IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.) and ITU (International Telecommunication Union) both have task groups to research and develop the new standards of networking protocols and mobile technologies. These have indicated the directions of building up our infrastructure. Meanwhile, the ICT industries have been making great efforts to launch their new products and services in the wireless era. I myself receive a few promotions via emails or phone calls every week.
First of all, I would like to look into the developments of IEEE. Without doubt, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) have long-standing recognition in the field. They have established the ‘Wi-Fi’ standards (i.e. IEEE 802®), one of the well-known mobile technologies and have various working groups and study groups to research and develop these standards. Meanwhile, ‘WirelessMAN’, IEEE 802.16 specifications support the development of fixed broadband wireless access systems to enable rapid worldwide deployment of innovative, cost-effective and interoperable multi-vendor broadband wireless access products (IEEE-SA 2007). More information regarding IEEE 802® is able to be found from IEEE website. The other standard IEEE 802.3™ is moving steadily which is for Ethernet wired LANs/WAN. More information regarding IEEE 802® is able to be found from IEEE website. The other standard IEEE 802.3™ is moving steadily which is for Ethernet wired LANs/WAN. In addition, the IEEE 802.11 specifications address both the Physical (PHY) and Media Access Control (MAC) layers and are tailored to resolve compatibility issues between manufacturers of Wireless LAN equipment.
The Wi-Fi Alliance is a global, non-profit industry association that have certified Wi-Fi products from March 2000 till now. According to (Wi-Fi Alliance 2007), they have certified over 3400 products in the industry and have more than 300 member companies devoted to promoting the growth of wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs).
Nowadays, ‘Wi-Fi’ has been adopted by ICT industries. TGn (2007) has just approved IEEE 802.11n draft 2.05 in July 2007 and Draft 3.0 is on the way and will be finalised and approved in 2008. In fact, Many ICT companies have competed with one another to issue the Draft 2.0 compliant equipment such as wireless router, wireless switch and wireless client. Wi-Fi Alliance (2007 p.4) claims that the multiple-in, multiple-out (MIMO) technology, multiplies the performance of the Wi-Fi signal, and is reflected in the two, three, or even more antennas found on some 802.11n routers and support 5GHz radio frequency. Additionally, its capacity is five times of 802.11g, rise from 54Mbit/s to 300Mbit/s that is able to fulfil today’s multimedia applications and products demand. This is a breakthrough to the wireless technology. But in practice, Judge (2007) reports that it will not be able to reach the data rate 300Mbit/s as the Ethernet standard, 802.3af cannot support two different radio frequencies, the 2.4GHz band (802.11bg/n) and the 5GHz bands the 5GHz (802.11a/n). Therefore, it will probably reach only half of the data rate (i.e. 150 Mbit/s).
The other concern about 802.11n standard or wireless LAN is security. Dr So (2007) mentions four major attacks on wireless LAN including Intrusion, Denial of Service, Phishing and Eavesdropping. The most risky one is Eavesdropping because the attacker listens to the traffic on the wireless network and grasps useful information including passwords for online banking service and e-commerce but, can hardly be identified.
I would like to discuss about the researches and developments of ITU on Mobile Technologies tomorrow.
To be continued
References
Judge P 2007, ‘Aruba set to launch 802.11n access point’, Computerworld Hong Kong Daily, posted 14 September 2007, viewed 15 September 2007, <http://www.cw.com.hk/computerworldhk/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=457611>.
Wi-Fi Alliance 2007, ‘Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ 802.11n draft 2.0:Taking Wi-Fi® to the Next Level’, published May 2007, pp.1-2
So R 2007, ‘Wi-Fi threats stay alive’, Computerworld Hong Kong Daily, posted 10 May 2007, viewed 15 September 2007, <http://www.cw.com.hk/computerworldhk/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=425942>.
TGn 2007, Status of Project IEEE 802.11n, Standard for Enhancements for Higher Throughput, updated July 2007, San Francisco, California, US, viewed 17 September, <http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/11/>.
TGn - see IEEE P802.11 Task Group n 2007
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