Wireless Local Area Networks: Why Integration Is Inevitable

H. T. Kung It is increasingly evident that the growth of wireless local access networks (WLANs) based on 802.11x standards like Wi-Fi will soon be massive and widespread. Enterprises and end users are enthusiastically committing resources into WLAN deployment to benefit from the technology. This phenomenon resembles the widespread deployment of private wireline Ethernets in the 1990s. The rapid deployment of WLANs in homes, offices, and public areas, and the relatively inexpensive bandwidth of WLANs are prompting many observers to ask how the emergence of WLANs will affect the telecom industry. Some see WLANs as direct competitors to the telecommunications high-bandwidth third- generation (3G) technologies; others view the two phenomena as complementary. 1 Some perceive WLANs as providing mainly mobile data services, while others expect WLANs to generate a new wave of opportunities in voice services. 2 This chapter will examine the fundamental reasons why the impact of WLANs on telecommunications will be profound, even though it is too early to predict the specific implications for particular industrial sectors or for the definitions of standards. We will offer an analytic roadmap, with analysis and