across the street from them and get access to their network," said Waskelis.

Waskelis pointed out that it is not illegal to war drive, but it is illegal to associate with a network. SearchSecurity.com agreed not to report on specific locations running unsecured wireless access points.

Inside enterprises, rogue access points are also contrary to security policies, but that doesn't stop someone in accounting from going to an electronics store like Best Buy, buying a wireless access point and setting up shop in a conference room, for example, said Waskelis, whose company added a wireless component to its Managed Vulnerability Protection Services this week. Guardent remotely detects rogue wireless access points inside companies, eliminating the need to do on-site radio frequency scans to detect wireless vulnerabilities.

In fact, NetworkStumbler picked up an access point with an SSID named "Conference Room" during our war drive; it had WEP turned off. Many access points were also clearly still in out-of-the-box configuration and either came up as "Linksys" [for the popular home router] or "Default" on the freeware application.

The ease of implementation and use of wireless networks will keep it in the forefront for security officers and administrators. Those currently saying "no" to wireless may have to soon cave in to the demands of their users and figure out a way to do wireless safely.

"If more and more people say they want wireless, enterprises have to provide their users with the tools they need to do their jobs," Waskelis said. "If you can make a business case for wireless, more networks will be rolled out, and they have to be controlled properly. A policy is self-defeating if it says no to wireless, because people are going to do it any way."

Bonsai Shows Carrier Wi-Fi Solution with Partners
June 4, 2003


This week at the SuperCOMM 2003 tradeshow in Atlanta, Bonsai Networks of Herndon, Va. announced an architecture for Wi-Fi service delivery for local exchange carriers with digital subscriber line (DSL) offerings. The service is powered in part with partners: computer powerhouse Sun Microsystems (Quote, Company Info) and DSL provider Alcatel, both of whom are showing the service in demonstrations at the show.

Bonsai is a software company with a focus on Operational Support System (OSS) solutions with real-time subscriber session management. Tuomo Rutanen, vice president of marketing at Bonsai, describes what the companies are showing as an "end-to-end integrated solutions with a phone booth mounted access point which uses the phone booth's power line to power to operate... there's no access controller, it's connected via DSL back to the manager in the telco network, running on the high-end Sun platform."

The platform centralizes all the functions of subscriber management through the Sun platform. This provides not just access control, but ties back to the Bonsai software for real-time, convergent billing. The application runs on Solaris-based Sun Netra 20 and 1280 systems.

The use of phone booths for access points recalls the announcements of such experiments by Verizon and Bell Canada. Rutanen says those are just the kinds of companies that Bonsai and its partners would like to sell this services architecture too. But it's not limited to phone booths by any means. Other setups need only some imagination, such as having a dedicated edge server with multiple access points going to a single manager on a site like a hotel, airport, or convention center. He calls the architecture "Internet egress agnostic."

Still, he says the integrated phone booth approach, with the exsiting footprint and wiring that's easily upgraded to DSL, is a "pretty compelling way to roll out Wi-Fi."

"The strength of the partnerships is that Alcatel provides a lot of the DSL wireline networks -- probably the biggest in North America -- and that Sun is an expert in high end computing platforms," says Rutanen, "while our focus is on Wi-Fi services, the billing mediation and roaming, with our software. We're converging the three." Alcatel also just finalized a contract to supply DSL equipment for Verizon as it continues to push out its own broadband efforts.

Unwired or unwanted?
  
June 3, 2003
By: Grahame Lynch
America's Network Weekly
 
I’ve previously praised the potential for mobile operators to expand their offerings by getting into Wi-Fi. My basic argument was that with light regulation and low equipment costs, Wi-Fi offered mobile operators a quick-and-easy path to data revenues. I also argued that mobile operators needed to treat Wi-Fi seriously or fixed operators may come in and steal some of their wireless data share. Well, I could be wrong.


Wi-Fi has now violated what I term my Wired Magazine Theory of Imminent Disappointment. It’s worked for nearly ten years now. When the San Francisco-based digital lifestyle magazine eulogizes and rhapsodizes about something, it nearly always stiffs. Back in 1994, it was talking about how LMDS would deliver 500 channels worth of information superhighway to the American masses. Ten years later, that hasn’t happened. More recently, it forecast the beginning of a long American economic boom based on the emergence of the Internet. Then the dot-com bubble collapsed. Just last month, it predicted that the ending to the Matrix Reloaded film would be a cliffhanger. Anyone who’s seen the film will wonder what it was talking about.


So when Wired magazine published a 60 page Wi-Fi guide in May, inevitably titled “Unwired”, I was reminded of my theory. This lengthy opus contained all the usual clichés. “We stand at the brink of a transformation”, it breathlessly began and then proceeded to describe a “revolution”, a “phenomenon” and a “glorious disruption”, while worrying about little more than the potential “intrusion” of Wi-Fi into free time.

While this was being digested across the world, the busiest Starbucks hotspots in the United States were attracting a maximum of some … 20 (twenty) users a day.


With interesting timing, an 11-page email about all things Wi-Fi written by Qualcomm vice-president Jeff Belk lobbed into my in-box. Qualcomm has been a critic of the idea that Wi-Fi will undermine 3G, not least from the understandable motive that it stands to be the biggest beneficiary of 3G. But despite the inevitable product pitch for CDMA 1X, Belk made some stunning criticisms. One was based on his use of Wi-Fi across several hotels in Europe on a recent trip. Total cost for a week: US$117, plus lots of hassle inputting 17 digit access numbers accidentally stumbling on a stranger’s instant messaging session and re-configuring his laptop at each hotspot. Back in the US, the cost of obtaining the same access using a 2.5G/3G mobile network over the same period? US$13.30, based on the five-day cost of an $80 monthly data plan from Verizon. Hmm.


Belk also makes a scathing observation about Wi-Fi coverage. He estimates it takes 1,000 hotspots to cover one square mile. By contrast, one cellular base station can cover hundreds of square miles. If there are 100,000 access points, that covers just 100 square miles – just one-fifteenth the area of the smallest American state, Rhode Island. A recent report from Forward Concepts suggests there could be 1m hotspots in Asia by 2007. Using Belk’s methodology, they would cover 1,000 square miles – equivalent to about two cities.


Nevertheless, it would be foolish to completely dismiss Wi-Fi. As Belk himself points out, there are advantages for mobile operators whose data customers also use Wi-Fi. “The operator gets my money every month, and I have actually reduced the load on their network every time I use my home Wi-Fi network,” he says. Where the operator can get some revenue or retention benefit from the use of Wi-Fi, there is an obvious case for bundling. After all Wi-Fi was not originally intended to replace cellular networks, but instead, cabled local area networks. The traditional LAN is a space where public network operators play little role. Any advance here will be a plus on the branding and revenue side for operators.


Ericsson has recently made that promise come a little closer to reality, demonstrating a SIM card that enables authentication on both a GSM and a Wi-Fi network from the one account. And a number of mobile operators – T-Mobile in the USA and SingTel Mobile in our region – have put some interesting bundled tariff packages on the market.


But be wary of talk about revolutions. Like Belk, I have been distinctly under whelmed by Wi-Fi. I spend a lot of time in Wi-Fi zones across Asia, such as international airports and hotels. I can count the number of people I have observed using Wi-Fi in such places across a year on about two hands. One major network, operated by MobileOne in Singapore, has just been closed because of limp customer feedback and what the CEO described as the poor economics of maintaining so many backhaul links.


Wi-Fi is, at best, a revolution where the revolters have yet to turn up. It provides opportunity, but to date, that is still very much in the future tense.

Planet3 Wireless Announces CWNA 2.0 Is Available for Wireless LAN Certification


Industry Standard Certification for Wireless LAN Administration Gets an Update

ATLANTA--June 4, 2003--Planet3 Wireless, Inc., the creators of the Certified Wireless Network Professional(TM)(CWNP(TM)) Program, today announced the CWNA exam (PW0-100, Prometric) has been updated to reflect changes in the wireless LAN industry and technology. CWNA is the first of four levels of certification within the CWNP Program (www.cwnp.com). The new version of the CWNA exam reflects the obsolescence of certain technologies and industry groups, as well as certain exam formatting changes. The exam does not introduce any changes to the CWNA study guide or courseware. A list of the changes to the CWNA exam can be found at the following URL: http://www.cwne.com/cwna/exam_objective_changes.html.

The CWNA exam consists of ninety multiple choice and multiple answer questions covering the exam objectives posted at http://www.cwne.com/cwna/exam_objectives.html. The exam is available at all Prometric Authorized Testing Centers worldwide, and is recognized as the industry standard for measuring technology professionals' knowledge of wireless LAN technology by such market leaders as Symbol Technologies, AirMagnet, Funk Software, Colubris Networks, and WildPackets.

About Planet3 Wireless, Inc.

Planet3 Wireless is the creator of the Certified Wireless Network Professional(TM) (CWNP(TM)) training and certification program. The CWNP program is the IT industry's first and only vendor-neutral training and certification program for wireless networking. Details about the CWNP program can be found at http://www.cwnp.com. Planet3 Wireless is a privately held Georgia corporation.

New whitepaper from Intel on WEP & VPN.

Check it out at: http://www.intel.com/eBusiness/it/technolo...htm?iid=ebus+wlan_6&

ZigBee challenges Bluetooth

Speaking of challenges to a networking standard: the ZigBee Alliance (ZigBee is the less-technical designation of 802.15.4) met last week in Berlin, where Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector (SPS) demonstrated compliance with the recently passed 802.15.4 standard. Kristen Law, senior product marketer for 802.15.4 technology at SPS, said that "This standard... will fit in a low-data-rate market for things like industrial automation and control, logistics management, energy monitoring, motor control, and lighting systems, as well as home networks like security, HVAC, and RF remote control." The IEEE 802.15.4 ZigBee standard was approved in May, and interoperability testing is scheduled for early next year, with the first products expected in mid-2004. Currently there are 50 ZigBee Alliance members, including IC suppliers like SPS, AMI Semiconductor, Atmel, and Philips. ZigBee is expected to fill a niche for low-cost and very-low-power wireless connectivity -- a notch below Bluetooth implementations -- for equipment that needs battery life as long as several months to several years, but does not require data transfer rates as high as those offered by Bluetooth. ZigBee can also be implemented in mesh networks larger than are possible with Bluetooth. Data throughput of 250 Kbps can be achieved at 2.4GHz, at transmission distances of 10m to 75m. If ZigBee is successful, then Bluetooth will face even more pointed questions about its viability: Bluetooth's market is already being eroded at the high end by 802.11, and the last thing it needs is ZigBee nibbling at the low end. The 802.15.4 standard details the physical-layer (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) specification, and offers building blocks for different types of networking known as star, mesh, and cluster tree. A standard serial interface can connect the host controller, such as an 8- or 16-bit microcontroller, and enable it to send and receive digitized data packets.

MobileOne abandons Wi-Fi plan, focuses on 3G network

MobileOne, Singapore's second-largest mobile operator, has decided to shut down its Wi-Fi service and instead concentrate on 3G. Disappointing Wi-Fi trials earlier this year have led the company to decide to spend close to $150 million over the next two years on the 3G network which is now being developed. The Wi-Fi trials began in February and ran for about two months. "Our customers didn't like the services," a company's spokesperson said. "It's not really mobile." MobileOne will spend $75 million this year on 3G, and another $75 million next year to complete island-wide coverage. The company plans to launch 3G trials in September or October this year, followed by a commercial launch around the middle of next year

Wi-Fi in Milwaukee

Milwaukee will become one of the first U.S. cities to offer free Wi-Fi Internet access when, in early summer, it will set up 802.11 networks in two downtown parks. Private companies, among them SBC Communications and Cisco Systems, are donating equipment for the hot spots in Pere Marquette Park and Cathedral Square Park. People with WLAN-equipped laptops or PDAs will be able to connect to the Internet for as long as they want. The system will not filter content or provide security from hackers. Randy Gschwind, the city's chief information officer, said that residents of Milwaukee "are going to sit with wine bottles out and their laptops right next to them," while listening to Jazz in the Park concerts in Cathedral Square. (If I remember Milwaukee, it is more likely to be beer and bratwurst.) Long Beach, California, already has city-sponsored wireless zones, and other cities are likely to follow suit.

Visionary Shares Possible Future for Wi-Fi
By Khali Henderson
Posted on: 06/04/2003


Comic book writers have done as good a job as analysts and venture capitalists at predicting where the Wi-Fi industry will go, says Dr. Larry Brilliant, visionary and vice chairman of Wi-Fi wholesaler Cometa Networks in a keynote address Tuesday at SUPERCOMM's one-day wireless networking event, "Everywhere Networking: Where Wi-Fi Meets Mobility for the Consumer and the Enterprise."

Brilliant, a medical doctor and serial entrepreneur, points to Dick Tracy and the little known Magnus as 1960s-era cartoon characters with radio watches and wearable data chipset as progenitors of today's wireless voice and data gadgets.

Conceding that his own predictions will be off base, Brilliant offered a view of the future of Wi-Fi that includes 100 million Wi-Fi-enabled devices, 10 million access points and 50 million users by 2008. "That means two devices per user, which sounds about right," he says.

In the intervening years, he describes the evolution of the market from today's sporadic spot coverage to the 2005's "mini-zones" arising organically from users' traffic patterns. Already there are certain city blocks where coverage is seamless because of dense deployment of access points in retail locations.

Further out, Brilliant sees an overlay of 802.16a, a metro broadband wireless standard ratified by the IEEE earlier this year, to provide the backhaul -- more cheaply and quickly than current wireline methods.

Intel, a partner in Cometa Networks, is backing 802.16a and is working on chipsets, according to Alan Menezes, vice president of marketing for Aperto Networks, a founding member of WiMAX, an industry group formed in April to promote adoption of the standard. Menezes says WiMax plans compatibility testing to occur in early 2004 with compliant product being rolled out in the second half of next year.

He adds that it is "the next step beyond Wi-Fi" because it is designed with greater capacity and range required in the MAN. Aperto Networks' technology, for example, covers up to 30 miles.

In his address, Brilliant describes the 802.11b and 802.16a growth pattern using an analogy from his other career in health science. Bacteria growth in a petri dish placed in a warm environment first sprouts and spreads and then grows in all dimensions, forming a canopy over the dish. In this same way, he expects Wi-Fi and wireless MAN to spread and grow.

"If the canopy effect occurs, it will force virtually every telecom provider to rethink their businesses," he says, explaining it could be a complement or an alternative to most incumbent providers, including IXCs, RBOCs, mobile wireless, CLECs, cablecos. He also sees opportunities for a new class of ISPs and even venue owners that give the service away as an amenity.

Which will win? Brilliant isn't laying odds, adding that it makes no difference to him as any and all of them are potential customers of his company's wholesale network.

Cometa exec sees rapid growth in wireless Internet
Tue June 3, 2003 03:04 PM ET
By Yukari Iwatani
ATLANTA, June 3 (Reuters) - The vice chairman of high-speed wireless Internet firm Cometa Networks on Tuesday said he expects to see the industry exploding by 2008, with more than 50 million users and double that many compatible devices.

"There has never been penetration that has grown that fast in a consumer electronics product except for the handheld 900 megahertz (cordless) phone that all of us have in our homes," said Larry Brilliant at a Wi-Fi session at the Supercomm communications conference here.

Wi-Fi, or wireless fidelity, is an ultra high-speed wireless Internet connection usually available within a radius of a few hundred feet of a transmitter known as a hot spot or access point.

Laptop computers or other portable devices with Wi-Fi cards tap into the wireless access points, which are physically connected to high-speed networks.

The emerging technology presents a challenge to traditional cellular networks, which are more prevalent but offer Internet access at slower speeds.

Cometa Networks is a partnership of AT&T Corp. T.N , International Business Machines Corp. IBM.N , Intel Corp. INTC.O . and two venture firms that aims to blanket the country with hot spots and provide ubiquitous Wi-Fi access, which it plans to wholesale to Internet service providers and telecom carriers.

Brilliant, citing industry studies, said he expects 96 percent of corporate laptops and 75 percent of handheld computers to be Wi-Fi compatible by 2007.

Including laptops, handhelds, wearable devices and vehicles such as cars, planes and buses, over 100 million devices will be Wi-Fi enabled by 2008, he said.

Brilliant also said he believes there will be more than 10 million access points by 2008, with about half of those in homes.

Cometa itself plans to install 5,000 hot spots by Feb. 2004 in the top 25 markets and 20,000 hot spots in 50 of the largest U.S. markets by 2005, he said.

Brilliant said the industry is only in its initial phase, and he expects consolidation to occur in the next phase as the technology becomes more mainstream and companies gain a better understanding of how consumers and businesses want to use it.

He also said subscription services would likely be more popular with customers, as opposed to a fee per day, per hour, or per session.

"My expectation is that ... a high percentage of people having once experienced the oxygen of broadband wireless will go everywhere and want it all-you-can-eat, all the time, everywhere, and I don't think any other business model will make it," he said.

Why has 802.11 flourished and Bluetooth failed?
By Bob Frankston, Tech Update
June 2, 2003 8:55 AM PT


Why has 802.11 flourished while Bluetooth has essentially failed? Should we even care about Bluetooth?

The crux of the problem is that 802.11 represents the Internet and Bluetooth represents the faux Internet, and getting to know the difference gives us an understanding of what the Internet really is. On the surface, both promise connectivity without wires. That's really all 802.11 promises.

The Bluetooth story sounds much better. It promises to get rid of that tangle of wires on our desk and it will allow us to have a wireless headset that works with our cellular phone. We can connect our PDAs to our cellular phone and connect to the Internet and we can synchronize our cellular phone with our desktop and on and on. Unfortunately, Bluetooth synchronizes to the desktop only if you are at the desk--and that's the crux of the problem.

The Internet gives us opportunity to do all that and a lot more, but there isn't a promise that anything will work. Not all applications work well at first. The dial-up phone line, for example, is too slow for some applications-- we have to wait for the supply/demand cycle to give us more network capacity. In addition, we don't really know what applications will be most useful until after they've shipped.

Bluetooth harks back to an earlier time when the products were built for a single purpose. Even worse, since Bluetooth is baked into millions of chips before we get any experience, all of the initial design mistakes are locked in and we can't fix them. It's only now that people are discovering that Bluetooth's focus on eliminating wires means still having the limitations of wires in that you can only connect between nearby devices. 802.11 on the other hand takes advantage of the Internet and allows you to connect to any device, anywhere.

Since Bluetooth is emulating a wire, it has to have a protocol for pairing devices and, given the limited interfaces on the devices, this is very difficult. Bluetooth is very much associated with cellular phones because those companies have included Bluetooth capabilities in their chipsets, whereas other industries have the freedom to go with 802.11.

The protocols for 802.11 have had decades to prove themselves in the wired world. Bluetooth requires not having a wire, so we must have a radio to get the features.

We've ignored Bluetooth's predecessors, like the red IR (infrared) port on just about every laptop, so that we can care about Bluetooth. We shouldn't care too much. Unlike PC applications, we don't have many alternatives for the one Bluetooth application-- wireless headsets.-- that people care about.

If we decompose Bluetooth, it is just a radio and a set of applications called profiles. The Bluetooth radio is very much like the 802.11 radio, though with different tradeoffs. If we had only the radio, we could treat Bluetooth like 802.11 and decide which radio to use where, and we could bridge between the two worlds. One would probably win. But since Bluetooth has been deployed, we can only use it as long as we limit it to those badly designed profiles that interface the various devices. The question is whether the software in the cellphone can bypass the profiles and work more like an 802.11 radio. If so, then we have some salvage value.

Otherwise, what we have is a cellular industry that could change - if we have a few years and billions of dollars available. We don't.

So perhaps Bluetooth will survive as just a way to connect headsets to cell phones. I do expect some innovation and extension but, in the end, the value of creating general applications built on 802.11 gives it a major advantage. The Bluetooth SIG has to decide what its real purpose is and come to terms with existing in a world defined by 802.11.

Bob Frankston's background in computing and networking stretches across four decades during which he worked on the Multics projects; was co-founder (along with Dan Bricklin) of Software Arts,the company that shipped VisiCalc--the first spreadsheet; served time at Lotus Development where he created Lotus Express; and moved on to Microsoft where he initiated and championed home networking ("no new wires"). Frankston's blogs about everything from social trends to technology can be found at http://www.satn.org.

Roger, Tango, WLAN
06.04.03

Widespread adoption of wireless LAN services aboard European commercial aircrafts could become a reality following German and U.K. aviation authority approval for 802.11b (11-Mbit/s over 2.4GHz) technology.

Analysts reckon that onboard access to email and the Web could be especially appealing to business travelers -- which may be music to the ears of cash-strapped airlines, since this is a demographic they are particularly keen to encourage to fly more since the September 11 attacks and economic downturn put a serious damper on corporate travel.

Germany’s Luftfahrt-Bundesamt and the U.K.'s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have given the green light for aircraft to implement in-flight wireless LAN technologies such as those offered by Connexion By Boeing. Until now, this service has only been authorized for use by operators of private and U.S. government aircraft.

According to Richard Dineen, research director for wireless at Ovum Ltd., the Connexion service uses smart antennas to enable connections between satellites and aircraft. Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO - message board) provides the access points in the aircraft cabin that link a user's laptop to the satellite network (see When Will WLAN Get Its Wings?).

Rival offerings, such as Tenzing Communications Inc.'s, use a variety of access networks on the ground and in the air but are unable to offer a permanent connection when in flight, Dineen says.

German airline Lufthansa is aiming to install the Connexion technology in 80 of its aircraft by early 2004, following trials earlier this year (see Vivato's Switch Bitch). According to Connexion spokesman Terence Scott, British Airways, Japan Airlines, and Scandinavian Airline Systems have also announced their intent to install the service on long-haul aircraft.

British Airways began a three-month trial of the technology in February on board a Boeing 747-400 aircraft from London to New York within its business class section. The company declined to give details on future plans, but spokeswoman Cathy West hinted that today’s decision will pave the way for future mass rollout. “We have had to await authorization from the Civil Aviation Authority in order to introduce further technology, and we will now be looking at how we can work together,” she tells Unstrung.

Analysts are agreed that wireless LAN services on board aircraft may help drive business adoption of the technology. “Regulatory approval is clearly a big breakthrough, as this could be a sound business model,” comments Ovum's Dineen. “Airlines will be able to target a well defined, addressable market that is reasonably price-insensitive. It is a captive audience. They won’t have a problem attracting interest.”

“The biggest problems to wireless LAN use on board aircrafts are the regulatory issues, and these seem to have been overcome. It makes sense to offer these services to business class passengers,” agrees Michael Wall, wireless research analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “It will give airlines a competitive edge in the niche business market. I would expect more airlines to follow suit.”

Wall adds that the service will be free of any interoperability issues when running in the 2.4GHz frequency, but could hit problems if airlines implement 802.11a (54-Mbit/s over 5GHz) technology. “There could be problems if they decide to move to the 5GHz spectrum,” he warns. “Certain military and satellite spectrums use the 5GHz band, and that could become an issue.”

Wi-Fi Could Get Boost From FCC
BY MARK ROCKWELL
JUNE 4, 2003

ATLANTA-Wireline carriers anxiously awaiting the FCC to issue the formal order
concerning unbundled network elements need not worry too much about the
contents, says at least one FCC commissioner. Wi-Fi makers may get an
inadvertent boost from it, say some industry watchers.

FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin told attendees at a Telecommunications Industry
Association event at Supercomm here that wireline carriers should expect 'no
significant variations' in the order-which should be released 'imminently.' TIA
holds its convention in conjunction with United States Telecom Association's
annual Supercomm trade show.

The FCC voted on the unbundling order in February, but didn't issue a formal
decision on it at the time. The vote dealt with how wireline carriers had to open
their network facilities to competitive carriers-including the extent to which
states
had a right to set wholesale rates for carriers operating within them.

Wireless carriers and wireless equipment makers are watching the developments
with some anxiety because the network element decision could affect the
implementation of some wireless Internet access networks and services operating
in unlicensed bands. Rural carriers, one of the primary markets for such systems,
may have a less expensive alternative to fiber to the home if they use rural Wi-Fi

systems, say some Wi-Fi system makers attending the trade show.

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layo...=2&pubdate=06/04/03

Six options for securing wireless LANs
 
By Sandra Gittlen
 
People are fond of saying that they aren't going to roll out wireless LANs because they are insecure. Joel Snyder, a Network World columnist says that's bunk. He says you can do it and the truth is that you will roll out WLANs because they are "too cheap to ignore."
 
Snyder, a senior partner with Opus One, delivered this message to IT managers attending Network World's Security Technology Tour.
 
He says there are six options for securing WLANs that are
relatively easy to do. And to not do them is putting your
company's data at risk.
 
The first method he points to is WEP, or the Wired Equivalency Protocol. Snyder says WEP is incredibly compatible with current wireless networks and is simple to set up. The downside, he says, is that the protocol provides encryption, but no user or per-packet authentication.
 
Another option is 802.1X, which does provide user
authentication. 802.1X can be rolled out in either a wired or wireless environment and includes per-session WEP keys. Snyder says the best thing about 802.1X is that it lets you
authenticate the user at the link layer, before they have
complete access to your network.
 
Coming over the horizon is 802.11i, a security standard for
wireless networks that is being worked on by the IEEE. The
standard will enhance WEP to provide a per-packet re-keying
mechanism, Snyder says. It also features a message integrity check to halt packet tampering. The standard is expected to get a seal of approval by 2004.
 
Go onto any Web site and chances are you're using Web
authentication, another method Snyder says can help you shore up your WLAN. It's easy to implement and use, however, it's also easy to hijack and eavesdrop on sessions over the Web. You have to recognize the trade-off when you choose this method.
 
Finally, Snyder says there are the two options of IPSec and
IPSec passthrough. IPSec, he says, is the strongest security model, using the same structure as for Internet remote access. However, you do need client software, which creates deployment and upgrade challenges.
 
The benefit of IPSec passthrough, he says, is its ease of
integration with existing VPNs. One drawback to this approach is its difficulty in dealing with guest users.
 
Snyder says it's important to take a long hard look at your
network and decide which of these methods makes sense for the types of traffic you are supporting.

Edited by author 06-05-2003 10:31 AM
Emerging Technology: Are We Better Off Without 3G?

By Andy Dornan
06/03/2003 8:00 PM EST
URL: http://www.networkmagazine.com/shared/arti...?articleId=10300091

A few years ago, proponents of third-generation (3G) mobile networks told us that networkers would have abandoned copper and fiber by now. They imagined a world without wires, in which cell phones displaced land lines, and people surfed the Web or accessed their company networks from a cafe, airport, or park.

They were right about the applications, but wrong about the technology. Though cell phones are more popular than ever and surfers are connecting to the Internet wirelessly, there's little connection between the two. Instead of accessing 3G networks through futuristic converged devices, most wireless workers reserve their cell phones for voice and use laptops with Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) cards for data. With Wi-Fi already both faster and cheaper than 3G, many networkers see the latter as irrelevant.

Not surprisingly, the cellular industry disagrees. Though slower than Wi-Fi, cellular networks do have some advantages: They can cover a much wider area, they provide true mobility, and they're more secure. While cell phone users can move around without worrying which base station they're routed through, Wi-Fi users need to find and connect to a particular hotspot. Cell phone companies hope that Wi-Fi and 3G will complement each other, with 3G coverage filling the gaps between hotspots, and 3G security filling the gaps in the 802.11 standard.

This is a nice vision, but one that relies on two unproven assumptions: that people want or need to access the Internet while in motion (as opposed to stationary and in a hotspot), and that 3G data will be affordably priced. So far, both are in doubt. Building out 3G networks is expensive, and companies already close to bankruptcy aren't going to sell data connectivity at a loss.

Most carriers in Western countries have already upgraded their existing networks to handle packet-switched data and higher speeds. Some are even calling these upgrades "3G," though they don't meet the ITU's original definition. According to the ITU, 3G refers to a system that provides average data rates of at least 144Kbits/sec in each direction. (The first two generations were analog and digital voice.) Others are more honest, referring to their upgrades as "2.5G" and planning to offer genuine 3G service later in 2003.

This is true even in the United States, which has traditionally lagged behind other countries in wireless networking, but is catching up. American carriers may even be learning from mistakes made elsewhere. The 3G available in the United States won't offer data speeds quite as high as those in Europe, and by the ITU's standards, some systems might not officially be 3G at all, but this could be a good thing.

Though few networkers would deny that higher data speeds are good, high speed entails high cost. This is often enough to destroy the business case, especially when Wi-Fi offers even higher speeds at a much lower cost. Recognizing that they can't compete by selling raw bandwidth, carriers are instead trying to package it into value-added services. The problem for 3G is that most of these work just as well over the cheaper 2.5G.

CELL DIVISION

There are several paths to 3G, as shown in the figure on page 31. This theoretically gives users a choice, though that choice is nearly always made for us by carriers and by geography. The carriers in turn are constrained by their governments, and by the need for compatibility with their existing networks.

By the end of 2002, the world's cellular operators had a total of about one billion customers, almost all of whom are connected to some form of 2G network. Around 700 million are using GSM, a system developed by European governments during the 1980s. Contrary to the claims of anti-GSM lobbyists seeking to capitalize on anti-French sentiment, the GSM standard wasn't developed in France, though it's named after a French committee (Groupe Speciale Mobile). This was later "backronymed" to the Global System for Mobile Communications, reflecting the technology's spread throughout the world-including to the United States, where it's used by two of the three largest cellular carriers.

The remaining 300 million cell phones are more or less divided evenly between systems commonly referred to as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), though both of these are really technical terms that describe radio technology, not standards.

Of the two, CDMA is the most advanced. Some form of CDMA air interface is used in most 3G networks, as well as in all 802.11b wireless LANs. However, when people talk about CDMA, they're usually referring to networks based on the IS-95 standard, which was developed by Qualcomm and is now licensed to other manufacturers. It was first introduced in the United States, though the most advanced CDMA services are offered in South Korea.

Likewise, GSM uses a TDMA air interface, though hardly anyone refers to it as such. When the cellular industry says TDMA, it usually means systems based on the ANSI-136 standard, which was intended as a simple digital upgrade to the American Mobile Phone System (AMPS), the 1G technology which is still the only wireless coverage available in some rural areas of the United States.

No new TDMA networks are now built, and carriers that use the technology are gradually replacing it with CDMA, GSM, or 3G. However, many mobile data users still find it attractive, as it was the first 2G technology to benefit from packet-switching. By April 2003, NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service had more than 38 million users running over Japanese TDMA networks, and it still signs up about 30,000 new customers each day.

PRIVATE PARTS

The popularity of i-mode is a stark contrast to the failure of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), the mobile data system offered by carriers elsewhere. Launched at the peak of the Internet bubble, WAP was promoted as the "wireless Web." Expecting a similar user experience to the real Web, consumers were disappointed to find a simple hypertext information system.

A text-only browser is theoretically useful for providing access to business applications, but the original version of WAP had other weaknesses: It didn't include end-to-end security, and relied on a very limited type of Extensible Markup Language (XML). Some companies were also hyped into building "m-commerce" sites aimed at customers, when most are better served by mobilizing employee-facing applications such as e-mail.

Many cell phones now include WAP 2.0, which overcomes most of the original version's problems. It's still more limited than the regular Web, but is backward-compatible with both the original WAP and i-mode, and supports Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security. Setting up an intranet server that provides access through WAP is now a realistic possibility for many organizations. All the large wireless carriers also offer services that can provide mobile access to e-mail and other applications.

Most cell phone systems now include their own messaging system, which usually isn't integrated with e-mail. The most popular is the Short Message Service (SMS). Originally designed as a way for GSM operators to send remote updates to phones, SMS was never intended as a commercially viable service, but became an unexpected success in Europe during the late 1990s.

SMS's weaknesses are legion. It only supports uppercase English, user input is through the eight alphanumeric keys of a phone, and it must use spare capacity on the signaling channel. This makes it extremely vulnerable to spam (see "The Most Damaging E-mail Virus of All," Off the Wires, December 2002) and not very reliable. According to tests performed by KeyNote Systems (www.keynote.com), an average of one in every 20 SMS messages sent across U.S. networks gets lost in transit.

Worst of all, each message is limited to only 160 characters when using GSM, and even less when using some other technologies-about the length of this sentence. To cram the most information into the short space, users have had to invent a new language reminiscent of telegrams and personal ads.

Test messaging does have one huge advantage: very low cost. This has made it particularly popular among children and teenagers, who have a lot of free time but can't afford to run up large phone bills. It isn't really a serious business tool, and until recently wasn't even used by adults. Some U.S. operators are trying to attract Internet users by partnering with the big Instant Messaging (IM) companies-AOL, Yahoo, and MSN-but so far with limited success.

Despite its low cost, SMS is very profitable for carriers. Most are hoping that messaging's popularity will continue into 3G, and are thus promoting the new Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). Unlike SMS, this uses the main data channel of a 2.5G or 3G network, with the maximum message length expanded to 500Kbytes. If used for text, that's more than any user could hope to read before the phone's battery runs out, let alone type using a numeric keypad.

MMS can theoretically carry any kind of data, so it could be used for e-mail with attachments. However, charging issues and problems with spam mean that carriers are still pitching it mainly as a way for communicating between phones, not between phones and the Internet.

Until e-mail integration arrives, MMS will have few business uses except industrial espionage. The most popular application so far is photo sharing, with many new phones including tiny digital cameras that can be used to transmit photographs to friends. In the U.K., the presence of camera phones is already having an impact on privacy. The owners of venues such as swimming pools, art galleries, and casinos are banning all cell phones, out of fear that casual chatters may actually be taking photographs and uploading them to the Web.

UNIVERSAL SET

Both WAP 2.0 and MMS rely on a 2.5G or 3G network. For GSM, the obvious upgrade is the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), a packet-switched technology that almost every GSM operator has already rolled out. It uses the same Physical layer as GSM, so cellular towers don't need to be replaced.

So many GSM networks are now using GPRS that the two technologies are becoming synonymous: The GPRS standard is controlled by the GSM Association (www.gsmworld.com), and whenever a carrier announces it's building a new GSM network, it usually means GPRS. About half of all GSM phones shipped now include GPRS as standard.

The lack of a new Physical layer makes GPRS easy to deploy, but it also means that the technology doesn't actually add any capacity to GSM networks. Initial claims that it would increase GSM's data speed by a factor of eight-to more than 100Kbits/sec-proved wildly optimistic.

A full-speed GPRS terminal would have to transmit at up to eight times the power of a regular GSM data card, draining the mobile device's battery eight times as fast and consuming eight times as much bandwidth. It would also have to transmit and receive simultaneously, requiring two separate radios. To make devices simpler, real GPRS devices are limited to about half the theoretical speed when receiving, and even less when transmitting.

Though slower than originally advertised, GPRS is often sufficient for applications running on cell phones, whose small display limits the amount of content they're able to receive. It isn't enough for real mobile computing, so European operators have long planned to upgrade to a 3G technology known as the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) or Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA). The UMTS standard is designed to allow dual-mode phones to roam onto GSM and GPRS networks, though the networks themselves aren't compatible.

GSM carriers upgrading to UMTS must install new radios at their base stations, and must often lease new land and obtain new planning permissions since the base stations need to be closer together than those used for GSM. They also need new radio spectrum, which European governments made a lot of money auctioning to telecom companies during the telecom bubble.

UMTS can reach very high data rates-theoretically as high as 2Mbits/sec using current terminals, and up to 10Mbits/sec in the latest version of the standard, which employs a technology called High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and is sometimes described as "3.5G." (See "Fast Forward to 4G?" March 2002.) However, these data rates are shared among every user in a cell, and require a clean, interference-free signal. Real performance is around 300Kbits/sec, which isn't as good as the hype, but still fast for anyone accustomed to regular cell phones.

TDMA doesn't have an obvious upgrade path, so most operators are taking the GSM route instead. Japan's NTT DoCoMo went straight to UMTS, deploying the first real 3G service in May 2001. However, high prices and poor coverage have made attracting customers difficult. In its first two years, the service signed up about 200,000 users-the same amount its older 2G-based i-mode gets in a week.

OVER THE EDGE

Unlike European and Japanese regulators, the FCC didn't allocate any spectrum to UMTS. Instead, AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless are replacing their TDMA networks with GPRS, though they plan to move to UMTS if and when spectrum becomes available.

Anyone wanting UMTS in the United States is likely to face a long wait. With no new spectrum and little customer demand, Cingular hasn't set a timetable for its move to the worldwide 3G system. Neither have T-Mobile, the other large GPRS carrier, or any of the smaller regional operators. Some carriers are experimenting with a partial implementation of UMTS as a fixed wireless system, but deployments and commercial trials are still limited to a few areas (see "Unwiring the Last Mile," January 2003).

The one U.S. carrier that has committed to rolling out full-scale UMTS is AT&T Wireless, and it doesn't have a choice: NTT DoCoMo has invested $10 billion in the company, which will have to be repaid unless AT&T Wireless makes UMTS available in San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, and San Diego by the end of 2004.

Instead of UMTS, most U.S. operators are betting on Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), an upgrade to GPRS that does include a new Physical layer. It's fully backward-compatible with GPRS (and GSM), using better radio modulation in existing spectrum to increase network capacity. It can increase data rates by a factor of up to three, but this requires good radio reception.

European carriers originally intended EDGE to be an intermediate step between 2.5G and 3G, thinking that UMTS would take a long time to develop and that, as something based on the tried-and-true GSM technology, EDGE would be much simpler. They were right about the former, but not the latter. With no demand for wireless data and spectrum licenses that obligate them to provide UMTS coverage, they ignored EDGE and concentrated on UMTS.

Though European operators overlooked EDGE, the manufacturers of cellular equipment didn't. The largest, Nokia, has quietly been building the technology into all of its GSM base stations for nearly two years, and announced its first EDGE phones in March 2003. Many GSM base stations in the United States are less than two years old as they're a recent upgrade from TDMA, so they're already capable of EDGE. Once phones that support it start shipping, the networks will be switched on.

Operators in other parts of the world are also building out EDGE, and even some European operators are planning to adopt it. Carriers like it because it remains fully compatible with GSM, but adds capacity, which can be used for voice as well as data. The technology's average throughput may not meet the ITU's original definition of 3G (see table), but it comes close, and the industry is promoting it as a "3G" technology. For most cell phone users in the world, including customers of GSM carriers in the United States, it's the closest they'll get.

Wireless Wait. Neither CDMA 1xMC or GPRS meet the ITU's original 144Kbits/sec definition of 3G. However, they're at least as fast as dial-up (about 50Kbits/sec) and much faster than circuit-switched cellular networks (14.4Kbits/sec or less).

CODED MESSAGES

Like GSM, CDMA systems have a straightforward upgrade path, through a family of systems collectively known as CDMA2000 (see figure). CDMA's route to true 3G is actually slightly easier than GSM's, because there's never a need to rip out existing networks. Like the move from GPRS to EDGE, every upgrade provides an increased-capacity Physical layer, and is backward-compatible with existing phones.

 

The end-route of CDMA-2000 was originally intended to be 3x Radio Transmission Technology (3xRTT), so called because it ties three CDMA radio channels together. The radio channels used by regular IS-95 CDMA are relatively narrow, so the theory was that putting three of them together would provide compatibility with W-CDMA, and hence with UMTS. However, lack of spectrum means that no operator has actually announced plans for 3xMC, and innovations in radio technology mean that 3G speeds can be reached without it.

The first step in the CDMA2000 route is 1xRTT, a system pioneered in South Korea and now used by Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless in the United States. Both are promoting it as "3G," though by ITU standards, it's clearly 2.5G. However, it's better than rival 2.5G technology GPRS. Even Nokia, once the greatest supporter of GPRS, admits that 1xRTT is at least 50 percent faster, averaging speeds of about 60Kbits/sec. Phones can even burst to as high as 144Kbits/sec, though this depends on a clear radio signal.

CDMA carriers like 1xRTT because, like EDGE, it increases voice capacity as well as data speeds. Users also seem to like it, even when compared to UMTS, which is true 3G.

In Japan, the two systems are competing head-to-head, with NTT DoCoMo offering UMTS and rival KDDI offering 1xRTT. So far, 1xRTT is the clear winner. Launched in March 2002, it signed up more than six million customers in its first year-about twenty times as many as UMTS managed in twice that time. The applications are similar and mostly consumer focused-MMS, games, and subscription content-but although UMTS is faster, 1xRTT is much cheaper and offers better compatibility with existing networks.

Carriers are already planning the next stage in CDMA's evolution, known as the Enhanced Version (1xEV). This offers comparable speeds to the early versions of UMTS, but still uses only a single radio channel (see table). Like EDGE, it depends on clear reception, so actual performance is highly variable.

The United States's first 1xEV network was launched in October 2002 by Monet Mobile Networks (www.monetmobile.com), a regional operator that serves parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas. The national CDMA carriers will also offer 1xEV later in 2003, though only in some areas initially. Verizon Wireless, for example, says it will have networks up and running in San Diego and Washington D.C. Sprint PCS hasn't yet announced firm plans, but has been conducting trials since last year.

CDMA carriers will have to go to 3xRTT if they want to take advantage of the very high data rates offered by HSDPA. However, with applications such as MMS running just as well over 2.5G, few are rushing to do this.

Part of 3G's problem is poor coverage, something that will improve as more networks are built out. Even measured by land area, DoCoMo's Personal Handyphone System (PHS), a network of cordless telephony hotspots, still offers better coverage than UMTS. DoCoMo expects UMTS coverage to overtake PHS sometime in 2003, but Wi-Fi may be growing even faster.

Though Wi-Fi services are (justifiably) criticized for poor coverage, in most parts of the world it's still much easier to find a Wi-Fi hotspot than a 3G network. For 3G to be successful, this will have to change.

Telecom Italia Untangles WLAN
05.30.03

Telecom Italia SpA (NYSE: TI - message board) (TI) has finally managed to launch its public hotspot service after an embarrassing brush with local regulatory law earlier this month.

Following a previous foul-up with partner Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ - message board) -- when the carrier discovered it didn’t have regulatory approval for launch just days before its big rollout (see Italia's Hotspot Hiccup) -- communications minister Maurizio Gasparri signed a technical law on wireless connection this week giving TI the go-ahead to supply wireless services in the 2.4 to 5GHz band.

The launch, set for June 15th, will see a total of 60 hotspot sites providing free wireless LAN access before a subscription model kicks in on October 1st. Prime locations include the Olympic Stadium in Rome, all major airports, railway stations, and hotels. The carrier aims to have access to 200 sites by the end of 2003.

Fifteen of the initial 60 hotspots are previous Megabeam sites. Three days after the high-profile Swisscom AG (NYSE: SCM - message board) acquisition on March 7th this year (see Swisscom Buys a Bevy of PWLAN), Telecom Italia snuck in and quietly purchased the startup’s Italian assets for €11.5 million (US$13.5 million). According to Richard Dineen, research director for wireless at Ovum Ltd., the deal involved four major airports -- Fiumicino, Linate, Malpensa, and Verona. “That’s a lot of money for that few hotspots,” he notes, "although at least they are Tier 1 venues."

According to company spokesman Massimiliano Paolucci, Telecom Italia’s launch follows a “positive” response to a 3,000-user trial in Milan and Rome airport earlier this year.

And that's about as much as Paolucci is prepared to reveal. The company declined to comment on potential plans to open up the network to other carriers through roaming agreements, or whether the business would embark on a Swisscom-style acquisition spree.

Telecom Italia is the latest Tier 1 European carrier to stake a claim in the public wireless LAN market, following recent moves by Swisscom, KPN Telecom NV (NYSE: KPN - message board), and France Telecom SA (NYSE: FTE - message board) (see KPN Signs Piddly Deals and FT Outlines WLAN Plans). Analysts and other wiseguys are already predicting that the nascent industry will be dominated by operators benefitting from financial muscle and an existing customer base (see Big Dogs Chow on WISPs and Europe's Vanishing WISPs).

Proxim Offers Dual-G
06.02.03

Amidst the herd of new enterprise wireless LAN infrastructure products announced today by Proxim Corp. (Nasdaq: PROX - message board) was what the company believes to be the first access point sporting two 802.11g (54-Mbit/s over 2.4GHz) radios (see Proxim Pushes 802.11 Pack).

The idea is that the double-g access point could act like a two-lane blacktop, easing traffic problems between 802.11b (11-Mbit/s over 2.4GHz) and g users on the access point. The g standard is designed to be backwards-compatible with b, but some users have found that early versions of the g specification can knock b radios off the air on crowded networks (see Interop Woes Smite 802.11g).

The dual-radio access point is supposed to help some of those congestion problems. "What you do with the two-g unit is dedicate one channel to g users who need high performance," says a company spokesperson. "The other channel can be used with both types of radios."

The g-only channel can offer higher throughput in part because it doesn't have to support both types of devices by sending out initial data strings that can be recognized by both types of client device. The complementary code keying (CCK) preamble that lets a b device know that there is an access point in the area is longer than the one used to communicate with g clients, and thus slows down the performance of the entire network.

However, although the dual-g node could help with congestion problems, users are still likely to face interference problems in general -- as more and more high-bandwidth g devices come into use on the public 2.4GHz band.

Wireless security not an oxymoron
Ira Brodsky, Network World

03/06/2003 10:46:48

Wireless LANs became the industry's laughingstock when reports surfaced about "parking lot attacks" on corporate networks. Now, WLANs are shaping up as the battleground for enhanced security products that could lead the way for the entire network industry.

WLANs are not inherently insecure. There is an explanation for why unauthorized individuals were able to wirelessly access corporate networks from parking lots: The people who installed WLANs at those firms never bothered to activate their built-in security features. Duh.

That's not to say WLANs don't pose unique security risks. Wireless hackers are hard to detect and trace, so WLANs are tantalizing targets. And employees unwittingly might compromise corporate security by attaching wireless access points to the corporate network without informing the IT department.

The parking lot attacks did real damage to the WLAN industry, coming just as WLANs gained widespread acceptance in companies and among hot-spot operators. The WLAN industry is growing, but not as fast as it would have. More importantly, wireless networks increasingly are interconnected with wired networks; it no longer makes sense to think of wireless security as an isolated problem.

So what should a first-class WLAN security product look like? It must address three fundamental concerns: privacy, access fraud and intrusion. Privacy can be assured by using an encryption mechanism that changes codes faster than hackers can crack them.

Hackers are continuously devising new strategies for penetrating networks. What's needed to thwart access fraud is not merely a robust authentication technique, but a framework protocol letting vendors stay at least one step ahead of the hackers.

Detecting and tracing wireless intruders is arguably the final frontier of WLAN security. Detecting rogue access points is difficult but not impossible. Eavesdropping is a more intractable problem because eavesdroppers are normally passive. The ultimate solution might be to force even listeners to transmit from time to time.

Developing satisfactory WLAN security is a challenge. Security is only as good as its weakest link, so enhanced products must be implemented end to end. That means they must be based on universally accepted standards. Unfortunately, the IEEE 802.11 WLAN standards committee has a history of acting slowly.

The WLAN industry simply cannot afford to wait. When the Wired Equivalent Privacy standard proved vulnerable, the Wi-Fi Alliance quickly created Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). Now Cisco is trying to move things further along - and in its direction - through its Cisco Systems Inc. Compatible Extensions program.

All networks are susceptible to eavesdroppers and gatecrashers. The key difference between the WLAN industry and the larger Internet community is that wireless vendors understand they can no longer get by with half measures. Everyone concerned about 'Net security should follow closely, if not participate in, the development of enhanced WLAN security standards.

Brodsky can be reached at ibrodsky@datacommresearch.com.

Trepia(TM) Helps Users Find a Buddy using Wi-Fi

by WDN (editor@wirelessdevnet.com), June 03, 2003

Trepia's free software lets you instant message anyone currently using a Wi-Fi network in a public place.

I recently stumbled accross an interested collaboration
tool called Trepia; actually, a Slashdot thread likely
more accurately refered to it as a buddy list of strangers.

According to the website, Trepia(tm) is a revolutionary networking application that lets you instantly meet other people in your vicinity. Other people will simply appear on your contact list automatically, allowing you to communicate with them.

Trepia(tm) performs a patent-pending Progressive Proximity search for nearby people using known geographical information about the networks you use. It searches from the inside out, first adding people local to you, then
branching out to others.

Check it out at http://www.trepia.com/

MapInfo Working with Ekahau to Deliver End-to-End Wi-Fi Solution


Saratoga, CA, June 3rd 2003 - Ekahau has announced joint
marketing and development agreement with MapInfo Corporation
(Nasdaq: MAPS), to deliver a complete, end-to-end Wi-Fi location
management solution. MapInfo offers the ability to accurately map
and visualize WLAN networks that are near a given customer, near
existing serving facilities or for planned build-out of Wireless LANs
tied to existing enterprise networks. Through a combination of
accurate street level data, wireless infrastructure data and spatial
architecture MapInfo provides the foundation in which WLAN
network providers can understand "where" their networks are,
"what" is tied to their networks, and provides them the "how" to
better plan and manage their networks.

MapInfo and Ekahau, together with Bridgewater Systems, out of
Ontario, Canada, will demonstrate their combined Wi-Fi solutions
and plans at MapInfo's booth (#20747) at SUPERCOMM, June 1-5,
at the Georgia World Conference Center. Through this partnership,
MapInfo plans to offer a full range of custom solutions and
supporting architecture to enhance the planning, engineering,
operations and customer care of Wi-Fi Hot Spots (the public
location where users can remotely connect to the Internet through
a Wi-Fi network) and Enterprise Wireless LANs (WLAN).

"Wi-Fi presents a significant market opportunity for MapInfo. As with
any network, Wi-Fi networks require site selection, network
expansion, maintenance and customer care," said Lonnie Floyd,
strategic industry director, communications, at MapInfo. "We are
excited to be working with Ekahau and Bridgewater Systems, as our
solutions will allow service providers to visualize their networks, or
the networks they're managing for their customer, select optimal
sites for access points, maximize revenues through smart network
planning, and reduce customer churn by ensuring customer
satisfaction."

There are numerous instances where a network provider of managed
enterprise services could use these solutions to manage their
network. For example, a service provider for a large enterprise could
use these Wi-Fi solutions to determine how to configure access
points and dynamically manage them on an ongoing basis. Visualizing
the wireless LAN on a map, the operator or manager could easily
determine how many access points would be necessary to cover a
specific floor or area.

"Ekahau has one of the first location-based site survey tools, having
the capability to deliver visual detail and data about the network
performance and RF properties within the WLAN site location. The
Ekahau Site Survey(tm) software combined with MapInfo's
technology offers customers a unique tool to remotely analyze and
manage the Wi-Fi network at the site level," said Lare Lekman, CTO,
Ekahau Inc.

http://www.wirelessdevnet.com/news/2003/154/news3.html

Wireless Internet with a few strings attached
No more toiling next to that modem. You and your computer can roam, once you get past the tricky Wi-Fi setup.
By David Colker
Times Staff Writer

June 5, 2003

In most homes, the world is crammed into one room — the one with the Internet modem.

That's where the computer, tied to the modem like a marionette to a puppeteer, gets the Web, e-mail and online music.

But now you can cut the strings.

Wireless networking, popularly known as Wi-Fi, allows you to get an Internet signal anywhere in the house and even out in the yard without a direct connection to the modem.

With a transmitter about the size of a paperback book attached to the modem and a receiver card smaller than a saltine slipped into a laptop, you can e-mail friends while sitting on the sofa, check online recipes in the kitchen, surf the Web in the garden and catch up on the news while lying in bed. And after the initial cost of the equipment, Wi-Fi is free; there are no usage fees above and beyond your basic Internet charges.

Indeed, I am now sitting at my kitchen table with a view of the front garden, which is a nice change from my tiny, almost windowless home office with its depressing mounds of unfiled papers. Yet the Internet is flowing into the laptop at essentially the same speed I get at my wire-bound desktop computer back in the lonely office.

Wi-Fi also provides a handy solution for homes with multiple computers. A wireless connection can simultaneously serve several computers with no speed penalty. And transmitters are for the most part cross-platform, serving Windows and Macintosh computers.

This through-the-air networking has been around for several years, with the vast majority of systems set up by experts for commercial or corporate establishments. Home setups existed, mostly in the abodes of brave experimental types.

But in the last year, wireless has become so much cheaper and easier to install — a transmitter and receiver can be bought for a total of less than $100 — that Wi-Fi has crossed the line from nerd-dom to the mainstream.

"There is no reason, anymore, to pay an electrician to run wires all though the house to hook up the computers," says mobile computing analyst Ken Dulany of Gartner Inc. "So many people I know are going Wi-Fi, and there is not one I've talked to who doesn't like it."

Away from home there are benefits too. With a Wi-Fi-equipped laptop, you can take advantage of wireless Internet connections at thousands of public access points already established around the world (although many require usage fees) in coffee shops, hotels, airports and bookstores. Just by walking into one of these areas, you get a speedy connection you can use to e-mail back home or browse the Web.

Drawbacks? A few, which is the norm for an emerging home technology. The Wi-Fi transmitters have a maximum range of about 150 feet under optimal conditions, but those are rare. The signal is diluted by walls and other obstacles, creating dead or near-death signal zones.

Large houses with solid walls (wood or metal walls are especially difficult for Wi-Fi signals to pass through) might require multiple transmitters for full coverage.

Wireless also somewhat increases the chance that a hacker could get into your system. And although setting up home Wi-Fi is a lot easier than it was a couple of years ago, it can still be a highly frustrating experience.

Going Wi-Fi does not mean you can cancel your Internet service provider. "Some people think that with wireless they will somehow be completely freed from wires," says Frank Keeney, a wireless network installer who co-founded the Southern California Wireless Users Group. "You still need that Internet connection coming into the house."

DSL, cable or dial-up service plugs into a modem that is normally wired directly into the computer. But with Wi-Fi, the wire to the computer is replaced by a transmitter called an access point (an unsexy name for a cool item — clearly, marketing folks were not involved in the naming stage).

There are several name brands of PC access points you can buy, including Linksys, NetGear, Belkin, D-Link and the behemoth known as Intel.

You can find deals that bring the price on an access point down to as low as about $40, but you'll probably pay $75 to $100, especially if you want various extra features.

Apple Computer, which was a pioneer in home wireless, calls its transmitters "base stations." These devices not only have a better name, they are also slicker looking, have cool features and are generally easier to install. But they're Apple, so they are also more expensive, starting at $200.

Now you need receivers for your computers, and in the PC world they're called wireless adapters. Luckily, most computer folks will know what you are talking about if you simply refer to them as wireless cards; check with the computer manufacturer or a technician to see which card fits into your system.

On a newer PC laptop, the electronic card slips into a small slot on the side of the computer. (On an Apple PowerBook, it usually goes into a hidden slot behind the battery.) On a desktop, the card usually slips into the back of the machine — it's a bit trickier to install.

Older computers without appropriate slots might require the use of external adapters.

The price again varies with type and features, but expect to pay between $50 and $100.

You might hear that there are two technological standards for home Wi-Fi gear — 802.11b and 802.11g. You don't need to worry much about them, however, because they're compatible — a b access point should work just fine with a g card, for example.

The b standard is tried and true, while g is new, faster and usually more expensive. Most independent experts agree that b is more than adequate for current home Internet setups, although future devices might take advantage of the g speed bump.

Now comes the hard part: installing software and configuring the equipment to get your wireless system up and running. My most important advice is: Don't do this when the help lines for the equipment you bought — as well as those for your computer and Internet service provider — are closed. Maybe everything will go smoothly, but probably it won't.

I installed both Linksys and Apple setups, and both required fairly lengthy chats with helpful technicians at those companies.

Then comes another tricky process: engaging the security protection standard, known as Wired Equivalent Privacy, or WEP, for your system. It should be available on your Wi-Fi software. WEP provides some protection against people in the area jumping onto your little wireless network. If they are skilled hackers, they might even be able to delve into an unprotected system to pick up passwords, etc.

However, no one in the security community is very happy with the loopholes in WEP. Replacement security software, called Wi-Fi Protected Access, or WPA, is due by the end of the year.

All this finagling and adjusting can be time-consuming as well as frustrating. But once your little home wireless network is operating, all will probably be forgiven. Wi-Fi is just so cool — using it reminds me of the sense of wonder I used to get from the Internet until going online became all too mundane.

As I sit here with my computer at the window, I can look up to notice that the shrubs need clipping, the neighbor's cat has wandered into the yard and clouds have moved in, making it a nice time to take a little walk.

When there's work to be done, Wi-Fi opens up a whole new world of distractions.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Going out, getting online

When you leave home, you don't have to leave Wi-Fi behind.

If you have a laptop equipped with a wireless card, you can connect to the Internet at a rapidly growing number of public access points — commonly called hot spots — not only in the United States, but in many foreign countries as well.

Lists of hotel, airport, coffee shop and other hot spots can be found on the Web — one of the most comprehensive is at http://www.80211hotspots.com — but these lists quickly go out of date.

Some hot spots offer free access. Locally, one of the largest is a four-block stretch of Pine Avenue in Long Beach, where the city's Economic Development Bureau and corporate sponsors teamed up to provide high-speed Wi-Fi. Just sit at one of the many restaurants or clubs on the busy street, and you're connected.

Next Thursday, the same group will start providing Wi-Fi at Long Beach Airport. For information on either area, see http://www.longbeachportals.com .

Another free zone is in the Farmers Market in the Fairfax district, where the Sticker Planet store provides Wi-Fi for promotional purposes. When you go online near there, wirelessly, the store's Web page automatically pops up.

The vast majority of public access points, however, charge usage fees. The leader in this field is the ubiquitous Starbucks, which has equipped thousands of its coffee shops with high-speed Wi-Fi and offers pay plans, including unlimited access for $39.99 a month or a pay-as-you-go 10 cents per minute.

Hotels with Wi-Fi enable guests to hook into a high-speed connection in their rooms without having to plug in. The New Otani downtown, for example, offers the service for $9.95 a day.

Other hotels in the area with wireless include the Four Seasons Hotel Newport Beach and the Westin Bonaventure downtown.

Can Wireless Networks Be Too Secure?

By Andy Dornan
06/04/2003 4:00 PM EST
URL: http://www.networkmagazine.com/shared/arti...?articleId=10300161

Fear sells. Open any publication or switch on the TV, and there's a good chance that both the editorial content and the advertisements are trying to terrify you. Whether it's weapons of mass destruction, jumbo jets contaminated with SARS, or black-hats in your network, fear can first grab your attention and then persuade you to buy a product or buy into an idea.

The computer industry enjoyed its greatest boom in the run-up to Y2K, but suffered when Armageddon didn't occur and enterprises realized that their panic-driven upgrades might not have been necessary. Since then, it's been searching for something else that can scare network managers into spending money, preferably something without Y2K's inconvenient sell-by-date or falsifiability. Viruses are too rare, spam too hard to stop, and cyber-terrorism too silly to take seriously, but wireless security might just fit the bill.

Many vendors are promising to fix or replace Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), the ineffective encryption used in IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi). Most claim that WEP is holding back wireless LANs, but I'm not so sure. Wi-Fi's success to-date was more likely achieved because of its poor security, not in spite of it.

A lack of security has helped Wi-Fi in two ways. One is probably accidental, due to 802.11's newfound role in the WAN. People want to be able to use their Wi-Fi laptops and PDAs anywhere, something only possible because so many access points are left open. The number of hotspots offering free Internet access would be greatly reduced if every access point defaulted to WEP, let alone a really secure system.

The second way is more deliberate, a result of the familiar trade-off between security and ease-of-use. Most ordinary users prefer the latter, and successful access point vendors know it. The 802.11 standard's designers consciously chose simplicity over security, an entirely rational decision given that the main selling point of a wireless LAN is convenience. Plugging in an Ethernet cable can be a hassle, but is it really worse than remembering strong passwords, running a specialized VPN client, or carrying a token card?

The security community often blames users for wanting convenience: If only people didn't connect rogue access points, run .vbs attachments, or write passwords on Post-it notes, go the complaints, the network would be impenetrable. Changing user behavior may be a lost cause, so we instead look for technical solutions. The latest of these target Wi-Fi, and they're promising to reign in the rogues and bring wireless networks back in line with security policies. Some of these solutions work quite well, but even the best may have unintended consequences.

Rather than ignorance or stupidity, rogue access points can be seen as evidence of inventiveness. End users are good at finding ways around security obstacles that prevent them from doing their jobs, and they sometimes have a better understanding of real-world security than the people who write the security policies themselves.

Although Wi-Fi is out of line with the rest of the network, many network security policies are out of line with the rest of the world. And despite what security vendors say, most enterprise networks are already locked down to an extent that people would find intolerable in any non-computer context.

FREEDOM FROM FEAR?

The contrast between virtual and actual security is apparent in most offices. People need a password to surf the Web, but not to make international phone calls. Each e-mail account is protected by another password, even though physical mail can be left sitting in in-trays for weeks. Data files are encrypted or stored behind complex access control systems, while physical documents are left strewn across desks or kept in cabinets that-if they're locked at all-take seconds to force open with a paperclip.

People like Wi-Fi because it fits this open, easy-to-use philosophy. The same applies to Windows, which until 2002 placed security near the bottom of its design criteria. While Microsoft has done some evil things, some of Bill's billions were made by giving people what they want-and that isn't security.

The Windows software on my computer may be vulnerable to crashes, but the windows in my home are even more vulnerable to bricks. I could put up bars to stop burglars, but I don't because I like to be able to look outside without feeling like I live in a prison. Most people seem to feel the same way. It's true that fear sells, but that's a sign of desperation: If the best pitch that a vendor can make is based on irrational fears, there can't be much real value in what it's selling.

Both Windows and Wi-Fi may have gone too far toward convenience, but the security backlash could go too far in the other direction. Windows is already showing signs of this, with Microsoft planning a hardware component that will enforce its (not your) security policy in all PCs.

Microsoft might get away with this, but it's a monopoly-most networks are not. If mobile users can't install their own remote access software on IT-issued laptops, they'll work from a cybercafe. If spam filters don't allow users to customize their blocking criteria, they'll use Hotmail or Yahoo. And if your wireless security system doesn't provide the same mobility and convenience as a rogue access point, you could end up destroying the network in order to save it.

This link may be of interest to some:

http://www.bwcs.com/subscriber_zone.cfm

Funk Software Ships Odyssey Client v2.1, Secure WLAN Access Client Which Supports Wi-Fi® Protected Access Encryption Protocol

Funk Software today announced the availability of Odyssey Client v2.1, the new version of their secure WLAN access client that adds support for Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), the standards-based encryption protocol that brings new confidence to enterprises looking to deploy WLAN access but were holding back due to security issues. Odyssey Client v2.1 is the only commercially available 802.1x client to support WPA across Windows XP/2000/98/Me, allowing enterprises to roll out secure WLAN access widely, with strong data security, across every wireless PC on their network.

In addition, numerous leading WLAN vendors, including Cisco Systems, Colubris Networks, Intersil, Broadcom, Trapeze Networks, Airespace, Aruba Networks, and Atheros have certified Odyssey Client v2.1 as compatible with their WPA-certified equipment. This widespread support for leading WLAN equipment affords customers maximum flexibility when deploying a secure WLAN access.

"WPA provides enhanced data privacy over the wireless link - a crucial capability on enterprise networks," said Wi-Fi Alliance Chairman, Dennis Eaton. "Organizations like Funk Software, an early supporter of WPA, have clearly demonstrated their commitment to supporting technologies that will be widely implemented by WLAN hardware vendors."

"Odyssey Client's support for WPA is one more reason it's the 802.1x access client that's most suitable for enterprise-wide deployment," said Joe Ryan, vice president of Funk Software. "Odyssey Client has already established itself in the market as the most easily deployed and rapidly adopted access client. Now, with WPA support, it enables additional data security for enterprises who are undertaking widespread WLAN access."

Odyssey Client v2.1 is the only multi-platform 802.1x access client to support WPA. A complete WLAN security solution based on WPA includes Odyssey Client v2.1, a compatible RADIUS server such as Funk Software's Odyssey Server or Steel-Belted Radius, and WPA-compatible WLAN equipment. This complete system provides the following safeguards to enterprises deploying WLAN access:

· Access control ensures that only authorized users can connect to the network, blocking access by users who are not listed in the enterprise security database. In addition, through strong mutual authentication of client and server, the system ensures that WLAN users can only connect to a legal network

· Complete credential (password or token) security is provided over the wireless link when a strong authentication method such as EAP-TTLS is used. This provides total security for enterprise user names and passwords or tokens, preventing credential theft, as they traverse the wireless link

· Data privacy is afforded by the WPA encryption protocol, so session data is protected against wireless eavesdropping and other attacks, preventing discovery of enterprise information as it traverses the wireless link. Odyssey Client v2.1 also adds full support for the WLAN security protocol EAP-PEAP and is now compatible with both the Microsoft and Cisco implementations of EAP-PEAP.

Odyssey Client is the 802.1x access client that is most suitable for deployment on enterprise networks. Its multi-platform, multi-protocol support ensures compatibility in any environment, wireless or 802.1x-based wired. Advanced pre-configuration tools enable rapid, automated deployment across every wireless PC on the network, significantly reducing deployment costs associated with WLAN access.

And, numerous user conveniences provide a simple user experience to ensure rapid adoption by the end user population, significantly reducing support and training costs associated with WLAN access. No other 802.1x client packs this triple punch.

Odyssey Client runs on Windows XP/2000/98/Me/Pocket PC, and supports EAP-TTLS, EAP-PEAP (Cisco and Microsoft versions), EAP-TLS, and LEAP authentication methods, and WEP and WPA encryption protocols.

Odyssey Client v2.1 is available immediately directly from Funk Software as well as through local system integrators and VARs, and from Ingram Micro, Tech Data, and TerraWave Solutions. It is available outside the US through Funk Software's network of authorized international partners. Odyssey Client costs $50/machine; quantity discounts and private-label licensing are available. A 30-day trial copy of Odyssey Client v2.1 is available for download from Funk Software's web site at www.funk.com/.

Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Funk Software is the leading commercial developer of RADIUS/AAA and wireless LAN security solutions. Its market-leading Steel-Belted Radius family of commercial AAA solutions for wireless operator, service provider, and enterprise networks is in use on thousands of public and private networks worldwide, delivering a highly scalable AAA solution that meets the needs of the largest customers. The company also offers an end-to-end 802.1X WLAN security solution, Odyssey, that can be easily and widely deployed on enterprise networks. The Steel-Belted Radius family of RADIUS/AAA solutions includes Steel-Belted Radius/Service Provider Edition, Steel-Belted Radius Concurrency Server, Steel-Belted Radius Port Allocation System, Steel-Belted Radius Mobile IP Module, and Steel-Belted Radius/Enterprise Edition. For more information, visit www.funk.com.

Metrocall Wireless Selects Boingo for New Enterprise Wi-Fi Offering
802.11 Service and Software Will Add Productivity to Internet-Dependent Mobile Public

ALEXANDRIA, Va.--June 4, 2003--Metrocall Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB:MTOH), a leading provider of narrowband paging and other wireless solutions for the mobile business communication needs of enterprises, and Boingo Wireless, an innovator in remote Internet solutions, today announced a partnership to bring the benefits of wireless Internet access to businesses and other Web-dependent communities. Metrocall Holdings, Inc. is branded under the label "Metrocall Wireless."

Boingo Wireless provides Internet access wirelessly to laptops, pocket PCs and other computers via the most popular standard for wireless networks worldwide, 802.11 technology, also known as "Wi-Fi." Metrocall Wireless is the latest service provider to adopt Boingo's Platform Services for Wi-Fi, joining leading carriers and ISPs such as T-Mobile, EarthLink and Fiberlink.

Boingo's user-friendly software and service plans enable access to the World Wide Web at more than 1,300 "hot spots" conveniently located in business-intensive areas such as airports, hotels, convention centers and cafes. With Boingo, wireless Internet access is simple, efficient and fast, at up to 11 megabits per second - much faster than dial-up or 3G connection.

"The Boingo Wireless service is a natural addition to our portfolio of product and service offerings, with the potential to attract a new revenue stream by capturing a fresh market segment that has not acquired or utilized Wi-Fi technology," stated Metrocall Wireless President and CEO Vincent D. Kelly. "Additionally, we believe that the Boingo platform can meet the increasing LAN demands of many of our current enterprise-based customers and reduce infrastructure-related capital expenses associated with cable and wired LANs. As is the case with our entire portfolio, Wi-Fi adds value to organizations by increasing the productivity of the mobile workforce."

Metrocall Wireless' direct wireless consulting sales team is dedicated to providing business, government and healthcare accounts with solutions to their varied mobile communication needs. The addition of Wi-Fi/802.11 to the Metrocall Wireless sales consultants' portfolio is another service that can meet many of the mobile business needs of the Company's customers.

"Metrocall Wireless has a sizeable base of business customers who are looking for new ways to stay connected and maintain open communication channels," said David Hagan, President of Boingo Wireless. "Wi-Fi is the best option for high speed data access while they are on the road."

Other efficiency-promoting services offered by Metrocall Wireless include one-way paging, two-way messaging, campus-based Integrated Resource Management (IRM) systems, Blackberry e-mail connectivity and mobile voice service via partners AT&T Wireless and Nextel.

About Metrocall Holdings, Inc.

Metrocall Holdings, Inc. (Metrocall Wireless) headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, is the nation's second largest narrowband wireless messaging provider offering paging products and other wireless services to business and individual subscribers.

With national networks and operations in over 100 locations, the Company provides reliable and cost effective wireless services that are well suited for solving the mobile business communication needs of enterprises. Metrocall Wireless focuses on the business-to-business marketplace and supports organizations of all sizes, with a special emphasis on the medical and government sectors.

In addition to traditional numeric and one-way word paging, the Company also offers two-way interactive advanced messaging, wireless e-mail solutions, as well as mobile voice and data services through AT&T Wireless and Nextel. Also, Metrocall Wireless offers Integrated Resource Management Systems with wireless connectivity solutions for medical, business and campus environments.

For more information on Metrocall Wireless please visit our Web site and on-line store at www.metrocall.com or call 800-800-2337.

About Boingo Wireless

Boingo Wireless, Inc. is an ultra-high-speed wireless Internet service available in over 1,300 locations such as hotels, airports, cafes, and other public places. Both directly and through major ISP and carrier partners, Boingo provides business travelers with a wireless broadband Internet connection to improve productivity while on the road.

Through its free Wi-Fi software, Boingo makes finding and connecting to Wi-Fi networks point-and-click simple and secure. EarthLink founder and chairman Sky Dayton founded Boingo in 2001 and serves as its CEO. More information about Boingo is available at http://www.boingo.com

Sniffer Technologies white paper

Here is a link to a white paper entitled "Network Instrumentation: The ‘Secret’ to Breakthrough Performance and Efficiency".

http://www.sniffer.com/om/ne422.asp?code=5031

FCC Issues Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Designed to Increase Spectrum Availability for Unlicensed Wireless Broadband by 80%

Thursday June 5, 4:33 pm ET
U.S. Wireless Online Applauds Decision and Will Discuss During June 10 Wall Street Reporter Wireless Communication Roundtable


LOUISVILLE, Ky., June 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- U.S. Wireless Online, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: UWRL - News). The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) today issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) which is designed to increase spectrum availability for wireless broadband use by 80%. The FCC believes that more spectrum would "foster the development of a wide range of new and innovative unlicensed devices and lead to increased wireless broadband access and investment."
U.S. Wireless Online presently operates in both the 5 GHz bands and in the 2.4 GHz bands. The FCC's proposal calls for the addition of 255 megahertz in the 5 GHz UNI-I bands. "If implemented as proposed, the NPR will further stimulate the deployment of wireless broadband across America and is a resounding endorsement of the viability of wireless as an access technology that brings affordable high-speed Internet access to homes and offices," stated Doug Keeney, Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Wireless Online, Inc.

The FCC noted in its NPR, that commercial unlicensed wireless broadband networks offer "significant benefits for American consumers and businesses.""(These) networks offer the possibility of increased competition with other providers of broadband service, including cable and digital subscriber line (DSL) broadband services."

Keeney will discuss the implications of the NPR, as well as the company's previously announced plans to offer metro area wireless broadband through new overbuilds on June 10, 2003 at the Wireless Communication Roundtable hosted by the Wall Street Reporter (www.wallstreetreporter.com). Other panelists scheduled to be on the conference call include Timothy Donahue, President & CEO of Nextel Communications, Inc. and Cannon Carr, telecom services analyst at CIBC World Markets.

U.S. Wireless Online, Inc., headquartered in Louisville, KY, is a provider of wireless "last mile" high-speed Internet access (a wireless connection from a major trunk line to a business or residential user) in the rapidly growing industry called variously "wireless broadband," "802.11," "Wi-Fi," or "wireless local loop (WLL)." The Company owns and operates wireless metro-area networks in Kentucky, Georgia, Ohio and Indiana. It currently provides business and residential service to more than 24,000 users and has 500 enterprise customers. The Company's common stock trades on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol "UWRL."

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Expressions of future goals and similar expressions reflecting something other than historical fact are intended to identify forward-looking statements, but are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, market acceptance of the Company's products and technologies, competitive factors, the Company's ability to continue to secure sources of financing and other factors described in the Company's filings with Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligations to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this press release.

SupportSoft to Ease Home Wireless Net Installs
June 5, 2003


Redwood City, Calif.-based SupportSoft, a maker of automation software for service providers, this week announced a new version its HomeNet software for broadband service providers at SuperComm in Atlanta. The software is given by the provider to its subscribers to make it easier for them to setup home networks by handling installation and configuration automatically.

HomeNet, which first was announced in December last year with support for 802.11b networks, has now been updated to work with 802.11g and 11a based home networks.

Marc Itzkowitz, manager of broadband product marketing at SupportSoft, says HomeNet is not limited by the vendor products used, though the software is generally bundled with specific hardware endorsed or sold by the broadband provider. "The product is open to work with any vendors, but the carriers bundle it typically with a router and disk," he says.

This version of HomeNet also includes special mulit-user ad hoc networking features between users with the software installed. Those without the software can usually get it remotely if the broadband provider makes it available for download.

Itzkowitz says six of the top seven broadband service providers use SupportSoft products, including names like Comcast, SBC, and Bell South.

How Fast are US Robotics New 802.11g Products?
June 4, 2003


Stop in at the US Robotics (USR) Web site these days and you're going to see many a graphic touting Wireless Turbo, the name for the company's latest family of WLAN products. Based on the draft for the 802.11g standard (which will be finalized later this summer), the products are also accompanied by big graphics saying "100Mbps."

This speed is not the true throughput the products can achieve, according to Kevin Goulet, vice president of Global Product Management at USR. He says, "We're expecting folks will see from 22 to 25 Mbps world in actual usable throughput." This is only in a pure 11g environment, however. In mixed mode networks with both 802.11b and 11g, you would see slower speeds as the network dummies down to match the slower 11b clients.

The USR Wireless Turbo products use "Accelerator Technology" to "take out the overhead in the executions of the pre 11g standard," says Goulet." The data going back and forth is not just all header and directional overhead eating in the throughput."

It acceleration is like a "turbo mode," similar to what Atheros chip-based products can do, where the theoretical maximum speed without overhead is doubled. The theoretical maximum speed of 802.11g products is 54Mbps; most will deliver speeds only in the low 20Mbps area. With Turbo Mode, the theoretical maximum goes to 108Mbps, much like USR's goes to 100.

The USR products are, in fact, based on Texas Instrument's (Quote, Company Info) dual-band capable chips, the TNETW1130. USR has long been using TI's chips for WLAN products, having previously had an entire suite of products using TI's so-called 802.11b+ which could go to speeds of 22Mbps in much the same way.

USR recently announced some software/firmware upgrades to boost even the speed of 802.11b+.

802.11g speeds have been getting a boost in real-world speeds lately from chip makers like Atheros and Intersil, who will be using signal bursting and other technologies such as compression to get faster speeds. Atheros calls there's "Super G," Intersil's is Nitro .

The new USR products consist of a router (model 8054), an access point with multiple functions including bridging networks and repeating signals (model 5450), a PCI adapter for desktops (model 5416) and a PC Card (model 5410). All will support WEP keys up to 256-bit, Wi-Fi Protected Access, 802.1X authentication, and are upgradeable to 802.11i when that security standard is ready later this year. No pricing information was

WI-FI DOWNTOWN CLEVELAND

Here's something simple, and not that expensive, Cleveland can do to make a statement that it cares about the future. If Cleveland really wanted to do something simple to prove to skeptics it can join the leading edge -- and send a very positive message to the young, the smart, and the wired -- it should Wi-Fi downtown and provide free high-speed Internet access.

Doing so would make a tangible statement that Cleveland cares as much about the future of technology as it does about convention centers -- and in the end it would help attract more people and jobs at a greatly more justifiable public cost.

What we're simply advocating is constructing a grid throughout the downtown area where people can connect wirelessly to the Internet using Wi-Fi technology via their laptops or pocket PCs wherever they roam. In fact, we're surprised that Tim Mueller, the city's chief development officer and former Internet entrepreneur, hasn't already advocated this very positive and affordable idea.

A great local example of what Cleveland can do has, in fact, already been done in Cleveland. The New York Times, among other major media, have lauded Case Western Reserve University for being way out on the leading edge among the most wired -- and wireless -- colleges in the country. Several cities, including New York and Long Beach, Calif., are making free wireless Internet access available in downtown areas, and other "hot spots," as part of an effort to attract visitors and companies to business districts. Leading edge cities, such as Seattle and San Francisco, already have hundreds of free access points available to the public. Hotels and coffee shops are offering customers Wi-Fi access as a convenience, and Starbucks has equipped nearly 600 stores and plans to eventually Wi-Fi more than 70 percent of its 3,200 company-owned North American outlets.

Hell, even Pittsburgh has a public Wi-Fi setup and is planning one that will cover a 4-square-mile area of downtown.

Wi-Fi-ed cities are also spawning startups. It's kind of a new hi-tech urban and economic renewal strategy. This could also be done, by the way, in such inner-ring suburbs as Cleveland Heights (Coventry/Cedar-Fairmount, Cedar-Lee, etc.), Shaker Heights, Lakewood, as well as various other Cleveland "hot spots" such as Tremont/Ohio City.

So, should Cleveland join the leading edge, or join the "third wave" (as usual) and follow other cities like it typically does, several years behind the times?

What about it, Tim Mueller? What about it, Frank Jackson and City Council? What about it, Cleveland Tomorrow? Here's a no-brainer that will do a lot more for Cleveland than it will ever cost -- and really show if this town will actually put its money (and it won't take a lot) where its B.S. is. The "Creative Class" is watching.

German Airport Pioneers Different Wi-Fi Access Model

While Wi-Fi providers scramble for premium locations, and usage per
hotspot remains low, Munich International Airport is exploring a
different model. Flughafen Munchen GmbH, has deployed its own
network of Cisco Systems [Nasdaq: CSCO] Wi-Fi gear that allows
users to connect to their choice of ISP. Instead of having several
operators providing overlapping coverage, or forcing travelers to
use one exclusive provider, the airport will run its own portal.

The system will provide free access to local information -- flight
delays, etc. -- and feature a drop down window of participating
ISPs for users who want to go outside to the larger Internet. The
shared network idea is apparently picking up steam in Europe.
Three French mobile operators, Orange, Bouygues Telecom and
SFR are reportedly preparing to deploy a shared Wi-Fi network to
serve their respective customers.

http://www.TelecomWeb.com

Closer Look: Array of chip options could confuse WLAN market


By Jack Robertson
ebnonline

06/05/2003 10:00 AM EST
URL: http://www.ebnews.com/showArticle?articleID=10300225

The mushrooming Wi-FI wireless LAN market may end up with a potpourri of different chip solutions to meet the various IEEE 802.11 standards.

All must meet the IEEE-standard interface connection standards, but some may accomplish this with non-standard chip approaches. At the very least, the proliferation of proposed WLAN chips could present system builders with a confusing array of options.

Many in the WLAN industry believe the current miniPCI card for WLAN in mobile PCs is due for replacement. The card is connected by a relatively long coaxial cable to the antenna on the back of the PC. That can lead to cross-talk and interference issues and adds to WLAN subsystem cost.

But vendors are divided over exactly what should replace the miniPCI card.

The JEDEC Solid State Technology Association J61 committee is considering at least four different designs for possible WLAN partitioning. As with all standards, JEDEC's goal is to increase competition by allowing the mixing and matching of baseband, MAC, and RF chips from different vendors.

However, several proposals would lead to radically different MAC chips. One concept would divide the MAC chip into a so-called Upper MAC for non-time-critical functions, such as encryption, and a Lower MAC for time-critical operations, such as turning the transmitter on and off. The special MAC chip may not adhere to an open standard, or could even be proprietary.

Further complicating the standards agenda is the rush by WLAN chipmakers to integrate the various baseband, MAC, and even analog functions on a single chip. Core-logic chipset companies are looking at integrating some of the WLAN functions into their products. Such vendor-specific solutions do not always lend themselves to industry standards.

Other concepts would eliminate some of the MAC hardware functions altogether. These proposals would perform the non-time-critical MAC and digital operations in software, connecting through standard USB 2.0 or PCI Express interfaces. Whatever new WLAN PC partitioning solutions emerge, some face a potential regulatory challenge. The RF portion must pass certification by the Federal Communications Commission. If the RF and other WLAN chips are tightly coupled on the motherboard, the entire circuit board is considered "a radio" and must be certified by the FCC. That could become a nightmare if every motherboard vendor with WLAN chips must get FCC certification.

Many in the WLAN industry are pressing the FCC to start a rule making procedure to allow WLAN radio certification in such cases without having to test each and every motherboard.

The hodge-podge of post-miniPCI solutions won't unduly slow WiFI market demand. But how the wide range of alternatives play out in the market could very well determine winners and losers among chip vendors.

Wal-Mart to throw its weight behind RFID
By Richard Shim
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
June 5, 2003, 2:41 PM PT
http://news.com.com/2100-1022-1013767.html

Inventory management technology that uses wireless signals to track products from the factory to store shelves is set to win a major new ally next week: Wal-Mart.
 
The retail giant is expected to throw its weight behind RFID (radio frequency identification) technology at the Retail Systems 2003 industry conference in Chicago on Tuesday. Sources familiar with the company's plans said executives will make a presentation encouraging its top 100 suppliers to start using wireless inventory tracking equipment--chips affixed to products, and scanners in warehouses--by 2005.

Wal-Mart's endorsement of RFID gives an important boost to efforts to overhaul the world's supply chains, a makeover that could provide a shot in the arm for technology companies struggling to find buyers for the latest products and services. RFID is expensive, but backers say it offers long-term benefits that could dwarf the impact of the bar code on inventory control and distribution.

RFID spending will be "bigger than...Y2K," predicted AMR Research analyst Pete Abell. "I imagine there will be a rush on investing in RFID."

Suppliers are already exploring the use of RFID technology in tracking goods from the factory to warehouses. But backing from retailers is considered important because it could ultimately allow products to be tracked on store shelves.

Executives from Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart are expected to aggressively push for the adoption of RFID technology during a presentation at an upcoming event for retailers, suppliers and distributors, sources said. Part of the discussion will involve the significance of standards development and its effect on the widespread adoption throughout the supply chain.

Wal-Mart representatives did not return calls for comment.

RFID tags have the potential to streamline and improve inventory management by allowing manufacturers to more efficiently enter and track the flow of goods. For example, RFID could let a company add a boxful of goods to its inventory systems all at once, without having to unpack the carton and scan each piece separately. An RFID scanner can pick up signals from all the chips in the sealed box, something bar code systems can't do.

The cost savings could be substantial for Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer with sales of $217.8 billion in 2002. AMR's Abell estimates that Wal-Mart's costs associated with supply chain--including storing, transporting and keeping track of goods--are about 10 percent of overall sales. RFID, Abell said, could save 6 percent to 7 percent of those costs annually. Using the 2002 figures as a model, that would amount to about $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion saved.

Such savings are an attractive brass ring, but installing the technology is no small task. Wal-Mart suppliers "may find it difficult to meet the early 2005 time frame," Abell said.

Problems aside, chip and equipment makers are already gearing up for expected demand.

"In 2004, we are going to see a broad range of serious (RFID) pilots," said Vinny Luciano, vice president of product management, mobile computing systems, at Symbol Technologies. "We'll see full-scale rollouts of RFID systems in 2005. It's not too soon to start looking at the impact of RFID on business and what the opportunities will be."

In the past, Wal-Mart has helped to promote other technologies that have helped to streamline inventory and supply-chain management. Teaming with K-Mart and other retailers in the 1980s, Wal-Mart helped to promote the use of bar code scanning.

A bar code standard was approved in 1973, but by 1984 only 15,000 suppliers were using codes on their products. Wal-Mart threw its weight behind bar codes in 1984, and by 1987 there were 75,000 suppliers using bar codes, according to AMR Research.

As it looks to cut costs, Wal-Mart has been quicker with its support of RFID technology than with bar codes. And others are following, such as CVS, Target, Lowe's and Home Depot.

RFID-related technologies such as EPC (Electronic Product Codes) are gradually gaining industry support, which should help penetration.

"While still being developed, EPC will be a common method of tracking inventories and objects using RFID technology," said Ian McPherson, analyst with Wireless Data Research Group. "The two are related in the same way that bar codes and scanners are related."

EPC is being developed by the Auto-ID Center and the Uniform Code Council, and many see it becoming commonplace in pallets and cases over the next five years, according to Paul Fox, a Gillette representative.

Although cartons and pallets are the focus of RFID now, the technology isn't expected to truly take off until RFID tags are used on store shelves to give more up-to-date information on sales and in-store inventory. Trials are ongoing, but cost is the major hitch with such tags.

Currently tags cost 50 cents to 60 cents apiece. To be practical for manufacturers to use, they'll have to drop to around 5 cents, according to Dave Krebs, an analyst with research firm VDC.

"As volumes increase, prices will come down, but suppliers don't really have an incentive at this point," Krebs said. "They are footing the majority of the tag cost, and retailers are reaping a majority of the benefit."

Krebs added that for the benefits of supply chain, products have to be tagged at the source: suppliers.

A large retail company issuing favorable terms or promotions for suppliers could certainly encourage the adoption of the technology.


"Right now, everyone involved in RFID technology is examining the cost ramifications, but we're optimistic that the price hurdles will be overcome," said Fox, who said the tags can be had already for as low as 10 cents each. "The cost of tags and readers will decrease over time."

French GSM operators collaborate on Wi-Fi

 
 
Société Française du Radiotéléphone (SFR), Bouygues Télécom and France Télécom, a subsidiary of Orange France, operators of France's three GSM mobile phone networks, are all launching wireless Lan hotspots.

However a lack of service standards for access to Wi-Fi networks makes roaming difficult.

The Wi-Fi interoperability specification for wireless Lans, and the IEEE 802.11b standard on which it is built, define the technical aspects of the network but not how subscribers to public network services are identified or authenticated, the operators said. This makes life difficult for users and is hampering development of the market for public-access Wi-Fi services.

To encourage development of Wi-Fi networks in France, the companies will open up their wireless Lan hotspots to one another's customers by the end of the year.

The three will also create an industry body, open to all public wireless Lan operators, to standardise systems for accessing wireless hotspots and to give hotspot operators reciprocal, non-discriminatory access to one another's networks in France.

SFR has set the goal of giving its customers access to 80% of the 6,000 public wireless Lan hotspots it believes will exist in France by 2005. It will also deploy 200 hotspots in railway stations, airports, business hotels and convention centres by the end of the year.

Both Orange and SFR have also launched bundles for other organisations that want to host wireless hotspots. The bundles include a wireless access point, an ADSL (asynchronous digital subscriber line) connection, internet access, and remote management of the equipment.

In both cases, the host pays a monthly fee and receives a portion of the revenue from sales of airtime and traffic generated.

SFR has already made moves to extend the reach of its network, signing a roaming agreement with Swisscom Eurospot, the Wi-Fi subsidiary of Swisscom, and striking a deal with Excilan to simplify payment and sign-up to SFR's Wi-Fi network.

WiFi craze opens peripheral opportunities
 
June 6, 2003
By: Joan Engebretson
America's Network Weekly

ATLANTA — The annual Supercomm show does not usually have a heavy wireless focus—and this year was no exception. But two vendors announced new offerings aimed at unsung niches within a heavily hyped wireless opportunity—namely, WiFi.


ADC announced a new product aimed at service providers looking to join in on the trend of converting payphones to WiFi hot spots. It seems between 40% and 60% of payphones have no power available.


“One of ADC’s unsung capabilities is line powering,” CEO Rick Roscitt told America’s Network at the Supercomm show in Atlanta this week. Roscitt is expecting big things from the hot spot power solution that the company is developing.


Meanwhile, Sprint North Supply is helping wireless carriers sell enterprises on WiFi by bundling hot spot installation together with the installation of in-building cellular network base stations. To minimize disruption to regular business activities, Sprint North Supply connects and pre-tests equipment on its own premises prior to beginning the customer installation.

Phoning Over Wi-Fi Getting Easier

Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,59129,00.html

02:00 AM Jun. 06, 2003 PT

When Jason Johnson, a publicist in Mountain View, California, travels to Tokyo for business, he rarely pays more than five cents a minute to call home.

Rather than rely on the hotel's phone or a cell phone that offers worldwide roaming, Johnson hops onto a Wi-Fi network and phones home from his laptop instead. A piece of software in the laptop lets him connect to his office network in Mountain View and make phone calls at the local long-distance rate as if he were calling from there.

"The voice quality is as good as traditional cellular phones and in some cases can actually be better," Johnson said.

The so-called "voice over Wi-Fi" service -- which Johnson's company, VLI, offers -- is not ubiquitous today. But it is a breakthrough that could roil the cell-phone business, some analysts say.

Most recently, Palm (PALM) revealed it would support VLI's software on its Tungsten C handheld. While voice over Wi-Fi has been available for some time in certain hospitals, schools, airports and factories, this is the first time a company is offering it to consumers in an off-the-shelf product.

"You are just starting to see Wi-Fi integrated in handhelds," said Sam Bhavnani, an analyst at market intelligence company ARS. "Soon, we will see them integrated in handsets."

The advantages of making a call on a Wi-Fi phone rather than a cellular handset are obvious: "It's free," Bhavnani said.

Well, not quite free.

If Wi-Fi service were ubiquitous and free -- as some cities, including Milwaukee, plan to offer -- making a call would be free to anyone with Wi-Fi handsets.

In order to make phone calls over a Wi-Fi network somewhere besides Milwaukee, a person would have to download a piece of software onto the Wi-Fi-enabled device. VLI, for example, charges $10 a year to download its Gphone buddy-service software and users can make free phone calls to someone else who uses the same software.

Businesses can purchase network equipment and software that will let their employees, like Johnson, tap into the company's phone network and make phone calls anywhere at the local long distance rate. If the calls were made to other Wi-Fi networks, they would be free, aside from any software and ISP costs.

The hindrance to wide adoption is that the devices don't exist to integrate the hardware with the required software. In addition to a Wi-Fi chipset to receive the signals, devices would need software to be able to handle voice. While some of the software can be downloaded and installed, Bhavnani says there are no devices that work "out of the box."

"Wi-Fi today -- the reason people don't use it is because it is not easy to figure out," Bhavnani said. "You take a notebook into Starbucks and it takes some time for the process to work. It is not seamless."

Now imagine the learning curve to get voice over Wi-Fi to work.

Still, with the relative high price of cell-phone bills, more people are likely to go to the trouble of configuring a device in order to lower their bills, analysts said. That could spell trouble in the long run for mobile-phone service providers.

VLI's Johnson was careful not to tout his company's service as an alternative to cell-phone service.

"Ideally you would have a device that will get on both the Wi-Fi networks and cellular networks," he said. "When I am out in the Midwest, I still get cellular coverage. But when I am in my office, which is in the middle of this rigid, steel building where my Sprint PCS service doesn't work, I would then use the Wi-Fi coverage."

Broadband A Go-Go

In city after city, high-speed wireless access may be the next
Internet revolution

By Steven M. Cherry

I've got a Dell laptop on my knees and the wind
is in my (very short) hair. I've got as many
windows open as a beach house in
summer-Google searches and instant
messages to my wife; in the background, a new
batch of e-mails downloads and my hometown
public radio station streams on. It's the usual
cruise down the information superhighway at 2
Mb/s.


Look, ma, no wires! Spectrum editor Steven
Cherry rides real and virtual superhighways
near Orlando, Fla. His laptop is logged into
a test network created by MeshNetworks to
demonstrate broadband data rates with full
mobility.


But I'm also hurtling down an actual superhighway-U.S. Interstate 4,
at a very real 115 km/h. I'm in a Ford Mustang convertible,
under cotton-ball clouds and a postcard-blue Florida sky. The Dell is
outfitted with a prototype card that communicates with a test network
set up by broadband wireless start-up MeshNetworks Inc.

Earlier and a few miles away in Mesh's Maitland headquarters, outside
Orlando, I had asked Rick Rotondo, whose business card calls him
Mesh's "director of disruptive technologies," how fast we could go
and still retain a broadband connection. After all, laptops using
the
best-known wireless Internet technology, IEEE 802.11, will move
beyond an access point and lose their connections at mere bicycle
speeds.

Rotondo had grinned impishly and asked, "How big a speeding ticket do
you want to pay?"

Even at speed-limit speeds, the Mesh network held up, with download
data rates of at least 500 kb/s. That's faster, on the road and in
the air, than Aerie Network Inc.'s Ricochet service, which blankets
Denver with 128 kb/s coverage, maintaining connections at city-street
driving speeds of about 45 km/h. Though slower than Mesh, Ricochet
is no experiment-it made a highly publicized but failed attempt to
go national in 2000, and now lives on in the Mile High City with
several thousand subscribers. One, the Denver Police Department, uses
it to put squad cars on the department's internal network.

Mesh is the only company to have figured out how to dynamically hand
devices off from one access point to another at broadband data rates
and six-lane freeway velocities. But beyond that, Mesh, along with
Ricochet and other wireless point-to-point networks, are the best
hope for a fully mobile future-a world where we can teleconference
each other, watch news and entertainment in real time, order from
online catalogs, pay our bills, and answer e-mail-anywhere, anytime,
on ever smaller and sleeker handheld devices powered by ever more
powerful microprocessors and software.

Such a world would be an enormous boon for some huge industries that
haven't had much to cheer about over the past two years-computers,
consumer electronics, semiconductors, entertainment, and information
services, as well as, of course, the troubled telecommunications
sector. It could also heal the digital divide, especially in huge
swaths of the rural and undeveloped world, where wired last-mile
connections are few and far between. For many, any connection is
exciting; 2-Mb/s is positively thrilling.

What the new networks-Mesh, Ricochet, and others, such as the
140-km-long one run by start-up BroadBand Solutions Co. (BBSC) in
metropolitan Salt Lake City-have in common is that they're fast,
wireless, and not 802.11 (Wi-Fi), the IEEE standard that, despite its
short range and limited suitability for outdoor use, has taken the
world by storm.

They're not meant to supplant Wi-Fi so much as to supplement it-in
some cases, literally. For example, in the BBSC network, wireless
hubs, akin to a cellphone system's base station, might feed a
building's rooftop access point that is in turn connected to a Wi-Fi
access point inside. The result: hot spots of 2-Mb/s wireless
connectivity that suffuse public spaces, offices, and apartments.
Likewise, Ricochet offers a customized version of Linksys' popular
IEEE 802.11 router; with it, an entire household or small office can
share a single Ricochet account.



On the road

So this past spring I took to the road. Pursued by a monster Rocky
Mountain snowstorm, I saw how wireless networks were transforming
cities and towns in Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. I topped off my tour
with a trip to Orlando, home of futuristic theme parks and
MeshNetworks' bold vision of fully mobile broadband access.

My odyssey started by snaking through a starkly beautiful landscape
of mountains and prairies, cruising Interstate 80 toward Sandy, Utah,
home of BroadBand Solutions.

Utah is an odd state. It's almost as large as the U.K., but because
of the way it was settled by the Mormons, roughly 75 percent of its
two million people live on less than 1 percent of that land, a narrow
band defined by Interstate 15 from Ogden in the north to Provo in
the south. Only about 10 km wide, the corridor is an ideal market if
your goal is to provide wireless broadband to as many people as
possible as cheaply as possible.

That's pretty much what BBSC has done. With six wireless hubs, four
of them attached to the wireline Internet by 45-Mb/s connections,
BBSC might have the largest single wireless network in the world. It
covers 1500 square kilometers and 1.5 million people. Its customers
pay as little as US $50 a month for bit rates of 1 Mb/s in each
network direction.

BBSC's network piggybacks on other, failed, wireless businesses, as
well as on older telecommunications ventures, such as a 60-meter-tall
television transmitter tower south of the central city. Some of those
earlier ventures failed because they didn't have BBSC's skill at
mounting and positioning just the right number of radios on a tower
to maximize data rates; without that know-how, multiple radios begin
interfering with one another. BBSC's predecessors could have
benefited, too, from the company's home-brewed network management and
billing software, which can show customers how best to connect
multiple offices through BBSC's network-and show BBSC where
bottlenecks are developing and where best to allocate new
resources.

In an aerobic eight-hour tour in the company of three of BBSC's
bright young engineers-Trevor Paskett, 22; Josh Gottwald, 29; and
Bryan Scott, 27-I saw four of the company's six network hubs. The
complexity and diversity of BBSC's network is breathtaking, as was
our survey of it, climbing up building staircases, steep rooftop
ladders, and hillside switchbacks overlooking the Wasatch valley.

First stop: a large office complex called Jordan Commons Tower [see
photos], owned by local magnate Larry H. Miller, whose holdings
include several auto dealerships and the Jazz, Utah's professional
basketball team. The tower, a former high school, is a data
business's dream site, with redundant power coming from generators
on
two electric grids and multiple connections to the Internet's
backbone.

BBSC uses several products to establish point-to-point wireless
broadband connections throughout the 1500-km2 Salt Lake City metro
area, and all were on display. They include Sunnyvale, Calif.-based
Proxim Inc.'s Tsunami QuickBridge radios that send data 5 km at 60
Mb/s (or 10 km at 20 Mb/s), and Canopy radios from Motorola Inc.
(Schaumburg, Ill.), 16 km at 3 Mb/s. [See photo] The hub radios feed
one another and more than 40 cell sites unconnected to the wired
Internet. These smaller cells use Cisco's Aironet 350 radios, rated
for 1 Mb/s to 11 Mb/s at distances of 240 to 600 meters.

The Tsunami and Canopy radios operate in the 5.7-5.8-GHz frequency,
while IEEE 802.11b-compliant Aironet uses 2.4 GHz-all of which are
unlicensed regions of spectrum, a matter of some concern. "A
consultant told us that we ought to switch some of the hubs to
licensed frequencies," Gottwald told me, as he unscrewed a
custom-made gunmetal case crammed with routers, servers, and backup
power supply.

"We can already see how crowded 2.4 has become. We're ahead of the
game because Canopy uses 5 GHz, but the same thing could happen
there." Unlicensed frequencies become cluttered with everything from
cordless phones to microwave ovens, as many home users of Wi-Fi have
learned the hard way.

The company's 1400 customers are local businesses, apartment
buildings, and other, smaller, Internet service providers, such as
Lyman Brothers Inc. (Salt Lake City), which connects networks in
southern Africa via satellite to the Internet through several Utah
providers, the largest of which is BBSC. Strange but true: if you are
an Internet customer in, say, Madagascar or Tanzania, even "local"
e-mail may be going through Salt Lake City.

We piled back into the BBSC van to visit one of the system's key
hubs, dubbed South Mountain, halfway between Sandy and Provo. It
turned out to be an ordinary two-story office building. Getting to
the 4-meter rooftop tower involved walking through an office to a
closet in a corner of the building, scaling a vertical industrial
ladder located there, and then pushing through a roof hatch.
Maintaining a wireless network isn't a desk job.

Utah's wireless corner of the Internet, with its welter of
connections, businesses, and technologies, also requires a good head
for network topology and architecture. Hubs back one another up, as
do the plethora of different ISPs. Ultimately, BBSC relies on two
Internet backbone providers, the Electric Lightwave Inc. subsidiary
of Citizens Communications (Stamford, Conn.), which has a direct
gigabit fiber connection to the backbone, and Global Crossing
(Bermuda).

I could have spent a week with BBSC, but it was time to move on.
Retracing my steps onto I-80, I stopped for the night at Evanston,
Wyo., just short of the Continental Divide. Snow had begun to
fall, and more was expected. Lots more.



Home on the range

I woke to find a thick crust of ice on the car, but after an hour of
diminished-visibility driving, I outran the storm. I arrived in
Laramie just in time to have lunch with Brett Glass, a geeky
40-something computer consultant and technology writer who heads
Lariat.org, a nonprofit that runs the state of Wyoming's only
indigenous Internet service provider.

Lariat traces itself back to a computer users' group that decided, in
the early 1990s, to take into its own hands the problem of good
Internet access in a city of only 25 000 residents. After setting
up a bank of dial-up modems, Glass and his friends considered the
needs of Laramie's small businesses.

At the time, a standard U.S. Internet connection cost $3500 a month,
buying a data rate of about 1.5 Mb/s. Lariat found it could buy
radios and provide 2-Mb/s connectivity for a one-time fee of $3500
and
monthly charges of $600 (nowadays, only $125 for setup and $125 per
month). Thus in 1994, when most people were first hearing of the Web
and PC modems were just breaking the 28-kb/s barrier, Lariat was
offering wireless Internet access at data rates that are still
unavailable to many people today.

Though able to offer the same data rates as BBSC, Lariat has several
problems unique to the city of Laramie. Foremost are zoning
regulations that prohibit construction of new antennas. Nor can
Lariat piggyback on existing antennas owned by cellular providers,
such as Sprint and Qwest, because broadband Internet is a potential
competitor to those companies' nascent 3G mobile data services.
Without a tall antenna able to cover the entire city, Lariat offers
no residential broadband wireless access.

Lariat's second problem involves its connection to the Internet
backbone. No regional Internet service provider in Wyoming offers the
high data rates BBSC can get in Utah to pass packets in bulk along to
their Internet destinations-"backhauling," as it's called. The
backhaul bottleneck prevents Lariat from offering more or bigger
Internet connections. "We could take on a 45-Mb/s account right now,
but we don't have the bandwidth," Glass complained, his mood matching
the now darkening sky.

In 1998, the local gas utility in Laramie tried to bring a different
wireless provider into town.

Ricochet, then owned by Metricom Inc., scattered its reasonably
high-speed data receivers and transmitters on streetlights and the
sides of buildings in urban areas. Laptops and PDAs
equipped with a proprietary card would be able to get online anywhere
in the city. However, Ricochet used the same unlicensed 900-MHz
frequency as Lariat's network; fearing radio interference, Lariat
mounted a successful campaign against Ricochet.

Metricom went on to establish itself in 22 cities across the United
States before filing a spectacular billion-dollar bankruptcy in 2001
[see "What Went Wrong at Ricochet," IEEE Spectrum, March 2002, pp.
60-61]. The service was sold to Aerie Networks, which has patiently
resurrected Ricochet in two cities, San Diego and its hometown of
Denver, not coincidentally the final stop on my road trip. Glass
warned me about worse weather to come, and I was off.



Airy rebirth

The next day, my blizzard-Denver's worst in 90 years-finally caught
up with me, dumping what would eventually total 80 cm of snow
downtown
and an absurd 225 cm in outlying mountainside towns. Just before it
shut down the city, I met with Ricochet's most interesting customer,
Lieutenant John Pettinger of the Denver Police Department.

Until Ricochet, the only connection between cops on the beat and the
Internet was cellular digital packet data (CDPD), a nominally
19.2-kb/s data service that's usually much slower in practice.
Infact, the service is so slow that it's used only for short queries
to the FBI or other law nforcement agencies to make sure that someone
stopped for, say, speeding isn't wanted for murder elsewhere.

Though Ricochet's throughput never exceeds 180 kb/s, Pettinger's
field tests showed that it's never less than 128 kb/s. That turns out
to be fast enough for police officers to log into headquarters
through
a secure virtual private network. "Cops in the field can look at
digital photos of suspects, they can query our database to find
someone with a unique tattoo, or by height and weight and
age-basically, they can use all the applications they normally do
when
sitting in the office," Pettinger told me. With a few taps of his
Compaq Tablet PC's stylus, he was showing me the grizzled mugs of
Denver's most wanted.

Police departments all over the United States use CDPD, but, being
based on the analog cellular services of the 1980s, it's poised for
the scrap heap: AT&T Wireless (Redmond, Wash.), its main provider,
plans to pull the plug on it in June 2004. So these days Pettinger
spends a lot of time telling other cops about Ricochet.

With the Denver airport closed, I sat in a downtown hotel room that I
was lucky to have and pondered the demise of CDPD. Aerie CEO Mort
Aaronson may have a winning formula for Ricochet: police departments
get a network three or four times faster than Sprint's PCS at lower
cost; Aaronson gets municipal rights-of-way for his streetlight
pole-mounted access points.



Peer-to-peer broadband

Ricochet in Denver and Mesh in Orlando have several things in common,
though snow obviously isn't one of them. Both hang access points off
streetlights. Both maintain a network connection while in motion. And
both think emergency and other municipal services-police, fire,
traffic, and so on-are going to provide critical toeholds for their
technology and products. But MeshNetworks' vision is more futuristic.
What makes it different is the mesh.

In any wireless network, devices communicate with access points,
which are connected to one another and the wired Internet. But in a
mesh network, devices are also transponders, or proto-access
points-they don't just exchange data with access points, but with
one
another as well. A given laptop or PDA's ability to connect to the
Internet isn't limited to the access points it can directly reach,
since intermediate users can push its packets out to the
proto-access
points.

One benefit of this is that individual access points are less likely
to become overcrowded. For another, devices can reduce the amount of
power they need; since every other user is, in effect, an access
point, the likelihood that there's one nearby is dramatically
increased. Imagine that every other cellphone user you see is also a
miniature cellular tower.

How do the devices in a mesh network find out about one another and
know who is intermediate to an actual access point? The network
maintains a dynamic routing table that updates itself in
milliseconds. While other networks, such as Ricochet's, use
sophisticated routing tables to balance network traffic and transfer
mobile users from one access point to another, none attempts
Mesh's Herculean task of tracking proto-access points, also moving
around at highway speed.

According to Rotondo, the disruptive technologist, the meshiness of
Mesh's technology makes it ideally suited to police, fire, and other
emergency services, and municipal applications in general.
For example, the company has begun to make "bread crumb" devices,
repeaters the size of a cellphone that can be left behind if, for
example, firefighters have to comb through the wreckage of
a burning building. They will never go farther than the network can
reach, because as the radio signals weaken, they can leave behind
another bread crumb.

The company also envisions these bread crumb-like repeaters built
into
traffic signals, parking meters, and just about anything else a
municipality might want to put on its network. Once the
mesh is built, it can be used by anyone. More access points and
Internet backhauling can be added as needed.

While no other company has put together Mesh's combination of 2-Mb/s
data rates, fully mobile wirelessness, and mesh networking, new
developments to improve wireless last-mile connections
abound. To name just a few, Vivato Inc. (San Francisco) recently
released a Wi-Fi switch that extends the range of IEEE 802.11 from
dozens of meters to kilometers by transmitting packets in
a beam, rather than in all directions at once. ArrayComm Inc.'s (San
Jose, Calif.) 3G cellular base stations similarly locate wireless
broadcasting devices and aim their signals directly at them,
improving data rates.

Meanwhile, a new extension to IEEE 802.16, a standard for wireless
metropolitan-area networking, adds mobility to a specification that
might enhance, or even replace, 802.11. And so-called
fourth-generation cellular technologies, such as those of Flarion
Technologies Inc. (Bedminster, N.J.) and Soma Networks Inc. (San
Francisco), would combine the broad coverage of cellular with
broadband data rates.

Which technologies, and which companies, will control the last mile
is still unknown. But just as many first-time telephone customers
bypassed wireline and went straight to cellular in places like
Hungary, Brazil, and China, for many individuals and businesses
around the world, the broadband Internet will be wireless.

Edited by author 06-09-2003 10:25 AM
The Wireless-Security Balancing Act
 
By Julie Bort
June 6, 2003

If you choose an EAP that doesn't gain de facto standard status, the access point will be to other EAP clients what a two-hole electrical outlet is to three-pronged plugs.

Wireless LANs have been billed as the great security wasteland. But thanks to the 802.11b Wi-Fi community's frenetic activity in the last year, an abundance of good security choices now exist, with more on the way.

Wi-Fi security efforts have focused on encryption and authentication, with users essentially getting two choices for locking down WLANs . They can use IP Security (IPSec)-based VPNs or build security architectures around pending Wi-Fi-specific security standards. Within the Wi-Fi standards are more choices.

With such options, corporate users can secure any WLAN, even for sensitive data. "Don't wait for the Holy Grail, or you'll lose an opportunity to invest in an architecture that could be of tremendous benefit," says O.J. Wolanyk, CIO for Memorial Health System in Springfield, Ill.

Wolanyk is overseeing a $30 million, three-year project that will let doctors carry patient data on portable devices while making their rounds, connecting to patient medical records and research sites via an 802.11b network. He relies on an IPSec VPN created by ReefEdge's Wi-Fi authentication server to protect network access while providing Triple-DES encryption.

Wolanyk and other early adopters tell peers not to be scared off by ongoing work on Wi-Fi security standards. Within the next year or so, standards will be final, standards-compliant products will be shipping, and de facto winners of competing underlying security technology will have emerged. Upgrading existing equipment and tossing out the old is typical in the Wi-Fi world, users point out.

After all, security isn't the only part of Wi-Fi that could make the access points and client-side antenna network cards obsolete. Speed also is an issue, with the migration from 11M bit/sec with 802.11b to 54M bit/sec with 802.11a or 802.11g, says Thomas Gaylord, CIO of the University of Akron in Ohio.

His approach is to go with one vendor, Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) , for all access points and to rely on Cisco's assurances of future compatibility. He has begun to mix in faster, more secure Aironet 1200 access points (capable of being upgraded to 802.11a, 802.11g and the emerging Wi-Fi security standards) with older Aironet 340 and 350 models. As to the wireless clients, he will rely on a future feature that would autodetect software/firmware versions and upgrade to new versions if necessary, he says.

"That's how we see ourselves protecting our investment: using a blended or dual [access point] environment," Gaylord says.

The good news, too, is that many vendors are building 802.11 products with speed and security-upgrade paths in mind. And they are pricing this gear low enough to be fully depreciated over two to three years -- rather than five years as some more expensive equipment requires. This makes a replacement budget feasible -- at least for access points -- should you need to swap out to standards-compliant equipment, users and vendors agree. For instance, access points are priced from $100 to $1,000 and 802.11 PC cards cost $50 or less.

Moreover, standards work is fairly far along. Should you decide to buy now, you comfortably could predict which security choices will win in the long run. Yet, vendors are not making Wi-Fi security choices easy to understand nor packaging their products with basic security defaults. The onus is on you to learn about the choices in authentication and encryption protocols, and how to implement them.


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IPSec VPNs, WPA and 802.11i

Wi-Fi security is a maze of choices. On the one side, security vendors and users are addressing Wi-Fi security with tried-and-true IPSec VPNs. On the other side, Wi-Fi developers are working feverishly to add strong native security support into 802.11 networks.

While effective, using an IPSec VPN for wireless security has several drawbacks. For one, it is limited to IP traffic, and it carries all the complications of wired IPSec, such as configuration complexity and the requirement of client-side code. Native Wi-Fi security support will win in the longer term for enterprise WLANs, analysts say, with VPNs coming in handy for some circumstances. For example, a road warrior on a Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) public 802.11 network always will need a VPN to tunnel into the corporate network, says Michael Sutton, director of engineering for wireless consultancy iDefense.

As positive as standards development is, the pace of Wi-Fi security developments is creating a bewildering number of interim solutions. Two overlapping 802.11 security protocols are in the barrel. One is Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), which the Wi-Fi Alliance vendor group announced last October. The first WPA-certified products are expected to become available later this year based on the first WPA-certified chipsets, which began shipping during NetWorld+Interop in late April.

WPA replaces the 802.11 Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protocol, much lambasted as weak, thanks to its short and static encryption keys. With a firmware upgrade that overwrites WEP, WPA offers stronger encryption (see related story right). It also adds authentication protocol 802.IX, an IEEE wired-world standard adapted for Wi-Fi.

The other choice is the IEEE's 802.11i, the ultimate goal of Wi-Fi security work. 802.11i includes all elements of the WPA standard while upgrading to stronger encryption. 802.11i is expected to be completed early next year, with portions (such as the stronger encryption) ratified as early as the end of this year, vendors say. Products that claim all or partial 802.11i compliance might begin to ship before 802.11i's ratification, with observers estimating availability of fully compliant products in second-quarter 2004.

The Wi-Fi Alliance intends the WPA as an interim standard while the wheels of the IEEE slowly turn on 802.11i. Vendors promise WPA will be compatible with 802.11i.

Go Take an EAP

Between encryption and authentication, you're on more treacherous ground with authentication. The 802.1X authentication standard used in WPA and 802.11i (and sometimes directly named as a supported standard by vendors) holds a secret black hole for compatibility. It relies on the IETF Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP), an extension of PPR. At least five incompatible flavors of EAP can be used with 802.1X, including a proprietary version from Cisco. These EAP options are in various stages of development, from draft mode to widely available.

For proper authentication, the client and access point must use the same EAP version. Sutton warns that you could buy products that tout compliance with WPA or 802.11i but won't talk to each other.

If you choose an EAP that doesn't gain de facto standard status, the access point will be to other EAP clients what a two-hole electrical outlet is to three-pronged plugs. Converting Wi-Fi clients to a de facto standard before they've fully depreciated could be a drain of resources, both time and money. And for newer versions of EAP, interoperability is sketchy even among two devices using the same flavor, as testing at NetWorld+Interop showed. (See related story at www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder:6023.)

Analysts are watching the EAP wars closely and have laid bets on which efforts will be the long-term winners.

Each EAP option has advantages and disadvantages.

Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) variant, EAP-Transport Layer Security (EAP-TLS), is widely available. Microsoft supports the protocol in all versions of Windows XP and has released a free Windows 2000 EAP client. EAP-TLS requires certificates for clients and servers. Because of this, some users perceive this implementation to be more secure than other EAPs. However, the client-server certificate requirement also means EAP-TLS needs certificate management, such as the use of a trusted certificate authority and the ability to revoke certificates quickly.

Cisco's EAP variant, the popular Lightweight EAP (LEAP), is proprietary -- its biggest downfall. LEAP, released in 2000, provides username/password authentication, based on the Windows logon. Certificates are not required, but until recently Cisco access points and clients were. If the WLAN was available to a variety of 802.11 clients, you had to buy LEAP client-side "supplicants," as EAP client code is called, from vendors, such as Funk Software and Meetinghouse Data Communications, for about $40 per seat. That's a pricey proposition for organizations with thousands of clients, especially compared with the free EAP-TLS supplicants from Microsoft.

Cisco is trying to encourage more widespread support of LEAP on Clients through a LEAP licensing program it now offers to chipset vendors. In February, Cisco announced licenses with eight such vendors, including Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) for its Centrino Mobile Technology, which will embed LEAP in a variety of laptops.

The third EAP variant is EAP-Tunneled TLS (EAP-TTLS), developed by Funk and Certicom (Nasdaq: CERT) , and turned over to the IETF. Now an Internet draft, last updated in February, EAP-TTLS is an enhancement of EAP-TLS, with support for advanced authentication methods, such as tokens. A variety of Wi-Fi vendors have signed on to support EAP-TTLS.

The fourth EAP choice, Protected EAP (PEAP), is a Cisco-Microsoft-RSA Security option developed to counter the momentum EAP-TTLS gained as Wi-Fi vendors embraced it, Sutton says. He characterizes PEAP as like EAP-TTLS, but controlled by the big guys.

PEAR uses certificates in a fashion similar to Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) with browsers. The client presents a certificate to the server, but does not require one from the server in return. Once the client authenticates to the server with a certificate, it "builds the encrypted tunnel; then it does EAP in the tunnel to authenticate the client -- a two-step authentication process like SSL," says Chris Bolinger, a product manager with Cisco's wireless networking group. Microsoft has included PEAP in XP service pack releases and, as it does for EAP-TLS, offers a free Win 2000 client.

Vendors also often support the fifth EAP, EAP-MD5. However, this older EAP is rarely used, Sutton says, and he does not see it growing in popularity.

He is placing his bets on PEAP, with its backing by Cisco and Microsoft, as the big winner. Cisco and Microsoft "saw the writing on the wall" and realized that their versions of EAP would not become de facto standards, Sutton says. Still, for Cisco houses, LEAP could remain a strong contender for years, particularly once it becomes available in more clients.

So WLAN security boils down to three choices:


Use one of the public domain EAPs, hoping you picked the eventual marketplace winner while taking on the pain of certificate administration.

Go with LEAP, which requires using Cisco access points and either dictating a limited variety of clients to users or buying all the clients for them. (All 802.1X authentication methods require the use of a server that supports Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service and this, too, would need to understand LEAP.)

Use a VPN, sidestepping 802.11 security altogether, at least until it matures.
Security choices

The University of Akron made the LEAP choice because it didn't force the use of certificates, Gaylord says. The university has standardized on IBM (NYSE: IBM) ThinkPad clients using Cisco's Aironet wireless LAN adapters, but Gaylord looks forward to more adapter choices as they emerge. He augments LEAP with VPNs, used to access printers and other more restricted LAN resources.

California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks has side-stepped EAP for now. Unlike the University of Akron, it does not want to dictate laptop or LAN adapter card choice. "We looked at Cisco's LEAP, but the problem is we've got students and faculty bringing in all sorts of different laptops," says Zareh Marselian, director of technical services. "We want to remain open as a heterogeneous environment."

To secure the university's wireless network, Marselian uses ReefEdge's Wi-Fi authentication server, which supports simple username/password authentication from the browser without requiring client code. He also segmented off the Wi-Fi network so users can't move from it to the wired network, and restricted use to Internet and e-mail access -- the two most critical services that users wanted from a mobile connection. California Lutheran is rolling out wireless connectivity to 12 campus buildings, about 40 classrooms. A rollout for a dormitory will follow.

And certainly, you could go with IPSec VPNs entirely -- at least until the 802.11 standards have matured and de facto EAP winners emerge, as was the choice for Memorial Health System. Besides ReefEdge, Wi-Fi authentication vendors that support IPSec VPNs include Bluesocket , Fortress Technologies and Vernier Networks .

As Memorial's Wolanyk says, using an IPSec VPN lets him give his users -- the doctors -- the mobile network services they desperately need, while he watches security developments. "We plan, probably in 18 months to two years, to have to revisit our choices to ensure we have the best solution in place, or to modify, or upgrade," he says.

For those wanting the untethered LAN today, such a temporal attitude is wise.

Pioneer Consulting Predicts Global WLAN Service Revenues to Reach $4.75 Billion by 2007; Wi-Fi continues to grow as end-user demand increases for unwired networks

    Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

    BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 9, 2003--Amidst all the turmoil over the past few years in the telecom industry, one segment has continued to thrive and show promise in the wireless industry, specifically wireless local area networks (WLANs) and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi). 802.11b or Wi-Fi as it's more commonly known has been gaining acceptance in three specific segments, namely the enterprise, public and home networking markets. Pioneer believes that Wi-Fi technology will continue to increase its market share over its wired counterparts due to an ever-increasing mobile workforce along with the continued growth of hot spots as end-user demand for unwired Internet connectivity increases worldwide.
    "WLAN technology has been around for some time, but like all technologies, its fate ultimately rests with wide-spread consumer and business adoption of the technology itself." said Douglas Peterson, President of Pioneer Consulting. He went on to say, "Add to that, WISPs and wireless carriers ability to provide affordable, reliable and ubiquitous service will be crucial in allowing WLANs to move from niche market novelty to serious market contender over time."
    But will this darling of the wireless industry provide a sufficient market opportunity for WLAN equipment vendors such as Broadcom, Cisco, Enterasys, Intel, Linksys, Nortel, Proxim and Z-Com? Can wireless providers like Boingo Wireless, BT Openworld, Singtel, StarHub, Swisscom, TeliaSonera, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and Wayport continue to increase their subscriber base despite the sluggish economy? What are the costs involved in setting-up a basic WLAN and will it prove too great a barrier for wider acceptance? Finally, in what geographical regions will the market opportunity be greatest for WLAN equipment and service revenue?
    In our latest report, Wi-Fi 2003: Worldwide Market Opportunities for Wireless LANs Pioneer addresses these and other issues in order to provide up-to-date assessments of the Wi-Fi market opportunity for service revenue from WLAN subscribers, access points and adapters in the major regions of the world.
    Based on its proprietary demand model, Pioneer predicts that worldwide service revenue from WLAN subscribers will reach $4.75 billion (USD) by 2007. For more information on Pioneer's Wi-Fi 2003 report, including an Executive Summary abstract, please click on the following link: http://www.pioneerconsulting.com/report.php3?report=41

    About Pioneer Consulting, LLC.

    Pioneer Consulting is a highly regarded international market research and analysis firm specializing in worldwide broadband telecommunications networks and technologies. Since its inception in 1997, Pioneer has rapidly become a trusted leader in providing high quality in-depth and objective analytical telecom research. Through its reports, Pioneer provides in-depth research and analysis in areas such as: Optical Networking, Submarine Fiber Optics, Broadband Wireless Access, Satellite Systems and IP Network Convergence for Global 500 companies. For more information on Pioneer Consulting and its products and services, please visit the company's Web site at: www.pioneerconsulting.com

MESH NETWORKS

Harnessing the power of wireless devices


By Hiawatha Bray
Globe Staff
6/9/2003

As if our cellphones or laptops didn't have enough to do handling our own wireless
communications needs, a Florida company wants to put them to work carrying other
people's data as well. The US Army has already used the concept on the battlefield
in Iraq, and now MeshNetworks Inc. of Maitland, Fla., is bringing the idea to the
civilian market -- first for use by police officers and firefighters and someday
by all of us.

The technology bears the same name as the company. Mesh networking is based on the
idea that wireless devices can be made far more powerful and versatile if they're
programmed to link up with every other compatible device within range. Then the
linked devices act like routers on the Internet. When someone on the mesh makes a
phone call or sends an e-mail, the message bounces from point to point on the
mesh, from a pocket phone, to a laptop, to another phone in a car, until it
reaches a land-based receiver connected to the standard phone network.

''The Internet is a big mesh network,'' said Peter Stanforth, MeshNetworks' chief
technology officer. ''We take that whole concept and make it mobile.'' Stanforth's
company is also taking the concept to market, betting that governments,
businesses, and, eventually, individuals will embrace it.

Like many innovations in technology, this one began with the military. In the
1990s, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency was looking for ways to help
soldiers quickly set up robust communications networks in hostile environments.

It decided to make every radio a combination cell site and data router. Each could
not only transmit and receive its own messages, but also relay data from other
devices in the mesh. In this way, hundreds of soldiers spread over dozens of
square miles could easily stay in touch, even if a particular radio didn't have
the range to span the entire distance. Because the distance between relay hops is
fairly short, routing all this radio traffic puts only a small burden on each
radio's battery.

When a soldier switches on a radio, he's immediately linked to every other radio
in the mesh. When the soldier switches off, the network instantly reconfigures
itself, rerouting message traffic to the remaining radios. The system also
provides highly accurate location data on each radio. If one unit in the mesh has
a global positioning system and can fix its exact location, that data can be used
to calculate the location of all other units on the mesh to within about 30 feet.

The US Army calls this system a ''tactical Internet,'' and some units, like the
4th Infantry Division, used it in the Iraq war. MeshNetworks is now seeking to
bring the same concept to bear on a variety of civilian networking tasks.

But the success of mesh networking is by no means assured, warned Phil Redman,
wireless industry analyst for the research firm Gartner Inc.

''It's real interesting stuff. It's very scalable, it's very flexible, very
adaptable,'' said Redman. But mesh networking is also quite different from
traditional communications systems, a fact that may make potential customers
nervous.

''Because it's still unproven and very cutting edge,'' said Redman, ''it's going
to be very difficult for them in this space.''

For now, Stanforth says his company is mainly focused on radio gear for use by
police and fire departments. Devices would be given to individual police officers,
sewn into firefighters' protective gear, and mounted in patrol cars and fire
trucks. Ground-based access points scattered throughout the city would capture
messages relayed across the mesh and route them to headquarters using the standard
telephone network.

Dan Himes, national director of business development for Viasys Corp., a reseller
of MeshNetworks products, says part of the system's appeal is the ability to
transmit data at broadband speed -- up to 6 million bits per second.

''You can actually send video across this,'' Himes said. ''A police car could pull
up to a scene and transmit video of the scene back to headquarters.''

And a mesh network's ability to provide instant location data could save the lives
of firefighters, according to Dean Valentine, network coordinator for Orange
County Fire Rescue in Winter Park, Fla.

Valentine's department was impressed by a demonstration of a mesh network that
used a local supermarket to simulate a smoke-filled building. A mesh transmitter
was hidden in the store to simulate a trapped firefighter. Valentine said such a
search would usually take 20 minutes -- far too long to save someone's life. But
using a laptop connected to the mesh, he said, ''we played hide-and-go-seek and we
were able to find the individual in about 3 minutes.'' That's why Valentine is
seeking funding from the county government for a large-scale test of MeshNetworks
technology.

But Stanforth doesn't expect to see mesh networking confined to public safety or
government work. Mesh networking is compatible with WiFi wireless data networks
and with the broadband version of the popular CDMA cellphone technology.

''Ultimately, the broadband networks we all carry around will all use some ad hoc
mesh,'' he said.

Today's WiFi wireless Internet hotspots have a range of only about 300 feet. Mesh
networking could ''turn a hotspot into a hot zone,'' said Stanforth, allowing
users to bounce messages from one WiFi device to another, over several blocks or
several miles. Indeed, Stanforth said that MeshNetworks has held preliminary
discussions with Cometa Networks, the AT&T-IBM-Intel partnership that's planning
to deploy WiFi networks in major US cities.

Stanforth is also interested in putting mesh networking devices in cars. Imagine a
vehicle signaling that it's just had a flat tire. Not only would the state police
be notified; so would the other cars on the road. The other drivers could start
slowing down or selecting alternate routes.

Adding telephones to the mesh will probably be the final step, Stanforth said.

''The telephone network is damn good at doing what it does,'' he said, so
cellphone companies may see little reason to plug into the mesh.

But cellphone makers like Nokia and LG are beginning to add WiFi to their handsets
to allow users to make cheap phone calls over wireless Internet services. Adding
mesh networking capability is the next logical move. So in a few years, your
cellphone could be busily chattering away over a mesh network even when you're
not.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.

This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 6/9/2003.

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/160/busi...less_devices+.shtml

Propagate Networks Announces Industry's First Self-Organizing WLAN Control Software; Company founded in 2002 by proven industry leaders

    Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

    ACTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 9, 2003--Propagate Networks, Inc., an innovative start-up founded by seasoned industry visionaries, today announced its breakthrough software that supplies the industry with the first self-organizing, self-optimizing wireless local area network (WLAN) - slashing costs and dramatically increasing performance for local wireless communications.
    Propagate's AutoCell(TM) software is a continuously running embedded control system for wireless access points (APs) and clients (laptops, PDAs, and phones). Residing in the firmware of APs and Wi-Fi client adapters, Propagate's AutoCell software automatically controls the complete RF (radio frequency) environment without the need for management intervention.
    "If wired Ethernet switches worked the way 802.11 APs do today, IT would need to reconfigure the network every time they installed another switch," Gary Vacon, Propagate's co-founder and CEO said. "Customers need to be able to install wireless APs without having to worry about channel maps, or site surveys, or RF interference. With AutoCell, if you want better performance, you just add another AP, and the network automatically adjusts in real-time. This will save a lot of money for IT organizations."
    Propagate Networks' software is a completely automatic system to control 802.11 environments. Embedding AutoCell software in every 802.11 device, the system requires no user interaction, increases bandwidth dynamically, enhances security, and reduces installation and maintenance costs for corporate IT managers.
    Propagate Networks will distribute its product primarily through high-profile partners, such as Netgear, Inc. and Atheros, Inc.
    "Many of our customers are looking for a way to easily and cost effectively expand their 802.11 networks," said Patrick Lo, CEO of Netgear, Inc. "Propagate's AutoCell is designed to let people put access points wherever they want, in whatever density. Customers want wireless bandwidth everywhere. But it's got to be all automatic...all the time."
    "We are pleased that Propagate chose Atheros as its first wireless chipset partner," said Craig Barratt, president and chief executive officer of Atheros Communications. "Technologies that simplify WLAN deployment are in high demand. Our chips deliver the highest performance and broadest functionality of any available solution, and Propagate's unique self-optimizing approach reduces the costs of building out WLAN networks. The combination results in a best-in-class WLAN that is very inexpensive to manage."
    Propagate is led by a team of highly respected networking experts, including Vacon, who previously co-founded NetICs Corp. and served as general manager of the switching and routing divisions at Bay Networks. Floyd Backes, Propagate's co-founder and chief technology officer, was formerly chief technology officer for 3Com's switching division. Propagate's co-founder and vice president of marketing and business development, Paul Callahan, was vice president of strategic investments at Nortel Networks and group director of IT research at Forrester Research.
    In addition to Vacon and Callahan, Propagate's board of directors also includes Albert A. Holman III, founder and managing partner of Chestnut Partners, Inc., and Larry Walker, former vice president and general manager of Motorola's Network and Computing Systems Group.
    "The next major challenge for the WLAN industry is effectively managing the organic growth of WLAN clients. Currently, site survey, frequency allocation, and AP power management, all largely require manual approaches. Automating or reducing the need to perform these tasks, leads to a major reductions in the cost of WLAN ownership," said John Morency, president of Momenta Research, Inc., who recently produced the industry's first cost of ownerships study for WLAN implementations.
    Propagate's AutoCell software uses extremely efficient control traffic to continuously load-balance and adjust both APs and clients as the network reconfigures based on changing load and user movement. AutoCell's embedded software has a small footprint, is computationally efficient, and can be added to reference designs with little impact on development costs.

    Pricing and Availability:

    Propagate's AutoCell software is available immediately for evaluation by manufacturing partners only. AutoCell will be available in many high-profile OEM products in the fall of this year. Propagate is working with its partners on licensing agreements. No standard pricing is available today.

    About Propagate:

    Propagate Networks, Inc. (www.propagatenet.com), headquartered in Acton, Massachusetts, was founded in October 2002 to automate and increase the performance of 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN) equipment. Based on patent-pending technology, Propagate's technology will significantly boost the throughput and decrease the cost of 802.11 solutions by creating a distributed, self-organizing network. Propagate Networks is led by a team of seasoned network professionals and entrepreneurs and is funded by a group of private investors.

French GSM operators collaborate on Wi-Fi roaming
By Peter Sayer
IDG News Service, Paris Bureau
09-06-2003
 
SAN FRANCISCO - In a bid to make wireless LAN hotspots as easy to use as mobile phone networks, three French mobile phone operators will open up their networks of wireless hotspots to one another's customers by the end of this year.

Société Française du Radiotéléphone SA (SFR), Bouygues Telecom SA and France Télécom SA subsidiary Orange France, operators of France's three GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) mobile phone networks, are all launching wireless LAN hotspots. However, they face a common problem: a lack of service standards for access to Wi-Fi networks makes roaming difficult, they said in a joint statement Thursday.

The Wi-Fi interoperability specification for wireless LANs, and the IEEE 802.11b standard on which it is built, define the technical aspects of the network but not how subscribers to public network services are identified or authenticated, the operators said. This makes life difficult for users and is hampering development of the market for public-access Wi-Fi services, they said.

To encourage development of Wi-Fi networks in France, the companies plan to open up their wireless LAN hotspots to one another's customers by the end of the year.

The three will also create an industry body, open to all public wireless LAN operators, to standardize systems for accessing wireless hotspots and to give hotspot operators reciprocal, nondiscriminatory access to one another's networks in France.

One of the three operators, SFR, set the goal of giving its customers access to 80 percent of the 6,000 public wireless LAN hotspots it believes will exist in France by 2005. It also announced plans to deploy 200 hotspots in railway stations, airports, business hotels and convention centers by the end of the year.

Both Orange and SFR have also launched bundles for other organizations that want to host wireless hotspots. The bundles include a wireless access point, an ADSL (asynchronous digital subscriber line) connection, Internet access, and remote management of the equipment. In both cases, the host pays a monthly fee and receives a portion of the revenue from sales of airtime and traffic generated.

SFR has already made moves to extend the reach of its network, signing a roaming agreement with Swisscom Eurospot, the Wi-Fi subsidiary of Swisscom AG, and striking a deal with Excilan to simplify payment and sign-up to SFR's Wi-Fi network.

Wi-Fi - your security Achilles heel?
Survey finds alarming numbers laid back about security...

Only a third of European companies using wireless LANs (WLANs) have issued security policies and many more are seemingly blasé about various aspects of making sure corporate networks aren't compromised.


Wireless LANs - now usually based on the Wi-Fi standard, also known as IEEE 802.11b - are increasingly popular within companies as well as in homes and at public 'hotspots'.


But the lax security is worrying. What's more surprising is that these findings have come from a survey of over 300 CEOs, MDs and other senior directors at companies attending last month's WLAN Event conference in London - users who may well be considered to be more educated about wireless LAN usage.


According to the survey, from London-based security outfit Orthus, almost half of respondents - 46 per cent - said they wouldn't know if their LANs had been compromised.


This is against a backdrop where many are using them for sensitive commercial data (27 per cent), personnel data (29 per cent) and intellectual property data (22 per cent) - all types of information companies wouldn't want falling into competitors' hands.


Andy Hogan, Orthus business development manager, said: "People spend millions on securing their hardwired systems and then linking to them and spending no effort on that. We find that virtually no one audits for vulnerabilities."


The survey also found only 30 per cent of companies are transmitting data over virtual private networks (VPNs) and only 41 per cent are deploying firewalls. Forty-three per cent said their WLANs are connected to their wireline corporate infrastructure - showing wireless can be an Achilles heel.

Asia's Hotspots Come to the U.S.
June 9, 2003


A Maryland wireless company believes it can make Wi-Fi hotspots profitable by giving up to 90 percent of the revenue it makes from 802.11 Internet connections to the hotspot venue owners and bringing lessons learned in Asia to the unwired shores of the U.S.

Teletronics International, a Rockville, Md., designer and developer of wireless systems, is promoting its "EZ Hotspot" service as a low-cost, venue-friendlier alternative to current hotspot providers.

"We could never figure out" the pricing model for Wi-Fi hotspot leader T-Mobile, says Teletronics CEO Dr. Dickson Fang. His company's $500 hotspot gateways will allow unlimited monthly usage for $12.99, complete with national roaming. Teletronics argues that is nearly 1/3 lower than competitors. T-Mobile, for instance, charges its cellular customers $20 per month for unlimited access at its 2300 hotspot locations at sites like Starbucks, Kinko's and Borders Books & Music. For those not part of T-Mobile's phone service and unwilling to sign-up for a one-year contract, unlimited Wi-Fi access is $40 per month.

Fang says the low rate is possible using Teletronics' National Operating Center, "a giant server-based system" handling user authorization, authentication and accounting back-end functions. It has a capacity to serve up to 1,000 customers per second, according to Fang.

That system is under no threat of collapse as there are only a handful of EZ Hotspot locations available in the Washington DC-area. Fang says that number should climb to 30 in around a month.

The hotspot service was launched May 21 in Taipei, Taiwan. High profile Wi-Fi cheerleader Intel was at the news conference, alongside McDonald's, the latest venue promoting Intel's Centrino 802.11-based chipset for laptops.

Also making interesting Teletronics' entry into the hotspot market is its planned revenue-sharing.

"Our hotspot strategy in the U.S. is based on an operator-favorable revenue distribution, that an entrepreneur with a publicly accessible space such as a restaurant, shop, parking lot, apartment or mall can buy our gateway," said Fang in a prepared statement.

Venue owners using EZ Hotspots, by picking and choosing which options they want to handle themselves, can keep as much as 90 percent of the revenue generated by Wi-Fi customers, says Fang.

Aside from the back-end server, provided by Teletronics, and the hotspot location, provided by the venue operator, EZ Hotspot members can choose their own Internet Service Provider and may install the Wi-Fi gateway themselves, or Teletronics can provide a turn-key system.

EZ Hotspot operators generally choose a mix of setup options resulting in their sharing 45 to 60 percent of the revenue, according to Fang. Between nine and ten customers use the hotspots each day with a prepaid $2 card worth 20 minutes of Wi-Fi access the most-popular payment method, according to Fang.

The Teletronics CEO says in Tiawan, where 802.11 services are growing by leaps and bounds, wireless customers see low-cost and dependability as most important. The U.S. Wi-Fi experience "is very different," he says.

Although Teletronics may appear new to U.S. customers, its presence is felt widely in Asia. Teletronics has its Easy-Up Hotspot system in around 800 Asian locations, including 363 Taiwan McDonald's along with hundreds of Internet cafes, shopping malls, colleges, airports and hotels throughout China.

In a development also related to boosting the number of hotspots in the U.S., Placentia, CA-based networking vendor ZyXEL has released its ZyAIR B-4000, a combination 802.11b wireless access point, router, 4-port switch and wireless service gateway with a $649 price tag.

The device is aimed at coffee shops, bookstores, libraries and other public venues seeking to offer customers Wi-Fi service with the least hassle.

"Small retailers, for example, may be able to offer free Internet access with a minimum customer purchase," said Munira Brooks, vice president of sales and marketing at Zyxel.

Features pointing to the product's ease-of-use include

Built-in printer to handle billing and account information without costly back-end support. A gateway which can be operated by store clerks who needn't be computer savvy. A built-in portal launched whenever a customer is in the vicinity. No need for customers to change their computer's Internet settings. Authentication, authorization and accounting all built into the gateway.

Whether from Asia or homegrown, there appears to be new options for the mom-and-pop shop looking to easily offer their customers wireless Internet access and customers seeking an alternative to larger, expensive hotspot providers.

Skyworks Unveils the Industry's First Fully Integrated 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Front-End Module

Combines PA, Switch and Filter Functionality in a Single Integrated Package
June 2003 (Newstream) -- Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: SWKS), the industry's leading wireless semiconductor company focused on radio frequency (RF) and complete cellular system solutions for mobile communications applications, today introduced the industry's first fully integrated 802.11b/g wireless LAN front-end module. The new SKY65201 significantly reduces the number of components required for building wireless LAN router, access point, PC card and PCI adapter access points.

Designed with cost and space savings in mind, the SKY65201 wireless LAN front-end module combines the company's industry-leading power amplifier (PA), switch and filter functions into a single low-cost, 8mm x 10mm package.

According to market research firm In-Stat/MDR, wireless LAN chipsets more than doubled to over 20 million units in 2002. In-Stat expects that number to grow to over 94 million units by 2007. "Skyworks' new wireless LAN front-end module will be extremely attractive to companies without RF experience," said Allen Nogee, principal analyst with In-Stat/MDR. "The ability to drop in the RF front-end will enable quicker time-to-market for wireless LAN developers, and ultimately reduce costs and accelerate 802.11 adoption."

"Skyworks' wide breadth of leadership products and process technologies enabled us to develop a fully integrated wireless LAN module that will allow customers to deliver high-performance wireless LAN devices with minimum design time, at a reduced cost," said Gregory Waters, Skyworks' vice president of Cellular Infrastructure and Wireless Data. "Initial samples have already achieved the acclaim of a number of top-tier customers and we expect to see new wireless LAN devices integrating our new module on shelves by the end of the year."

Technical Details

Key features of the new SKY65201module include a high performance PA, transmit/receive switch, band pass (BP) and low pass (LP) filtering, as well as all associated control functions with no external matching components. The module delivers output power of 21 dBm for 802.11b or 16 dBm for 802.11g applications, with 29 dB of gain at a bias of 3.3 volts.

Skyworks' SKY65201 wireless LAN module is manufactured using Skyworks' proprietary heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) power amplifier process, low-loss pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (PHEMT) switch process, and low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) filter process technologies.

Price and Availability

The SKY65201 module is available now and is priced at $2.25 in volumes of one million.

Visit Skyworks at MTT-S 2003

This week at the MTT-S trade show in Philadelphia, the company will showcase its leadership product portfolio of front-end modules, RF subsystems and complete cellular systems, including the new wireless LAN front-end module, in Skyworks' booth #1329.

About Skyworks

Skyworks Solutions, Inc. is the industry's leading wireless semiconductor company focused on RF and complete cellular system solutions for mobile communications applications. The company began operations in June 2002, following the completion of the merger between Alpha Industries, Inc. and Conexant Systems, Inc.'s wireless communications business. Skyworks is focused on providing front-end modules, RF subsystems and cellular systems to wireless handset and infrastructure customers worldwide.

Skyworks is headquartered in Woburn, Mass., with executive offices in Irvine, Calif. The company has design, engineering, manufacturing, marketing, sales and service facilities throughout North America, Europe, Japan and Asia Pacific. For more information please visit www.skyworksinc.com.

Migration impact of Cisco's wireless launch
 
By Joanie Wexler
 
Last week, Cisco announced long-awaited enhancements to its
Aironet wireless LAN product portfolio. Many of the management and security-centric improvements, including a new version of the CiscoWorks Wireless LAN Solutions Engine, directly challenge the so-called WLAN "switch" companies in that they strengthen an enterprise's ability to centrally configure, upgrade, secure, and manage hundreds or thousands of wireless access points.
 
If you are an existing Cisco shop attempting to digest the
implications of Cisco's new "wireless-aware" software features, including its support of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), you might well have some product-migration questions. Here are some insights, paraphrased largely from a conversation I had with Bruce Alexander, a technical marketing manager at Cisco:
 
* If I'm running VxWorks-based Aironet products, such as the Aironet 350 or 1200, will they continue to be supported? Or do I have to upgrade my APs to run Cisco IOS software?
 
Cisco will provide support for VxWorks devices going forward. So if your environment is not changing and is well served by this operating system, there is no immediate reason to change.
 
However, the VxWorks operating system will not gain any of the new or future enhancements. If you want your APs to run WPA and the new Cisco wireless-aware capabilities, you must upgrade to IOS-based APs. The 1200 series is upgradable from VxWorks, but the 350 is not. Another model, the 1100 series AP, was an IOS device out of the chute. Cisco has a tool that enables automated, mass conversion from VxWorks to IOS for 1200 series APs. The tool also enables en masse configuration of IOS-based APs.
 
* Should I support the Cisco Wireless Security Suite, WPA, or both in my Cisco Aironet products?
 
There is a whole matrix of how you can mix and match
capabilities from both security sets. But the basic decision boils down to what clients your organization supports. If you are a 100% Cisco shop, you can just continue using Cisco's own Wireless Security Suite on both your APs and clients.
 
For mixed-client environments, you should note that WPA Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) and Cisco TKIP (CKIP) - algorithms for generating dynamic encryption keys - do not work together.

So you would likely continue supporting the Cisco Wireless
Security Suite (including CKIP) on your APs and add WPA (with WPA-TKIP). This would enable your APs to communicate with both Cisco-proprietary and WPA clients. Meanwhile, Cisco and its Cisco-Compatible Extensions (CCX) partners will begin offering WPA-certified client cards late this summer.
 
Can I upgrade my existing WLSE to Version 2?
 
Yes, from a software perspective. You'd do this if you would like the new features but don't need to scale beyond 500 APs. The software for the new appliance, which manages up to 2,500 APs, can run on the older appliance, but with the old 500-AP limit.

Beyond WiFi: Airwaves used in creative, lucrative — and unregulated — ways

By Sarah Lai Stirland
Special to The Seattle Times

WASHINGTON — What do camera pills,
cordless phones, wireless Internet service
providers, a radar that checks highways
and a keyless ignition system have in
common?

Answer: The technologies all rely on the airwaves to work. And they have
proliferated, according to a recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
report, because entrepreneurs have commercialized their ideas without having to
secure licenses that could otherwise limit where, when and how their services can
be deployed.

As an indicator of how pervasive wireless devices are in our lives, report authors
Kenneth Carter, Ahmed Lahjouji and Neal McNeil point to industry figures showing
that more than 80 percent of U.S. households own a cordless phone and 41 percent
have garage-door openers.

The devices use so-called unlicensed wireless technologies, the subject of the
report. Unlicensed wireless occupies portions of the airwaves not subject to the
same detailed regulation as the spectrum used by the cellphone industry,
television broadcasters, satellite services and the government.

Companies that make use of the unlicensed bands also never had to pay anyone to
use the spectrum. In contrast, wireless-phone carriers shell out millions at
auction for renewable licenses that give them exclusive use of other portions of
the spectrum.


Critics have said this framework for managing the nation's airwaves is
inefficient, and the FCC is making another attempt to respond through a series of
proceedings designed to overhaul the current system.


In addition, the Bush administration last week announced a major one-year
initiative to examine how it can improve the way it allocates spectrum to
government agencies. While the FCC oversees commercial spectrum use, the
administration oversees government-agency spectrum use through the National
Telecommunications & Information Administration.

Need for unlicensed spectrum

Although the report notes that recent financial growth in unlicensed wireless
comes mostly from the standard popularly known as Wi-Fi, it explores other
wireless technologies, their applications and their significance. It lays out the
regulatory framework, outlines recent steps by the FCC to reform airwave
management and suggests that the nation needs more unlicensed spectrum.
That is the spectrum used by devices complying with what are known as the FCC's
Part 15 rules. The rules permit the operation of low-power devices as long as they
comply with FCC technical certifications and don't cause harmful interference of
other services.

Among the technologies included are spread spectrum (used by cordless phones),
unlicensed personal communications services (wireless office-phone systems),
millimeter wave technologies (computer-to-computer communications) and
ultra-wideband (expected in electronics products beginning next year to transmit
multimedia content across short distances).


The FCC report, released late last month, follows its commissioners' recent vote
to allow spectrum lease holders to trade and sublease their licenses. Though the
FCC has made previous attempts to reform spectrum management, the issue is front
and center right now because commissioners want to see competition between
wireless services and the wireline world, says Rudy Baca of the Precursor Group in
Washington, D.C.

"There is this philosophical goal of the commission to try and arrive at
intermodal competition where wireless would be one of the broadband pipes in the
home, and you don't get that unless you get more spectrum out there," he says.
Pulling it together Dewayne Hendricks, chief executive officer of the Dandin Group
in Fremont, Calif., has been prodding the commission on spectrum reform for years.



"There's a lot of talk on The Hill, and the FCC and all over the place," said
Hendricks. "The Congress critters get it. They know the Wi-Fi word, so it was
incumbent on the commission to put all this together in one place. Garage door
openers, foot warmers, whatever — it's all there. But there's a lot more going on
and where we'll go is going to be constrained by politics."
As a so-called white paper, the report doesn't reflect a specific viewpoint of any
FCC commissioner. Instead, it is meant to contribute to what is expected to be a
highly political debate on exactly how the FCC should manage the airwaves as
computing makes new and more efficient uses possible.


The report's lack of focus on certain kinds of wireless technologies and their
implications sidesteps some of the harder questions: Why does any technological
framework need more discrete spectrum allocation if digital communications and
intelligent devices can route around such scarcity?

And how can some unlicensed technologies share licensed spectrum "free," even as
others are expected to trade or pay for access to that spectrum in a secondary
market?

Desirable broadcast spectrum

The issue affects Microsoft, Intel and others that want to provide consumers with
services on airwaves exclusively held largely by broadcasters.

Microsoft is among technology companies and public interest groups pushing the
commission to permit more unlicensed sharing of spectrum.

In a recent FCC filing, Microsoft's attorneys emphasized that the broadcasting
spectrum is especially valuable for broadband networking. That's because it
allows for more robust communications, such as the ability to transmit over longer
distances and through walls.

"For rural areas, for the development of mesh networks, and for urban buildings
where new wiring is prohibitively expensive, these propagation characteristics
could make all the difference between broadband service (being) available or not,"
the attorneys asserted. "It is our expectation that the engineering record will
demonstrate that unlicensed devices can share spectrum with broadcasters, public
safety operations and other users of the bands."


Microsoft currently leases unused portions of the FM spectrum from radio giant
Clear Channel Communications for a technology it is developing to broadcast data
to consumer products such as Smart watches. Called the Smart Personal Objects
Technology (SPOT) platform, it enables users to receive sports scores, weather,
and other personalized information.
Multibillion-dollar markets

For its part, the commission's May white paper sidestepped any strong
recommendations, other than saying that it may take an act of Congress to force
the issue. Instead, the paper outlines the history of unlicensed devices and
points to the $1.65 billion market in cordless phones, the $2.3 billion market in
wireless networking devices and the $1.2 billion market in radio-frequency
identification (RFID) devices used to track products, vehicles or animals.

It simply says that the remarkable growth and innovations in these markets need to
be fostered. The report shows that unlicensed wireless technologies can be used
for a wide variety of purposes and contends that it is this flexibility that's
behind the unlicensed world's growth and success, as businesses, governments and
other sectors of society experiment with and figure out new uses.

Example: The M2A Pill. Doctors use the pill to diagnose medical problems in a
patient's intestines. The patient swallows a capsule containing a tiny "camera." A
transmitter inside the capsule sends the images to be uploaded to a computer for
analysis and diagnosis. This innovation is just one out of several that the
authors use to bolster their case for more spectrum for unlicensed uses and to
show that there's a whole unlicensed world out there beyond Wi-Fi.

"Seeing Wi-Fi everywhere and hearing Wi-Fi everywhere, there was a natural
curiosity to get our thumb on the pulse of what's going on here," said Carter, the
report author. "There's some really neat stuff coming out here and it's
potentially disruptive (but) some of the most interesting developments will not be
in Wi-Fi."

Sarah Lai Stirland, a free-lancer in Washington, D.C., frequently writes about
public policy and technology.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/busi...13_wireless090.html

Newest Developments: Wireless Access Systems at 5 GHz
By Charles T. Glass

The challenge by Commerce Secretary Don Evans "to promote our country's economic
growth while protecting national security and public safety," was recently met by
NTIA, in cooperation with the Federal Communication Commission, the Department of
Defense, and a number of industry representatives, when they completed a robust
agreement to promote a new international allocation at 5 GHz.

"I am very pleased that the participants from the federal government and the
private sector have reached a consensus that satisfies both of their interests,"
said Assistant Secretary of Commerce and NTIA Administrator Nancy J. Victory. "In
achieving this, the Bush Administration has continued its goal of stimulating the
economy and ensuring the national defense and preserving the leadership of the
U.S. high-tech sector. Based on these changes, the United States is now able to
formalize its position with respect to earth exploration satellite systems, mobile
and radiolocation services at 5 GHz and will now fully support these allocations,"
Victory said.

This is one example of the major developments in 5 GHz Wireless Access Systems
(WAS) in the United States and Europe during the last year. Wireless access
systems are a class of devices that provide broadband communications, including
Radio Local Access Networks (RLANS), that can lead to various high speed Internet
and other networking applications between fixed and mobile terminals, either
indoor or outdoor. Figure 1 presents the WAS concept. While there are similar
devices already operating in many bands, such as 2.4 GHz, this article is limited
to the proposed new operations in the 5 GHz band. For more information about WAS,
see ITU-R Recommendation M.1450, "Characteristics of Broadband Radio Local Area
Networks."

The ITU, under WRC-2003 Agenda Item 1.5, will consider a breakthrough
spectrum-sharing technology, allowing a mobile allocation for WAS in the 5 GHz
band where WAS will share with services that use radars. Currently, the U.S. rules
for National Information Infrastructure devices allow WAS use of the 5 GHz band on
a non-protected basis at 5150- 5350 and 5725-5825 MHz. In Europe, WAS has been
authorized as a short range device called High Performance Radio LAN (Hiperlans)
at 5150-5350 and 5470- 5725 MHz (see ERC DEC (99)23). WRC-2003, will allow 5 GHz
to be used by WAS devices worldwide.

Most of the 5 GHz band is used on a primary basis by radiodetermination and the
earth exploration satellite and space research (active) services; and on a
secondary basis, by radiolocation as well as the amateur and amateur-satellite
services. The radar operations at 5 GHz are vital. The radars perform a variety of
important functions that require the unique spectrum propagation qualities at 5
GHz, including tracking of objects such as the space shuttle and weather rockets,
national defense, navigation and ground mapping.

Recent technological developments made successful sharing possible between the
existing allocated services and WAS in a large portion of the 5250-5825 MHz band.
Spectrum sharing between the radars and WAS at 5 GHz can be accomplished by
employing a new breakthrough technology known as dynamic frequency selection
(DFS). DFS uses the same principle as listen-beforetransmit communications
systems, but operates automatically and has a much faster response time. The NTIA
was instrumental in developing and validating the DFS technique as a method to
allow sharing. This was accomplished through analysis employing rigorous
simulation over a two-month period. Without proper specific characteristics for
DFS, however, sharing will still not be feasible.

The following values are required for DFS to allow successful spectrum sharing at
5 GHz:

a DFS detection threshold of -64 dBm for WAS devices operating at a total
effective isotropic radiated power (e.i.r.p.) of 200 milliwatts to 1 watt, and -62
dBm for devices operating at an e.i.r.p. of less than 200 milliwatts, measured
over a period not to exceed 1 microsecond, as normalized to a 0 dBi gain antenna.
These measurements must be accomplished during quiet periods between or within
each WAS frame or packet; a channel non-occupancy period of 30 minutes to ensure
that fixed radars will be protected for any channel in which the DFS detection
threshold has been exceeded;

a channel availability check time of 60 seconds upon initial startup or monitoring
of WAS on any particular channel to ensure all radars present around a WAS are
detected prior to it utilizing a channel; and

a DFS Channel Move Time of no more than 10 seconds. DFS Channel Move Time is the
period that WAS systems will have to move off of the channel once the DFS
detection threshold has been exceeded. It takes an average of 200 milliseconds for
all normal traffic to suspend and then intermittent control signals can continue
for up to 10 seconds.

To ensure non-interference, administrations should authorize only those WAS
devices meeting the aforementioned parameters to be operated in the 5 GHz band
(5250-5350 MHz and 5470-5725 MHz). The ITU-R Draft New Recommendation on this
subject is in the approval process (ITU-R Circular Letter 8/LCCE/120, see
http://www.itu.int/md/meetingdoc.asp?lang=...parent=R00-SG08-CIR ).

These critically important spectrum sharing parameters should be given sufficient
regulatory status by placing them into a WRC Resolution that is referenced by an
allocation table footnote. The issues around this mobile allocation will be
decided at the World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva, Switzerland which
meets June 9 to July 4, 2003.


Access Points (AP) - access points provide coverage of an area (cell). The
operations to maintain proper sharing conditions is done at the cell level. The
e.i.r.p. of the AP is dynamically variable depending on where the mobile terminal
is located.

Backbone Network - the network that ties the Wireless Access System components
together and connection to the internet.

Mobile Terminal - user devices, normally a wireless network card or imbedded
wireless network chip, most operating at less than 50 milliwatts.

Hotspots to make money for resellers

» Steve Ranger , 09-06-2003

Toshiba has launched a low-cost public wireless hotspot product which will allow resellers to pick up recurring revenues when customers use it to access the internet.
The company's wireless local area network product will cost around Ł399 for companies, such as cafes or restaurants, wanting to offer wireless access to customers.

Toshiba wants 200 to 500 hotspots in place by July, and 5,000 in the UK by 2004.

Customers will be able to buy vouchers for Ł5, which will give them access to the network for 24 hours.

Resellers can make money by installing the hardware, but will also take a share of the revenue each time a customer uses the network, explained Andy Bass, general manager of Toshiba's computer systems division.

Revenue will be split between the owner of the hotspot, Toshiba and the reseller, although Bass did not give details of the breakdown.

"We are bringing low-cost public Wi-Fi access to the marketplace," he told vnunet.com.

Resellers will conduct maintenance after selling and installing the hotspot, while Toshiba will support end users with integrated billing and help desk assistance.

Bass said Toshiba had already trained 12 resellers. He predicted that the product could appeal to up to 60 resellers, and added that the company was looking to accredit new partners with skills in the area. "We are going through a programme of re-accreditation," he said.
This article is available online at http://vnunet.com/News/1141457

BWE Targets Homeowner Associations to
Bring Broadband Internet Services to Residential Customers

    BWE, a leading provider of broadband wireless Internet systems, announced that the company is now offering a custom-tailored, high-speed Internet service package for Homeowner Associations (HOA) that want to provide high-speed Internet access for their residents in areas where no DSL, cable modem or other form of broadband service is available.

    No Knowledge of the Internet, Networking or Billing Systems Required

    There is no need for any knowledge of the Internet, networking or billing systems on the HOA's behalf. All broadband wireless equipment, backbone connections and monthly billing operations are completely managed by the company. All the HOA has to do is approve the site for locating the equipment.

    Wireless Technology Delivers High-Speed Connections with No Wires

    BWE uses broadband wireless technology to deliver the broadband Internet service. The HOA simply installs a small 22-inch base station (transmitter) on one of the residents' homes, condos or apartment complexes to create a cell coverage area with a 1-mile diameter. To receive the signal, residents only need to install an 8-inch antenna, which is usually installed underneath the eave of the subscriber's roof. The customer premises equipment does not need line-of-sight to the base station to be able to receive a good Internet signal.

    High-Speed Internet Connections Available for Low Monthly Rates

    On the low end, service for residents starts at $19.95 per month for a 128 kilobit per second (Kbps) connection, which is about four times faster than most dialup connections. For users who want higher speeds, $59.95 per month will get them a connection of 1 megabit per second or more.

    Wireless System Requires Small Investment, Delivers Good Return on Investment

    To get started HOAs only need to invest $7,900 to locate a broadband wireless cell site in their neighborhood. Each cell site has a range of 1 mile in diameter and is capable of serving several hundred customers.

    The profits of the system are shared by the HOA and the solution provider. By sharing in the net profits generated from recurring subscriber revenue, HOAs are able to receive a good return on their initial investment and create a new monthly income stream that can help fund other projects in the neighborhood.

    Proven Solution Based on 802.11 Industry Standards

    The technology behind BWE's solution is the culmination of almost four years of research and development surrounding 802.11 wireless industry standards. The system consists of new wireless products, specifically designed for community and metropolitan networks.

    About the Broadband Wireless Exchange

    BWE is dedicated to promoting broadband wireless technology and helping customers build broadband wireless networks. More information is available at the company's Web site: http://www.bbwexchange.com.

WiMAX Certifies 18, Selects Interop Profile
By Wireless Week Staff
June 10, 2003
news@2 direct
   The nonprofit organization pushing 802.16 wireless broadband access standards continues to chug along by completing initial system specifications and signing up new members.

The group, WiMAX, says it has completed the initial system profiles for the interoperability of products operating in the 2-11 GHz bands. WiMAX hopes to use the IEEE 802.16 and European Telecommunications Standards Institute HiperMAN wireless broadband standards for last-mile access to jumpstart the use of wireless broadband Internet access.

The organization also says it added Andres Corp., Atheros, China Motion Technologies, LCC International, Redline Communications, TowerStream and others to its growing list of members.

Radio ID tags get Microsoft backing
By Margaret Kane
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
June 10, 2003, 7:35 AM PT
http://news.com.com/2100-1020-1015058.html

Microsoft is enlisting in a venture designed to help develop standards for radio frequency tags intended for use by retailers and manufacturers to track goods.
The software maker said Tuesday that it will work with Auto ID, a joint venture of the Uniform Code Council and EAN International, to develop commercial and technical standards for radio frequency ID (or RFID) tags.

The tags, which are extremely small, could one day replace bar codes on product packaging, using special microchips to communicate wirelessly with computers when scanned. The scanning can be automated to track goods as they flow through the supply chain--from manufacturers to distributors to stores and eventually to customers. The tags currently cost around 50 cents apiece, and will need to come way down in price before their use becomes practical on individual products, analysts say.

But retailers are still pushing for them. Retailing giant Wal-Mart Stores is expected this week to ask its top 100 suppliers to begin using the chips to help track inventory by 2005.

Privacy advocates also have raised warning flags about the technology, especially its inclusion in garments. The inventory-tracking chips are expected to include a kill switch before they end up in products.

Auto ID will be developing standards for the Electronic Product Code Network, which uses radio frequency and network systems to identify products. Microsoft said its work will initially focus on supply chains in the manufacturing and retail sectors. Further ahead, the company said it would work with partners to develop RFID technology throughout the supply chain.

FCC: More Spectrum for Wireless?

Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59175,00.html

02:00 AM Jun. 10, 2003 PT

Even as the Bush administration mulls over ways to use the public airwaves more efficiently, the Federal Communications Commission might allot more of the spectrum for wireless Internet use.

At the urging of the Wi-Fi Alliance, the trade group that actively promotes Wi-Fi and other 802.11 technologies, the FCC is seeking public comment about whether it should change the rules to allot an additional 255 MHz of spectrum for unlicensed use to the wireless industry. (Unlicensed use means that the wireless industry would not need to purchase a license the way cellular carriers are required to do in order to sell wireless Internet service to customers.)

The change in rules would increase the availability of airwaves for wireless broadband by 80 percent.

But the FCC's decision, which could be made as early as the end of the year, coincides with similar proposals now being considered by the Bush administration to make more efficient use of the public airwaves -- which are increasingly in short supply and are coveted by the wireless industry, the Department of Defense and other government agencies.

The FCC, however, said its recently proposed rules were developed with input from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which allocates federal government spectrum, and from the Department of Defense.

Italy finally joins the WiFi club - Portugal next?
By Guy Kewney, Newswireless.net
Posted: 10/06/2003 at 07:56 GMT


Italy still hasn't quite got the idea of "licence-free" spectrum at 2.4 GHz, and has decided to legalise WiFi - but only if you apply for permission, says the Government.

The official Government-sponsored information site (available here in English) says that it has legalised both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands for public access WLAN.

Permission is needed, but won't be withheld, it seems.

That leaves just Portugal amongst the major Western European countries with a ban on commercial WiFi services. In theory, this means that if you take a Centrino notebook computer to Portugal, you're breaking the law, but probably only if you tell someone you're doing it. Most visitors to the country aren't aware of the regulation, and when NewsWireless.Net staff recently stayed at a hotel near Lisbon, we set up our own WiFi hotspot, without anybody noticing.

The Italian decree, signed by Communications Minister Maurizio Gasparri, has a couple of quirks in it. In particular, he specifies what sort of public site is acceptable:

"The decree defines ... spots open to the public and areas with high public attendance. Among the chosen places for the use of WiFi there are hotels, bars, restaurants, malls and fast food chains where people can have the chance to connect to the Internet with broad band wireless access," it says.

Intriguingly, there appear to be security regulations, too.

It asks the retailers "to use an identification code for users who access the public network."

What is listed below is a short WLAN security quiz that I came across. Jot your answers down and then look below it for what they say the correct answers are.

=========================
1. According to business IT administrators interviewed by Microsoft, the top barrier to WLAN deployment is currently:
a) Speed
b) Support Resources
c) Budget
d) Security

2. War drivers can be prevented from discovering wireless LANs by:
a) Disabling SSID broadcasts
b) Turning on WEP
c) Placing access points indoors
d) All of the above
e) None of the above

3. Controlling WLAN access does NOT address which threat:
a) Unauthorized Resource Consumption
b) Sniffing and Eavesdropping
c) Peer Station Intrusion
d) Internet Access Freeloaders

4. Wireless access points should be deployed:

a) Inside the perimeter firewall
b) In the firewall's demilitarized zone
c) Outside the perimeter firewall
d) On the outside or DMZ
e) On the inside or outside

5. Which of the following is FALSE about 802.11 shared key authentication:
a) Access point is not authenticated
b) Station user is not individually authenticated
c) Authentication keys are different for every station
d) Authentication keys are often static, configured manually

6. MAC address "spoofing" refers to:
a) Configuring a station's MAC addresses
b) Using the MAC address of another station
c) Corrupting a peer station's address
d) Making fun of MAC addresses

7. Rogue access points reported by a WLAN analyzer can refer to:
a) APs owned by neighbors and visitors
b) APs installed by employees without IT approval
c) APs that masquerade as legitimate APs while attacking your network
d) All of the above

8. Which of the following statements is TRUE about WEP:
a) WEP stands for Wireless Ethernet Privacy
b) WEP is enabled by default in most 802.11 products
c) WEP is harder to crack if you use dynamic keys
d) WEP is so vulnerable that it should never be used

9. Surfing the Internet over wireless exposes nothing important, because anything confidential is probably SSL-encrypted anyway:
a) True
b) False

10. The new 802.11i Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) is stronger than the original 802.11 WEP because it:
a) Does not use authentication keys directly as encryption keys
b) Uses a longer initialization vector
c) Uses a different cipher for encryption
d) All of the above
e) Answers A and B, but not C
f) Answers B and C, but not A

11. WEP stops man-in-the-middle attacks by detecting changes made to frames in transit.
a) True
b) False

12. Denial-of-service attacks against wireless LANs that cannot be prevented with today's 802.11b products include:
a) Associate floods
b) De-authenticate floods
c) Bluetooth jamming
d) All of the above

13. According to JupiterMedia's survey, which of the following security incident occurs nearly as often as finding rogue access points:
a) Loss of confidential data
b) Clients associating with the wrong access point
c) Bandwidth theft
d) Wireless access point break-in

14. During site surveys, wireless LAN discovery should include:
a) Parking lots
b) Stairwells
c) Bathrooms
d) Floors above and below
e) All of the above

15. Which of the following NOT a common wireless LAN analyzer feature:
a) Use of 802.11 drivers to interact with the link layer
b) Track usage to report statistics and analyze patterns
c) Decode packets to display protocol headers and payload
d) Send SNMP traps to alert the network administrator

16. If a war driver discovers my wireless LAN, he can access the Internet or attack my Intranet servers using 802.11 as a vector.
a) True
b) False

==================================
Answers:





1. d) Security -- Nearly three-quarters of those planning WLANs and half of those with existing WLANs named security as the biggest bugaboo, far over-shadowing other factors. Security is a challenge both during planned deployment and when mopping up after unauthorized installations.

2. e) None of the above -- Eliminating SSID from beacon frames does not stop the AP from sending beacons. Enabling WEP scrambles data but does not stop frame transmission. Placing APs to reduce leakage is unlikely to completely prevent signal from reaching public areas. You can't stop war drivers from discovering your WLAN, but you can take steps to prevent them from using your network.

3. b) Sniffing and Eavesdropping -- Payload encryption is required to prevent eavesdropping on confidential data. Sniffing is passive and does not require the attacker to get through your WLAN's access control measures – anyone within physical proximity has access to the air!

4. d) On the outside or DMZ -- Wireless networks are inherently untrustworthy and therefore should never be placed inside the perimeter firewall (i.e., inside trusted territory).

5. c) Authentication keys are different for every station -- With 802.11, the same authentication key is used by all stations in the wireless LAN. Four WEP keys can usually be configured for encryption, but only one key is used for authentication.

6. b) Using the MAC address of another station -- In the realm of network security, "spoofing" means assuming the identity of another device (e.g., an IP or MAC address) and attempting to masquerade as that device.

7. d) All of the above -- Any AP that is not in the WLAN analyzer's list of authorized devices will be reported as a possible rogue AP. These alerts need to be further investigated to determine the location of the AP and the actual threat posed to your WLAN.

8. c) WEP is harder to crack if you use dynamic keys -- The initialization vector used by WEP is too short to prevent keystream reuse, and any two frames encrypted with the same keystream can be XORed to decrypt the payload. You cannot make the WEP IV longer, but you can reduce keystream reuse by changing the key frequently. Short-lived keys, therefore, make WEP harder to crack.

9. b.) False -- Many Web sites do pass confidential data without SSL – assuming otherwise is risky. But even if you did visit only Web sites using SSL to protect HTTP, header information is still passed as cleartext over the air. Source and destination IP addresses and URLs can be analyzed to learn about your behavior or launch attacks. Depending upon authentication method, station credentials may also be revealed or left vulnerable to dictionary attack.

10. e) Answers A and B, but not C -- TKIP benefits from derived crypto keys and longer IVs, but still uses the same RC4 cipher employed by WEP so that upgrades can be applied with firmware instead of requiring new hardware.

11. b.) False -- The CRC used by WEP can detect transmission errors, but can't stop attackers from modifying frames without invalidating the CRC. TKIP detects forgery by using a real message integrity check instead of a cyclic redundancy check.

12. d) All of the above -- Any radio can transmit in an unlicensed band and there's nothing you can do to stop that. Floods and jamming by devices sharing the ISM band are still unresolved threats. However, using the UNII band occupied by 802.11a can eliminate competition with Bluetooth or potentially evade 802.11b-based DoS attacks.

13. b) Clients associating with the wrong access point -- Privacy may be a top concern, but studies like the one published by JupiterMedia suggest that relatively few companies report losing confidential data due to wireless. In contrast, clients accidentally associating with the wrong AP and finding rogue access points were each reported by 17% of those surveyed.

14. e) All of the above -- All locations in and around the site should be surveyed to identify and reduce windows of opportunity for unauthorized use or malicious attacks.

15. d) Send SNMP traps to alert the network administrator -- WLAN analyzers focus on passively scanning channels, recording traffic, crunching the collected data and presenting it in many different ways. Analyzers may perform expert analysis to generate alerts, but they don't typically act as SNMP agents.

16. b) False -- Just because someone can detect the presence of your AP does not necessarily mean they can penetrate your AP to take advantage of or attack your network. You can't stop war drivers from finding your AP, but you can take appropriate countermeasures to block access to destination networks and servers.

Here's a link to an on-demand video presentation on WLAN security from the author of the test listed below. Enjoy!


http://webevents.broadcast.com/tech...ndex.asp?loc=01

MobileAccess Networks Introduces New Product Family

MobileAccess products UnWire large buildings and campuses with ubiquitous coverage for Wireless LAN and cellular voice on single broadband network


 


Vienna, Virginia – June 09, 2003 – MobileAccess Networks, formerly Foxcom Wireless, today introduced its new MobileAccess Product Family, which guarantees business-quality performance and reliability for all current and future wireless services within a building or campus. With MobileAccess solutions ensuring reliable and ubiquitous wireless coverage, educational, airport, hospital, manufacturing and government facilities cost-effectively converge wireless data and voice traffic on a single broadband infrastructure.



The MobileAccess Product family allows, for the first time, a totally unwired workplace with support of all wireless applications that are available today – WLAN, voice, paging, public safety, etc. – as well as those emerging tomorrow. While traditional solutions use parallel networks for different services, the MobileAccess Product Family leverages a common set of chassis, cables, and antennas for all current and future wireless services. By consolidating hardware and installation costs, enterprises enable access to Wireless LAN and voice services simultaneously over a single infrastructure, which is significantly less expensive than deploying multiple wireless networks.


A MobileAccess converged wireless indoor network was recently installed at International Square, a CarrAmerica Realty Corporation property in Washington, DC. The system provides ubiquitous coverage for voice services plus WLAN. Areas covered include a food court, retail space, and two parking garage levels.


"We needed a solution that delivered high levels of performance and reliability to support current and future wireless services being accessed in our building. The MobileAccess Networks system enables us to leverage cost-effective, scalable wireless technologies without sacrificing on business-quality communications," said Barry Krell, Vice President of Telecommunications with CarrAmerica. "The MobileAccess solution enables mobile users in covered areas of our building to benefit from anytime/anywhere availability."



In addition to the convergence of multiple services on a single broadband network, the MobileAccess Wireless LAN capability provides great flexibility in the number of access points required because the coverage area of each access point can be increased by up to 400%. With the MobileAccess Networks solution, all active components of a Wireless LAN network are installed and maintained in a secure telecom closet. As only passive components are installed on walls or ceilings throughout a building or campus, there is no disruption to users when access points are changed or upgraded.



“We’ve made it easy and affordable for any business with a large building or campus to have seamless wireless access to all of their voice and data services beyond the limits of the desk,” states Asaf Mohr, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MobileAccess Networks. “The release of the MobileAccess Product Family is in response to end user demand for a converged solution that provides full coverage for both WLAN and cellular voice services – enabling a totally unwired workplace.”



"MobileAccess Networks has honed in on a clear market need for supporting multiple wireless technologies in the enterprise environment," said Richard Webb, Market Analyst, Wireless LANs with Infonetics Research. "Enterprises are seeking to unlock the potential of the unwired workplace, and enable employees to experience the same seamless access to resources they enjoy in a wired office, beyond the limits of the desk. The MobileAccess products can help enterprises to make the wireless workplace concept a practical, workable option."



About MobileAccess Networks

MobileAccess Networks, with hundreds of networks installed worldwide, is a leading designer and manufacturer of converged wireless indoor networks for corporate enterprises and wireless service providers. The MobileAccess Product Family leverages patented techniques for the transmission of Radio Frequency (RF) signals over optical fibers. MobileAccess products guarantee business-quality performance and reliability for wireless voice and data traffic throughout large buildings and campuses. MobileAccess Networks, founded in 1998 as Foxcom Wireless, offers cost-effective, scalable solutions that deliver superior wireless coverage for all current and emerging data and voice applications. For more information, visit the Web site at www.mobileaccess.com.

 

Contact:

Kristin Duskin-Gadd

Interprose Public Relations
(828)684-2434

kduskingadd@interoprosepr.com

Eleven Wireless delivers Wi-Fi to Little League softball
Aliza Earnshaw
When the Little League Softball World Series comes to Portland this August, a wireless communications network that lets fans follow games in real time will be up and running, thanks to Portland startup company Eleven Wireless.

Eleven, which specializes in Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity, or 802.11b) connectivity for hotels and other businesses catering to the public, is donating its services and lending equipment that will permit scorekeepers to post results instantly to the Little League Softball World Series web site at www.softballworldseries.com. With three games running at any one time, "Eleven will make it possible for us to share all balls and strikes calls with fans and friends of players from around the world," said Sue Seaver, director of the tournament.

Scorekeepers have been using laptops instead of scorebooks for the past couple of years, said Seaver, but this is the first year that wireless capability will allow web site users to track the progress of games in real time. Two years ago, scorekeepers transferred the results of each game to a floppy disk, which would be carried to the softball league's webmaster, Tim Jackson, for upload to the web site. "Last year, he did it inning by inning," said Seaver. "This year, it's instantaneous."

The Little League Softball World Series is a girls' version of the Little League World Series held for 11- and 12-year-old boys in Williamsport, Pa. This year will be the 10th consecutive year that Portland has hosted the tournament, which will take place at Alpenrose Stadium. Girls' softball teams from around the world will begin competing on Aug. 6.

Eleven Wireless was recently recognized in The Business Journal's Business Plan Competition.

Intel's Otellini: 10,000 wi-fi hotspots in Manhattan. Some mistake, surely

Intel's own web site lists 100


By Mike Magee: Tuesday 10 June 2003, 09:45

A REPORT IN the Washington Post, filed by AP, quotes Intel president Paul Otellini as claiming there are 10,000 wi-fi hotspots in Manhattan alone.
Otellini is in India and is telling the nation of over one billion people that they'd better get wireless LANNed up, and quick.

There's nothing like 10,000 wi-fi hotspots in Manhattan, however, if Otellini was quoted correctly.

A quick look at Intel's own "mobile technology hotspot finder" shows that there's something like 100 and not all of these are in Manhattan. Many are in Hiltons, in internet cafes or in Starbuck so called "coffee bars".

Otellini is also quoted as saying that there are plenty of wireless zones and hotspots in airports, but that isn't true either.

As our old mucker Tony Smith and myself discovered when we were in a business lounge at Kennedy recently, and facing a HUGE Centrino poster.

The really frustrating thing about all of this is that the silicon to set up wi-fi hotspots is inexpensive, but it's a much harder job to persuade organisations to provide this service, perhaps especially here in the UK.

Intel does not now produce wireless LAN cards, but its "Centrino" notebook technology currently supports 802.11b wi-fi. µ

Atheros First to Earn Microsoft Designed for Windows XP Certification for Universal 802.11a/b/g WLAN Solution

    Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

    SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 10, 2003--


Support for Windows XP across All Major 802.11 Standards and Wi-Fi Protected Access Enhances WLAN User Experience

    Atheros Communications, the market share leader in multi-standard wireless LAN (WLAN) technology, today announced it has received Microsoft Designed for Windows XP Logo Program certification for its most recent Atheros 802.11a/b/g WLAN software release, which supports the final 802.11g specification (draft 8.2) and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). This release supports the company's second-generation AR5001X+ and new AR5002X chipsets. Last week, Atheros announced the volume availability of its third-generation AR5002 product line featuring market-leading universal 802.11a/b/g and 802.11b/g chipsets that boost throughput and range, while decreasing power consumption and cost. For more details, please visit http://www.atheros.com/news/AR5002.html.
    This certification indicates that the Atheros 802.11a/b/g WLAN solution has successfully met the rigorous Microsoft Corp. standards for compatibility with the Windows XP operating system. The Designed for Windows XP Logo designation indicates that customers can expect a good experience with products bearing that logo when used on a PC running Microsoft Windows XP. Atheros also received the Windows 2000 and Windows Millennium Edition certifications. With this software release, Atheros is the only company supporting 802.11a/b/g, 802.11b/g and WPA on Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0, Windows Millennium Edition, and Windows 98.
    "We're very pleased that our WLAN solutions have passed Microsoft's compatibility tests," said Craig Barratt, president and chief executive officer at Atheros. "The final approval of the 802.11g standard and the market's acceptance of WPA are important WLAN milestones. Our certification will help to ensure that new wireless products based on universal 11a/b/g and 11b/g technology will be compatible with Windows operating systems."
    Atheros' 802.11a/b/g WLAN solution ensures compatibility with Windows XP, which provides a set of features that makes using 802.11a, 11b or 11g wireless networks easy for users. Windows XP wireless networking enhancements include Auto Configuration support, allowing a laptop with a wireless network card to automatically detect and connect to available wireless networks, plus support for WPA and IEEE 802.1x for enhanced wireless security. Wireless network card installation and roaming across networks has been greatly simplified. For example, users no longer have to manually change their network ID settings and re-login each time they want to move between 802.11a/b/g wireless LANs across the office, at home, or on the road.

    The most advanced wireless networking chips available today

    Atheros' second and third-generation chipsets provide numerous improvements in performance and range, while reducing power consumption compared to competing products. Rather than relying exclusively on hefty battery-draining power amplifiers and low-noise amplifiers to improve range, Atheros has increased the radio chip's receive sensitivity and multipath tolerance to unprecedented levels. With a given transmit power, the new chips offer far better range and throughput than products based on competitor's less-efficient solutions.
    The chipsets also implement Atheros Super G(TM) and Super A/G(TM) capabilities, delivering 90 Mbps of actual end user TCP/IP throughput for 802.11a/b/g, 802.11b/g and 802.11a WLANs. These standards-based and fully interoperable capabilities include a new 108-Mbps data rate design for 802.11a and 802.11g, a real-time hardware data compression engine, standards-compliant bursting support, and dynamic transmit and modulation optimizations. Super G and Super A/G are backward compatible with conventional 802.11b, 11g and 11a products. The features support mixed-mode operation with Atheros and third-party solutions in the same network.
    Atheros' performance enhancements achieve more than 10 times the actual throughput of other wireless LAN solutions, are scalable to any number of users, and are compatible with legacy equipment. Competing solutions that offer special turbo or bursting modes are only effective under limited network conditions and adversely affect users of 802.11b or third-party 802.11g products.

    About Atheros Communications, Inc.

    Atheros Communications is the leading developer of networking technologies for secure, high-performance wireless local area networks. As the industry innovator and market-share leader in multi-mode wireless solutions compliant with the IEEE 802.11 specifications, Atheros is driving transparent connections among electronic devices in the office, home and on the road. Atheros technology is being used by many of the world's leading wireless equipment manufacturers. For more information, visit www.atheros.com or send email to info@atheros.com.

Ameralinx Launches New Wireless Broadband Network in Las Vegas With KeyOn Communications

Ameralinx, a Leading Integrated Internet Service Provider,
to Offer Broadband and ISP Services Using KeyOn's Technology and Network

    LAS VEGAS, June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Ameralinx, L.L.C. and KeyOn Communications L.L.C., have partnered in launching Ameralinx's new wireless Internet access service in the Las Vegas area. Using KeyOn's high-speed Internet access technology, Ameralinx will offer high-speed Internet access to both businesses and residential customers. The service offerings will start at $24.95 for residential customers and $45.95 for business access accounts.
    Under the terms of the partnership, KeyOn will provide its proprietary access technology and Ameralinx will provide the management infrastructure and customer support facilities. Ameralinx will also offer email, personal web
space and other services on some of its residential and business plans and will offer web hosting and VPN added services on the business plans.
    KeyOn's solution allows the use of standards-based 802.11b equipment in an outdoor, wide-area network while providing enhanced security, remote and continuous network management and enlarged coverage areas. In sharp contrast
to the public access, "hot spot" market, KeyOn's technology creates a carrier class, secure last mile solution to multiple customer segments. KeyOn's technology is being licensed by FairPoint Communications, a leading rural
telecommunications company, for deployment in an anticipated 20 markets in 2003.
    "The solution that we put together with KeyOn's wireless technology gives the Las Vegas Valley a real cost-effective broadband solution," said Justin Steele, Ameralinx's General Manager. "Ameralinx's broadband offering exemplifies the current marketing research that indicates broadband will become mainstream once the price matches dial-up pricing levels."
    "Ameralinx is giving customers a bundled solution of high-speed Internet and ISP services," said KeyOn's founder and CEO, Jonathan Snyder. "KeyOn is pleased to be part of this equation by providing our proprietary technology to
facilitate the high-speed Internet component of their service."

    About Ameralinx
    The mission of Ameralinx Wireless Service is to provide its customers price-performance solutions for high-speed Internet access. Ameralinx is committed to provide the highest level of quality service. To meet or exceed
customer expectations, expanding both the reach of its delivery products and focus on its customers. Ameralinx provides nationwide dialup, Web-hosting and other dedicated broadband services.
    Ameralinx is locally owned and operated and is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ameralinx is a member of both the North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. Ameralinx is also a member of the Better
Business Bureau. Please contact them for further information on Ameralinx's memberships. To learn more about Ameralinx, refer to its web site http://www.ameralinx.com .

    About KeyOn Communications
    KeyOn Communications L.L.C. owns proprietary, patent-pending technology used in the deployment and management of high-speed wireless data networks. KeyOn's technology is used to provide affordable high-speed Internet access to
businesses and residences. KeyOn owns and operates networks and licenses its solution to telecommunications service providers to facilitate the capital-efficient build-out of broadband networks.
    KeyOn's technology is licensed by FairPoint Communications, a leading rural telecommunications provider. KeyOn is a locally owned and operated
limited liability company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. KeyOn's web site is http://www.keyon.com .

WiFi: Taking Moore's Law to the network

Paul Otellini, President & COO, Intel Corporation, is designated to take over as the company’s fifth CEO in 2005. When he does, he will inherit a company with a legacy of success and paranoia. On his first visit to India—a country current CEO Craig Barrett has visited thrice over—Otellini calls it as a ‘learning trip’. In an interview with Cyber Media editors, Otellini outlines Intel's new-found, single-minded focus on mobility and the wireless space...

Intel wants to be a provider of building blocks for the Internet economy. It has invested huge sums to get a foothold in the networking and communications segments. Yet, in these spaces, the company is mostly a secondary or marginal player—it’s not really up there… Are you going to be a serious player in these spaces, or is this just technology to facilitate your mobile platforms?

We focus on most companies in this space, and if you look carefully, we have found many architecture options that are beginning to sell. Some work is being done with Intel’s Centrino. As we build upon the technology, it is increasingly getting better and we are integrating this into our platforms, chipsets and microprocessors. We want to be the world leader in Wi-Fi products.

In the wireless chip space, Intel has many aggressive competitors—like Broadcom and Intersil, to name a couple—unlike in the desktop segment. Given that Intel’s performance over the last few quarters on the wireless chip has not been very positive, what strategies will be employed to tackle the competition?

The fact is that everyone is aggressive in Wi-Fi—it is a pervasive technology. Get a load of this—27,000 access points are being deployed and installed every day, that’s one every 3 seconds. And there’s been a sharp reduction in costs, making the technology very cheap. As we look at the competition, our opportunity to use our knowledge base and having married this with the communication platform, we have a long-term advantage over discrete wireless members who don’t have intrinsic knowledge.

What’s your forecast for semiconductors—for Intel and for other players?

Semiconductors? I am not going to give you an Intel forecast!—we never forecast numbers. Our first half this year is slightly lower than the first half of last year. The industry, as per IDC, can look at a growth of 6-10%. We should be in that range.. But I am not one to argue with numbers.

Intel is really pushing the wireless environment. There’re reports that there’s a $500-million strategy to promote Centrino with operators, hotels and hot-spot application developers. Can you elaborate on some of these plans?

Yes, a push is there, but it’s closer to $300 million. And yes. it’s a very large plan. Part of it is for a worldwide advertising campaign, part of it for working on cooperative fields with airports, hotels, airplane manufacturers worldwide, and validate the hotspots so that they work well with Centrino. A part of it would be used as venture capital to fund small companies that do work in the area of accelerating Wi-Fi rollouts.

The sales team here are trying to boost the environment of Wi-Fi take-off. We are driving high-performance network intelligence where we look at every bit and put intelligence on it. That is what is taking Moore’s Law to the network.

Speed (as in GHz) vs Mobility (as in connectivity)… the mantra has changed. Is there a Moore’s Law supporting the connectivity paradigm?

Moore’s Law holds good here as well. While Moore’s Law started with the sheer number of transistors packed in a chip, the progress was measured in terms of GHz. If you go back to transistor count, mobility is very much part of that. It’s not about just driving the clock speed overtime, but adding functionality. Today, mobility is more important to us. Intel develops more and more features that are architectural to take advantage of transistors. Features like hyper-threading on the desktop don’t require a lot to be added on the transistors front, but they do double up chip performance.

It’s not only about transistors or speed, architecture counts too.

What is your reaction to IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft pledging support for AMD’s 64-bit chip Opteron? Also, what are Intel’s plans on taking the 64-bit to the desktop, given AMD and Apple’s announcement that they will deliver 64-bit computing to desktop-users by the year-end?

We have been working on the 64-bit architecture for nearly a decade and are about to introduce our third-gen silicon as the world’s fastest computer—for transaction processing. This is only going to get better and we will pick that up to a factor of 10 over the next two years. Also, the architecture is much better in terms of scalability. There’s a lot more to enterprise computing and supercomputing than 64 bits… But it’s back and we’re very happy with where it is and where it’s going.

But really, there’s really no need to have 64-bit on the desktop, at least not in the foreseeable future. No other application takes advantage of it. One exception would be workstations and we have Itanium there. At some point of time, applications and OSs on desktops will require 64-bit addressability and memory prices will come down enough so that you can afford 64-bit on your desktop. At that point of time, expect Intel to be the player in this space.

Initially, Intel was pushing 802.11a instead of 802.11b, whereas ‘b’ is a cheaper technology. What’s Intel’s strategy for 802.11g?

Our intention is to provide all the standards in the offering as fast as possible—high performance at a low price.

Finally, what are the prospects for Intel’s communications chips business?

We are doing well in growing the Wi-Fi space. The design activity is going very well. The only hiccup is that the industry has not matured yet. Handsets with large cache memory with the intelligence inside based on PCA architecture are increasing logic inside handsets. Handset technology is growing, and I expect it to be a key player.

Wi-Fi and 3G Can Coexist, Bring More Consumers into the Mobile World, Says ABI

    Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

    OYSTER BAY, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 10, 2003--Migrating today's wireless consumer to adopt data-enabled solutions has become the quest that mobile operators, OEMs, and others have taken up with increasing intensity.
    3G networks, which have yet to launch in earnest, have promised to answer that call, but hotspots, or Wi-Fi applications, are currently providing plausible solutions for the experienced wireless user. The looming question for equipment makers and other players in this market is: can they coexist peacefully, acquire customers, and still be profitable?
    Hotspots are rapidly becoming the focal point in today's challenged wireless industry, and what will continue the momentum is the rise of Wi-Fi enabled laptop users. Research firm Allied Business Intelligence (ABI) predicts that the number of WLAN enabled notebook users is ramping up, with an expected CAAG of 79%, reaching a potential 58 million users by 2008. With the success of Centrino largely unknown, yet with its marketing efforts providing widespread awareness to the industry, these numbers may grow even larger than current projections. This will have a serious effect in siphoning away data traffic from 3G networks.
    "By offering consumers the ability to retrieve data from their laptop wirelessly at top-rate speeds, mobile operators are going to bring more data users to the table," explains ABI Senior Analyst Tim Shelton. "There may be more then one winner here in the long run, with Wi-Fi's success being the driving force that pulls consumers towards data driven services."
    ABI's report, "Wi-Fi Networking Equipment: Worldwide Deployments, Drivers, Players and Forecasts for 802.11x," examines the deployments of WLAN equipment worldwide and provides a realistic outlook on where the industry is headed. This report also covers protocol and standards development, the opportunities and challenges for equipment vendors, and the challenges to deploying WLAN worldwide. Detailed examination of technology shifts, market leaders, and revenue by world regions through 2008 are also included. The study is available as a standalone report or as part of ABI's Wireless Operator Subscription Service.
    On the other hand, cellular infrastructure manufacturers have been under continuing pressure in today's shrinking market size. Cellular networks continue to grow, but at lower costs, resulting in lower ASPs and revenue opportunities for infrastructure providers. The much-needed relief is currently being sought after in 3G network build-outs. In 2003 ABI projects that the infrastructure market will shrink to $16 billion, off its highs of over $20 billion in the past.
    The question to ask is, will the build-out of 3G networks capture enough customers to make economic sense--especially if this same customer base migrates to using hotspots to retrieve data? ABI believes that over time, enough customers will exist in the market to make multiple wireless offerings both feasible and profitable.
    An examination of the pending transition to 3G, as well as the various hurdles faced by operators, equipment providers and startups, are included in ABI's Wireless Infrastructure Subscription Service. A regional review is also included, giving subscribers a view of how networks are changing worldwide.
    Allied Business Intelligence Inc. is an Oyster Bay, N.Y.-based technology market research firm founded in 1990. ABI publishes research and technology intelligence on the wireless, automotive, electronics, networking and energy industries. Details can be found on the web at alliedworld.com or by calling 516-624-3113.

Cisco fills WLAN management holes with software and promises

By Christopher Rose
10 Jun 2003, The451, Special to SearchNetworking.com

While Cisco Systems Inc.'s shadow falls across the "wireless LANscape," wireless switch startups and third-party management and security vendors have always been able to capitalize on a few of its weaknesses. In particular, Cisco has been lacking when it comes to management of the WLAN radio frequency (RF) segment. If a user wanted to deal with rogue access points or handle an RF site survey, Cisco was not the name that came to mind. Similarly, the handling of roaming devices was not something that Cisco shouted about.

 
  
  
 
Cisco's vision is to meld wired and wireless infrastructure, using a "wireless-aware" switch and router infrastructure and wireless network sharing a common management and security scheme. This is a phased strategy, with RF management first on the list.

Products: A run through the recent Cisco announcements and their time frames is in order: The meat of the plan doesn't appear until Q4, but the first step is an immediate, no-cost IOS upgrade for its Aironet 1100 and 1200 series access points, which gives them three new facilities. First, it lets them implement Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) authentication and encryption. It's worthy, but not unexpected.

Second, and more interesting, is support for "fast secure roaming" between access points. Currently, when a user moves between access points, supporting 802.1x re-authentication adds around 500 milliseconds to the roaming procedure, according to Cisco's own figures. That's enough to break some apps, notably voice over IP.

The new system is claimed to enable "fast" (virtually instant) handover between access within a subnet. It appears that Cisco has given access points the ability to organize themselves -- via a new Wireless Domain Services system -- so that one becomes dominant and choreographs the re-authentication.

Cisco was a bit misleading in its announcements, implying that the system works across subnets, too, but no. The fact that it doesn't is good news for ReefEdge, Vernier, Bluesocket and others. However, in the long term, Cisco has its eye on introducing full layer 3 inter-subnet roaming.

Wireless Domain Services is behind the final feature of this release -- implementing a local 802.1x authentication service that allows users to log in, even if the access points lose their WAN link back to the central authentication server.

So that's this month's access point upgrades. In July comes an $8,495 upgrade to the CiscoWorks Wireless LAN Solution Engine (WLSE), Cisco's management station. This version 2.0 release increases the number of supported access points to 2,500, adds some additional troubleshooting features and tidies things up. Not too earth-shattering.

The Structured Wireless-Aware Network -- as Cisco is officially referring to the new framework -- actually begins to take shape in Q4, when there will be a further IOS upgrade for the access points, the WLSE will hit version 2.5, and the company will produce an upgrade for its 802.11 client software and release version 2 of its Cisco Compatible Extensions technology to client manufacturers. All of these are no-cost upgrades.

Together, these moves promise to give the system the RF management capabilities that Cisco has lacked. The access points get the ability to monitor the RF environment for channel levels, interference and rogues, etc. The WLSE gets the ability to import architectural drawings, and then present diagrams showing access point location and power, the location of rogue access points, etc.

However, the company is also going to enlist 802.11 clients into the business of reporting back on RF environment. As clients move around the workspace, the information they collect on access point strengths, rogue devices and interference will also be passed back to the WLSE, increasing the system's resolution and allowing for easier 'assisted site surveys.' It is not just Cisco's own clients that will pass the information back; so will any client implementing the Cisco Extensions version 2. Once again, Wireless Domain Services raises its head here -- both the clients' and access points' RF statistics will be collected and collated by the 'dominant' access point before being passed back to the WLSE. It's a heavily engineered system, but it is designed to scale.

Strategy: By the end of the July, then, Cisco will have delivered infrastructure that will handle fast handover for roaming clients and which is clearly important for supporting the company's wireless VOIP PBX and handset plans. By the end of the year, it will have plugged the larger holes in its RF management strategy. But where is it going?

The company asserts that at some time in the future the Structured Wireless-Aware Network infrastructure enhancements will be integrated not only into the access points, but also Catalyst 3750, 4500 and 6500 series switches and Cisco 2600XM and 3700 series routers. The company talks of a "wireless-aware Cisco switch and router infrastructure combined with a Cisco wireless network, including a common management and robust security scheme, simplified deployment and operation, and centralized control and configuration of thousands of networking devices."

The vague suggestion from the company is that this initially means that we should expect a common integrated SNMP management interface for both switches and access points. However, there are hints that sometime next year a further IOS upgrade will let the Wireless Domain Services controller reside within the switch/router, as well as in an access point.

This would have two potential benefits, assuming that this is not a prelude to Cisco introducing a skinny access point. First, it would let the system scale properly as subnet size increases; second, it could form the prelude to Cisco's plans for fast inter-domain roaming. Executives say they want to implement a full layer 3 routing system in due course. The promises are somewhat vaporous at the moment, but they may serve their purpose.

Competition: Cisco doesn't usually make a habit of preannouncing products two quarters in advance, which we believe indicates that the WLAN switch startups and their talk of automated site surveys, dynamic RF tweaking and rogue access point management have at least gotten the attention of the company and its customers. Aruba, Airespace, Trapeze and Legra have all focused on the manageability of the RF space and have been able to use Cisco's weakness to their advantage. Proxim's Maestro system, due later this year, also offers such facilities.

There is little in Cisco's product announcements to suggest that it will surpass its competitors' capabilities – although the ability to collate RF information from both clients and access points sets it apart. However, this week's announcements will be enough to sow uncertainty and doubt into rivals' sales process.

The announcement is bad news for the likes of ReefEdge, too, which announced its Airmonitor package last month, including a dedicated RF-monitoring probe that could be attached to the network. Airwave, which offers centralized WLAN management with optional rogue access detection, is also likely to suffer a chilling effect. It may focus on its ability to manage access points from multiple vendors, but Cisco equipment is likely to make up the majority of its customer base.

ReefEdge, Bluesocket and Vernier -- with their ability to handle inter-subnet roaming -- look safe from Cisco's predations for now. But they've had a warning shot fired across their bows and find themselves in the uncomfortable situation of being squeezed by the WLAN 'switch' newcomers on one side, and Cisco's desire to improve its management on the other.

As for the switch newcomers, we expect to see them having to talk more about the price advantage of their lightweight access points. The problem with that strategy is that even without the new facilities, Cisco's pricey access points manage to sell, and Cisco actually looks like it's getting itself in a position to capitalize on the weight of its access points. This is just the beginning of the process.

New WPA wireless security on its way
By newsforge
Posted: 11/06/2003 at 10:13 GMT


The Register's Wireless LAN Channel

Virtually no one has a kind word to say about Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), the standard for securing data transmissions on Wi-Fi networks, writes Anne Zieger. WEP, which relies on cryptography that can be cracked with a half-hour of laptop time, isn't well-defended, but until recently it's all Wi-Fi fans had.

Things are due to change soon as Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), the next-gen Wi-Fi security standard, becomes the accepted security approach for Wi-Fi networks. WPA is giving vendors a strong incentive to roll out new Wi-Fi product lines, abandoning the previous generation of wireless networking approaches.

WPA is backed by the Wi-Fi Alliance, a vendor consortium whose membership includes Cisco, Dell, Intel, Intersil, Microsoft, Nokia, Philips, Sony, Symbol Technologies, and Texas Instruments. Offering codebreaker-hostile features like Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP), the stronger WPA makes Wi-Fi-based LANs look a lot less exposed.

Products supporting WPA, a subset of the pending 802.11i standard, have already begun appearing on the market. Dozens of vendors have already received Wi-Fi Alliance certification for WPA-based Wi-Fi access points, internal and external PC cards, wireless print servers, USB and Ethernet client adapters, and application-specific devices. The full 802.11i version, known as WPA2, should be released sometime next year, and will be compatible with the current wave of WPA technology.

Industry players say the WPA release isn't a moment too soon. WEP security, many say, is not much better than nothing at all. For one thing, WEP keys can be hacked using a number of readily available tools, including WEPCrack and AirSnort. Using TKIP, on the other hand, up to 500 trillion possible keys can be used with a given data packet, making brute-force cracking virtually impossible.

If companies want to try Wi-Fi on the cheap before they make an investment in this next generation of Wi-Fi technology, they can find open source applications for at least some Wi-Fi infrastructure pieces. Options like the OpenAP open source access point developed by Instant 802 Networks give companies a chance to play with Wi-Fi infrastructure before they pick up the check. Another effort, the linux-wlan project, is creating a complete standards-based open source WLAN infrastructure running over Linux.

Once an end-user organisation goes WPA, however, it needs to go all the way, and WEP-based open source products may not be ready with WPA versions quickly enough. Though some wireless access points offer dual-mode security using both WPA and WEP, WPA isn't directly compatible with WEP. The Wi-Fi Alliance doesn't recommend juggling the two for any length of time, as this approach leaves a network just as open as WEP alone.

If companies are using 802.1x security, they're ahead of the game. WPA relies on 802.1X authentication, working in combination with one of the standard Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) types, and works with several EAP subtypes, including Cisco's LEAP (Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol). EAP handles the presentation of users? credentials across many formats, including digital certificates, unique usernames and passwords, smart cards, and secure IDs.

Enterprises transitioning from older WLAN infrastructure to Wi-Fi, however, face a separate and potentially more difficult problem. The emergence of WPA - and the legitimacy it adds to Wi-Fi - has turned vendors off to older, proprietary WLAN technlogies. In coming months, much of the gear from leading WLAN vendors will work exclusively via Wi-Fi, rather than proprietary 900MHz or 2.4GHz implementations. Enterprises hoping to upgrade their old proprietary equipment with newer proprietary equipment, in other words, will soon be out of luck.

Looked at one way, WPA has given vendors a good excuse to roll out new Wi-Fi product lines which may - surprise! - require at least some customers to buy a lot of new equipment. At least this time, however, unlike with some waves of new technology, users get a tangible benefit from the latest cool gear.

Boingo Wireless Lands at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport

        Premier Wi-Fi Service for Business Travelers Now Available at
                          10th Largest Airport in US

    SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Boingo Wireless announced
today the availability of its Wi-Fi wireless Internet access service at the
Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport (MSP). This extends the largest aggregated hot
spot network to almost 90,000 travelers a day who pass through America's 10th
largest airport.
    Boingo Wireless service covers most of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport,
including concourses C, D, E, F and G, the main concessions area, the
conference center and several airline "club" lounges.
    Boingo is the leading Wi-Fi service provider for business travelers. Its
wireless Internet access service is based on the popular 802.11b Wi-Fi
(wireless fidelity) standard that provides speeds of up to 11 megabits per
second, over 100 times faster than 56k dial-up service.
    Boingo's 1,300-plus location network consists of many major airports,
including Los Angeles International Airport, LaGuardia International Airport,
Baltimore-Washington International Airport, and Dallas-Fort Worth
International Airport. The network also includes many hotels, cafes and other
hot-spot locations worldwide. Today, a business traveler can stay in a Boingo
hotel in 100% of the top 20 U.S. metropolitan markets, 86% of the top 50
markets, and 67% of the top 75 markets.
    The company also offers Boingo Software; a tool for finding and connecting
to Wi-Fi networks quickly and securely. Boingo Software is a free download
from Boingo's website ( http://www.boingo.com ) and features a "sniffer" that locates
Wi-Fi hot spots, a profile editor for one-click access at favorite hot spot
locations (work, home, etc.), and a personal virtual private network (VPN)
encryption function to secure wireless connections. The software is available
for Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP and PocketPC.
    "Since business travelers are our primary end-user customer, airports are
among the highest use locations in our network. The addition of the 10th
largest airport is a boon to our customers who travel through this major hub,"
said Dave Hagan, Boingo president. "The addition of MSP airport is also
important to our telecom and Internet service provider partners who use the
Boingo Platform Services program to develop their Wi-Fi service or augment
their own hot-spot network."
    In addition to providing service to business travelers, Boingo makes its
industry-leading client software and Wi-Fi network available to major carriers
and ISPs through Boingo Platform Services. The private-label Boingo Platform
Services packages back-office infrastructure for roaming, billing and
technical support together with Boingo's client software and its 1,300-
location worldwide network to allow a carrier to deliver Wi-Fi services to its
customers quickly under its own brand. Current Boingo Platform Services
customers include EarthLink and Fiberlink Communications.

    About Boingo Wireless
    Boingo Wireless, Inc. is an ultra-high-speed wireless Internet service
available in over 1,300 locations such as hotels, airports, cafes, and other
public places. Both directly and through major ISP and carrier partners,
Boingo provides business travelers with a wireless broadband Internet
connection to improve productivity while on the road. Through its free Wi-Fi
software, Boingo makes finding and connecting to Wi-Fi networks point-and-
click simple and secure. EarthLink founder and chairman Sky Dayton founded
Boingo in 2001 and serves as its CEO. More information about Boingo is
available at http://www.boingo.com .

    For further information please contact Christian Gunning of Boingo
Wireless, +1-310-586-4009, christian@boingo.com

 5G Wireless Launches Consumer Marketing in Los Angeles WiFi HotZone

    Business & High-Tech Editors

    MARINA DEL REY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 11, 2003--5G Wireless (OTCBB:FGWC) announced today that it has initiated a major consumer marketing push throughout its WiFi HotZone(TM) service area in targeted Los Angeles markets.
    "We're implementing proven direct response marketing principles in everything we do, and will be tracking results so we can minimize our Cost Per Sale," stated Jerry Dix, President and CEO of 5G Wireless. "We currently have promotional materials prominently displayed in over 50 high traffic retail locations introducing the 5G Xpressnet(TM) service packages and we will continue to add additional locations. We will also be testing various local print advertising media, outbound telemarketing, targeted direct mail offers, and will continue with direct sales. Our customer value proposition is `the highest speed at the lowest cost', and this message will be reaching both residential and business prospects."
    With its proprietary 802.11b enhancements, including a service range of 5-8 miles, near line-sight capability to penetrate natural and manmade obstacles, and an integrated CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) unit that allows for rapid deployment, the 5G solution yields a pricing model that provides a breakeven ROI in just half the time as traditional WISPS (Wireless Internet Service Providers). While there are several Xpressnet service options, the core product is a consumer Internet access package offering burstable speeds up to 2 Mbps, with the ability to go to 5.5 Mbps. All service options include 2 email addresses with 5 MB of storage space, all for $39.95 per month with a one-time activation fee.
    "We are in the process of implementing an effective billing system which will facilitate both easy access on the user end and simplified account management on the operational side," stated Don Boudewyn, Chief Operating Officer. "Our current residential and business subscribers will be able to add on the HotZone(TM) roaming option for only $10 per month. New users or area visitors will be able to simply log on through a splash page for daily or monthly access, and non-subscribers will be able to get a one-day pass for $9.95. We're making it very simple and very seamless."
    5G's marketing mission has been to target unreachable or underserved "last mile" communities, and customer research often suggests an exploitable level of consumer dissatisfaction where high-speed Internet service is currently available. "This is a huge opportunity for us here in Los Angeles, especially in the MDU (Multiple Dwelling Unit) market," added Mr. Dix. "Other high-speed providers may not be willing to service the last mile. We are."
    The company was recently profiled by BusinessWeek Online and 802.11 Planet, "The Source for Wi-Fi Business and Technology." In the piece titled "Long Distance Wi-Fi," (www.80211planet.com/columns/article.php/2191841) Eddie Hold, a wireless analyst with Current Analysis in Sterling, Va., maintains that this breakthrough "could considerably change the nature of the Wi-Fi market."

    About 5G Wireless Communications, Inc.

    5G Wireless Communications, Inc. (OTCBB:FGWC) (www.5gwireless.com), located in Marina del Rey, designs, builds, operates, markets, and services wireless broadband systems. Utilizing proprietary IEEE 802.11b enhancements for "last mile" point-to-point and point-to-multi-point networks, 5G customers receive dependable, high-speed Internet access, without the usual installation delays and at significantly lower costs than most major competitors.

    Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the company, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Technical complications which may arise could prevent the prompt implementation of any strategically significant plan(s) outlined above.


    --30--TM/la*

    CONTACT: 5G Wireless Communications, Inc.
             Don Boudewyn, 310/754-3784
             irdept@5gwireless.com

Deploying WLANs in Hotels
June 11, 2003


The mobile workforce is rapidly becoming dependent on information, as they need to stay in touch via e-mail and continue to access corporate applications while on the road. Nearly all road warriors carry laptops today, and wireless connections are becoming very popular. Because of this, hotels are beginning to offer broadband wireless access throughout their facilities. Wireless LANs improve a guest's experience by providing complete mobility.

Hotel WLAN Applications
There are very few hotels today that have WLAN access for guests. That's bad for users, but good for system integrators! In order to offer effective wireless coverage, hotels should install access points in their convention centers, ballrooms, meeting rooms, lobbies, swimming pool areas, and possibly guest rooms. In order to facilitate access to the network, hotels should readily offer radio cards for guests to purchase or rent while staying in the hotel.

A hotel WLAN can enable guests to do all of the following during their stay:

Browse the Web at the pool or in the fitness center.
Remotely and securely access their corporate networks from thei