The Increase in the speed of internet connection

Enablers:

• Increasing attention of research on the 802.11 standard
• Increased support by major industry leaders - e.g. Intel, Apple

Inhibitors:

• Radio-frequency transmission difficulties to consider:
  • Multi-path fading
  • Signal to noise ratios
  • Interference - electromagnetic and physical
  • Usable transmission distance
• Regulatory limits on radio channels available
• Regulatory limits on power levels for transmission
• Error detection and correction mechanisms reduce usable payload size
• Security fears

Paradigms:

Emerging paradigms associated with the emergence of IEEE 802.11x

• Wi-Fi
• Hotspots
• Wireless communities
• Wardriving
• Elektrosmog

Experts:

• IEEE - http://www.ieee.org
• Intel - http://www.intel.org

Timing:

• Original IEEE 802.11 standard established in 1997 - 1Mbit/s and 2Mbit/s
• 802.11b amendment in 1999 - 11Mbit/s
• 802.11a also amended in 1999 but only really available in 2001, after 802.11b - 54Mbit/s but *operates at 5GHz
• 802.11g available in 2003 - 54Mbit/s but now at 2.4GHz again
• 802.11n expected in 2005/6 - will probably deliver 200+ Mbit/s

=Web Resources:

• http://www.ieee802.org/11
• http://www.intel.com/personal/do_more/wireless/wifi.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/802.11