Wifi Revolution

To nobody’s surprise, use of WiFi (News - Alert) in consumer environments now is almost as commonplace as use of PCs. ABI Research says global access point shipments will exceed 70 million by 2010, of which an overwhelming 90 percent will be generated by the small office, home office and consumer markets.

 

WiFi access is just about as commonplace in enterprise settings as well. The high-end WLAN equipment market is dominated by vertical segments such as higher education and healthcare, the firm says.

 

While 802.11a/g is obviously the most favored technology at the moment with about 84 percent market share, enterprises have been switching to the draft 2.0 802.11n technology for greater speed.

 

Up to this point, coverage and interference protection arguably have been bigger issues than “bandwidth,” though. Where access services are operating in the several megabits per second range, 54 Mbps for the wireless internal distribution network would appear to be adequate. Granted, effective throughput never matches the rated gross bit rate, but so far local distribution rates have far exceeded wide area network rates, in every generation of technology.

 

Even in the enterprise market, access bandwidth ranges from 1.5 Mbps to perhaps 10 Mbps at any single location. So again, 54 Mbps is not an unreasonable option for local networking. But range is an issue most users would have personal experience with. So though 802.11n increases bandwidth, its more important feature is likely to be coverage, about three times greater than 802.11g, for example.

 

“Much of the growth seen in 2008, particularly on the enterprise side, is attributed to the explosive uptake of 802.11n products,” says Serene Fong, ABI Research (News - Alert) analyst.

 

802.11n is expected to overtake shipments of 802.11a/g by 2012, with more than 60 percent market share, says Fong. In part because suppliers will focus on 802.11n, and in part because of improved coverage, 802.11n will by the end of 2009 reach a sales level on par with the older 802.11g standard. And by 2010, 802.11n revenue will be twice that of 802.11g, says Fong.

 

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