Developing Practical Wireless Applications

212 Developing Practical Wireless Applications

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)

The generation of ideas and technologies doesn’t stop with 802.11n – 802.11p is also

worth a mention here. It hasn’t received a great deal of press, just some occasional anec-

dotal references (dailywireless.org). Nevertheless, the promise is to deliver an Intelligent

Transportation System (ITS) operating in the 5.9GHz band. The 802.11p working group

established the Wireless Access in Vehicular Environment (WAVE) offering a Dedicated

Short Range Communication (DSRC) medium enabling a communications link between

a vehicle and roadside equipment. It is envisaged that toll collection and vehicle safety

will be the initial application-base, as well as intervehicle-communication.

Conclusion

If there is a single wireless technology that can proclaim to have changed the way we

choose to live and work we have to attribute that trophy to WiFi. Other wannabes

such as Bluetooth and/or UWB and ZigBee can only dream about capturing a signif-

icant percentage of the market. WiFi is evolving at such a fast pace not even UWB,

WiFi’s nearest competitor, will be able to keep up. As for the WiFi versus WiMAX

contest there really isn’t much to see, as WiMAX will have to battle it out with

HSDPA. WiFi has made the steps forward it needs to be integrated into most con-

sumer electronic products, but of course, it must avoid becoming complacent with its

market share, although it’s never advisable to be running and constantly looking over

your shoulder. With a comfortable grounding and a well-defined future plan its future

should be secure. The sun is still shining on WiFi and the wind is blowing gently in

its hair – it feels good to be WiFi.

Summary

■

WiFi has truly captured a vast consumer-base and occupies a large number of

homes and offices.

■

The concept of making wireless was a really simple one.

■

Take that NIC and transform into a WNIC.

■

WiFi is nowadays a brand name, trademarked and licensed by the WiFi

Alliance.

■

When a manufacturer develops a WiFi product it will undergo a certification pro-

gram to ensure that the product complies with criteria that has been established

by the WiFi Alliance.

■

If the product satisfies the compliance criteria, then the product can display the

WiFi Alliance logo.

■

The IEEE 802.11 specification defines the PHY and MAC layers for WiFi.

■

The sheer simplicity in renovating the PHY and MAC layers of the original NIC

has now brought us the original 802.11 specification.

■

A fixed networking environment was secure; hackers had to typically use another

fixed network to attempt to gain access to your network infrastructure.

■

Nowadays, wireless brings about a new breed of hacker.

■

The original introduction of WEP and its bias towards the RC4 algorithm

resulted in numerous attacks on WiFi.

■

WPA (and WPA2) soon emerged after the weaknesses were identified with WEP.

■

WPA became ratified by the IEEE in 2004 and WPA2 is the certified 802.11i

specification.

■

WPA offers us several new key enhancements, namely the TKIP, the 802.1X User

Authentication and EAP.

■

In a move that is almost as fast as a synaptic nerve, the WiFi Alliance have offered

us WiFi Protected Setup.

■

An initiative that aims to simplify the configuration of WiFi equipment within

the home and office.

■

The WiFi Protected Setup initiative is a valuable directive that will see yet more

consumers embracing the technology with open wallets.

■

The WiFi Alliance will adopt its ease-of-use strategy within the certification program

and they will expect to start certifying products early 2007.

■

In another initiative the Alliance launched the WMM Power Save certification

program encouraging manufacturers to reduce their power consumption by utilizing

a more efficient data transmission scheme.

■

The data transmission scheme relies on the ability to send large data payloads in

the shortest amount of time possible in an attempt to induce the WiFi hardware

to sleep.

■

802.16 has seen a number of amendments and extensions, and in 2005 it saw a new

update that is now commonly known as Mobile WiMAX.

■

WiMAX is a different technology to that of WiFi, but many argue and perceive

them as complementary and not competing, as they resolve two different problems.

■

In some instances the difficulty and cost associated with deploying a cabled infra-

structure for some last mile environments may be served much more economically

with WiMAX.

WiFi: Enabling True Ubiquitous Connectivity 213

Chapter 13