Linux wireless networking

These days you cannot talk about computers and networks without thinking of Linux and wireless networking. In this article, Sreekrishnan Venkateswaran explains wireless networking with WLAN, Bluetooth, GPRS, GSM, and IrDA from a Linux perspective. He uses various wireless devices and the corresponding kernel layers and user space tools to demonstrate how they work with Linux.

Wireless technologies like WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network), Bluetooth, GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), GSM (Global System for Mobile communications), and IrDa (Infrared Data) serve different niches. While WLAN supports higher speeds and longer range than Bluetooth, it also has higher costs and higher power consumption. GPRS is slower than Bluetooth and WLAN, but can be used on the move. Despite their diversity, or rather because of it, devices with multiple wireless capabilities can use them in tandem. For example, a device can switch transparently from GPRS on the road to a cheaper WLAN in an Internet cafe for network connectivity, depending on location input from a GPS module. A cell phone can communicate through Bluetooth to a heart rate monitor and send an alert over GSM to a doctor if the patient's heart rate crosses a certain threshold.

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