Wireless Networking's Next Wave

You can't see them, smell them, or feel them. But wireless data signals are all around you. Every day, your body is saturated with radio data streams in coffee shops, office buildings, parks, hotels, airports, malls--even ballparks. Anywhere you go, you're increasingly doused with data. Despite their growing popularity, wireless data services have been slow to catch on with businesses, except for use by travelers. Few businesses and office buildings are replacing wired LANs with wireless ones. And wireless data services still aren't as ubiquitous as wire-bound alternatives.

Few companies rely on wireless to provide essential infrastructure or have abandoned copper and fiber optics to run their business entirely over the air. While popular wireless LAN standards such as 802.11b Wi-Fi are good for letting people with laptops surf the Web, they can't yet supply enough bandwidth, security, and reliability to support an entire business.

That could change. Emerging wireless standards are proving their worth in small deployments (see story, Pick A Standard: Wireless Standards Proliferate), and vendors are cranking out products that will hit the market soon. Wi-Fi may be the flavor of the month, but next month's standards are faster, stronger, and ready to go.

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