Harnessing the airwaves - a guide to wireless technology

BDP’s 802.11n network allows its 275 staff to work wirelessly on every floor of its new head office

From the mobile phone revolution of the late 20th century, to the more recent growth in broadband data services, wireless working has become one of the defining features of modern commerce.

Workers now routinely use 3G smartphones, laptops and handheld PCs to support mobile email and internet browsing, for example.

Analyst Informa Telecom estimates there are now more than 400 mobile broadband networks with over 186 million subscribers worldwide. Flat-rate mobile broadband and devices such as USB modems and iPhones have propelled 3G services into the mainstream.

Enterprise spending on mobile devices, which has soared in the past few years, shows no sign of slowing. Analyst Juniper Research predicts that between 2008 and 2014 global spending on mobile technology will rise 56 per cent to $284bn (£193bn) per year.

Market research firm Infonetics says that smartphones, typically used for mobile email and web browsing, will be the only segment of the mobile phone market that will show any growth over the next five years. This will be driven by more widespread deployment in western Europe of higher speed 3G technology such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), which boosts peak wireless cellular data rates to about 3.6Mbit/s (14.4Mbit/s is possible in ideal conditions). HSPA+ promises to lift this even higher, to 42Mbit/s.

And development on the replacement for 3G, so-called Long-Term Evolution (LTE), promises to increase mobile data rates to 100Mbit/s – although as Informa points out, its arrival could be delayed by the economic downturn.

The higher bandwidth LTE offers naturally improves the mobile web browsing and remote access experience and should bring far more scope for new applications on handheld devices. Video and audio streaming are obvious examples, and businesses may see opportunities for wireless videoconferencing, according to Juniper.

Currently, the other major wireless communication technology is Wi-Fi, which delivers a better user experience than 3G in terms of bandwidth and reliability, and often at a lower cost.

The number of public access Wi-Fi hotspots in cafés, hotels and travel hubs has spiralled in the past five years. Most use 802.11g technology, which offers wireless bandwidth of up to 54Mbit/s – though typically users can expect 20Mbit/s at most.

The faster 802.11n Wi-Fi standard, due for ratification by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) this year, offers theoretical downstream bandwidth of 300Mbit/s – with 150Mbit/s more likely in real-world usage.

While the emergence of faster cellular technology such as HSPA and LTE could eventually remove the need for public Wi-Fi hotspots, enterprises will continue to use Wi-Fi for private, internal wireless connectivity for some time to come.