From time to time we examine the wireless LAN market to see if it has matured sufficiently to recommend it to our readers. Unfortunately, there are still several problems. The standards issue, which we have addressed several times in LSN, has not been resolved despite all of the publicity surrounding the adoption of IEEE 802.11. It is debatable whether 802.11 is a standard since it specifies three different and incompatible wireless techniques; frequency hopping, direct sequence, and infrared. While products using the same technique and conforming to 802.11 will be able to communicate, those using different techniques will not. In an industry in which most of the vendors are small, as they are in this market, standards are particularly important.
Another problem is bandwidth. At present 802.11 only deals with 4 Mbps products, although most vendors are offering products with greater bandwidth. There is a draft standard for 30 Mbps, but it was supported by only 65 percent of the voting members of the IEEE 802.11 committee, short the 75 percent required. Another vote is expected within the next few months. It may be another two years after that before products conforming to a 30 Kbps standard become a reality. Compounding the problem is that future products will not have to be backward compatible.
Finally, some of the major vendors in the wireless industry have chosen to focus on niche markets such as handheld inventory scanners and manufacturing equipment, rather than connecting PCs to servers. The majority of the vendors focus on in-building LANs; a minority provide networking among buildings on a corporate or academic campus.
The consensus is that although they already have many successful applications wireless LANs will not become serious competitors to wired LANs for another five to seven years.
