The Wireless Ghetto?

[esutherland]

I recently heard someone remark that 802.11b has become the wireless ghetto. Everyone and her mother have devices in the 2.4GHz space. How long before companies start jumping ship and moving to roomier spectrum, such as 802.11a?

[webjoseph]

A couple of issues with switching to 80211.a

1) Since its a different frequency, it also means there is no backward compatibility - people with a large investment in 80211.b might be reluctant to flush their existing infrastructure.

2) 80211.a is generally more expensive

3) 80211.a has a shorter range meaning - translates to being more expensive to cover the same footprint. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

So maybe we'll be happy living in the ghetto's until the infrastructure is more mature (and cheaper) before we move to the burbs.

~ Joseph H.

[esutherland]

Will the cost/benefit ration for 802.11b remain the same when users flood the tiny 2.4 GHz spectrum? It's expected there will be 25 million home networks, countless business and educational networks in two years. The number of hot spots will increase from under 4,000 today to 41,000 by 2007. The band will be so crowded, experts believe, you won't have to go war driving to snag insecure signals -- you could do it from your front room.

As tightly-woven signals become so much digital mush, you'll see hacks allowing you to 'yell over' your neighbor's 802.11b signal. Then it becomes a question of not who has the most powerful receiver, but who has the best jamming gear.

802.11a gear is more expensive, less powerful and less compatible than 802.11b equipment. But, like everything, that will change. Along with its 54 Mbps vs 11 Mbps, "a" has multiple channels to hop through and avoid interference.

I'm not an 802.11a salesman, but there are some attractive alternative to the aging 802.11b systems.