The long and short of wireless networking

Rich Castagna ZDNet US

Published: 09 May 2002 15:38 BST

But today, the picture is clearer and it looks like the winner will be... all three.

The tussle for wireless preeminence was more the result of confusion than a case of competing technologies. As the technologies matured into actual products in current use, their roles in the wireless spectrum solidified and they were seen as a true complements to each other, largely defined by their ranges of operation.

Bluetooth handles the short haul well, connecting notebooks, PDAs, phones, and so forth, to peripheral devices -- a job that at one time infrared was expected to do. WiFi's place is in the halls and offices of enterprises, and in manufacturing facilities where it can be a cost effective replacement for cabled networks while delivering the cost-saving convenience of mobility. Cellular is still more promise than reality at this point, but it will handle the final networking leg for this trio by providing data transmission services over great distances.

With this scenario shaping up, it's no surprise that wireless vendors are ready with products that mirror this unwired partnership. So, as the utility of the three wireless technology converge, so do the wireless networking products.

Symbol Technologies offers a solid case in point for wireless convergence. At NetWorld+Interop this week, the company introduced its Symbol CompactFlash embedded LAN/WAN module. The product is a Type II extended CompactFlash card that provides access to WiFi, GPRS, and GSM networks. Within the case of the tiny card, there are two discrete sets of miniature circuitry packed back to back-one controls 802.11b access, while the other provides data and voice services over cellular networks.

Symbol also demonstrated AirBeam Safe, a VPN system for wireless devices. AirBeam provides security using the Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS) protocol, but it's most interesting feature is its seamless roaming. With this feature, your mobile device will detect a loss of signal from one form of wireless access-802.11, for example-and seamlessly switch to another, such as cellular. Of course, the portable device must be equipped with appropriate adapters -- or maybe just Symbol's own CompactFlash card.

While Symbol's products address mid- to long-range wireless networking, another firm, Silicon Wave, showed off engineering models of design to address the two complementary technologies at the other end of the wireless range. The company used NetWorld+Interop to show off of a mini-PCI card reference design that combines 802.11b capabilities with Bluetooth. Although company reps weren't at liberty to name names at this time, they did say that samples have been sent to numerous OEMs and their interest is strong. Silicon Wave expects that their design will appear in notebooks from major manufactures by this fall.

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