Search
User login
Popular keywords
Popular content
Syndicate
Does WiFi work?
Submitted by acohill on Tue, 10/05/2004 - 08:15.
In the Telecomm Cities mailing list, Barry Drogin wrote:
The ugly thing here is that in the short term, these [WiFi] deployments will work,
just like shared-media Ethernet networks worked well in the 1980's. But at
some point, user density gets so high that the protocols break down. They
spend more time recovering from errors than they do transmitting good data.
For Ethernet, switches saved the day. But for wireless, that won't work.
I call cheap WiFi the "pizza lady" model. In the grocery store, a little old lady hands out little pieces of pizza, saying, "Try this, it's good!"
WiFi is way of getting dial up users to move at low cost to broadband. What I tell communities is that WiFi will sell fiber. As more and more users crowd on to WiFi, the bandwidth degrades, but by then, people are hooked on broadband, and can't live without the pizza, er, bandwidth.
So they are more willing to support community fiber projects.
WiFi is not THE solution. It is A solution. Fiber is also a solution. There is no one transport mechanism that will satisfy everything we want to do.
I said, you said
Andy, what I wrote stops at the fifth sentence (ending "that won't work"). The "pizza lady" model quote through to the end is your writing. WiFi as a step to broadband and to fiber? WiFi as a step to WiMax, maybe, but what it really has to be is a step to Internet services in a licensed band. An Internet cafe will give you much cheaper access to broadband, if all you want is a taste.
Wireless and wired are different animals with different uses. Communities should be investing in fiber to the home, AND they should be investing in LICENSED wireless services, from DSRC for tolls, parking and drive-through shopping, to integrated digital data and voice communications for their emergency service providers, to a commercial licensed broadband Internet access deployment with locational services, small business participation, and so on.
Licensed vs. unlicensed wireless
I think we agree. WiFi is a nice way to provide hotspots or to jumpstart broadband in an underserved area, but it is not a long term solution to the broadband problem. Whether WiMax lives up to its promises is still a longshot as well.
Licensed wireless spectrum provides much more consistent quality of service, and scales up better to serve more users. And if you are going to do things like wireless parking meters, you have to use licensed spectrum, in my opinion, to provide consistent service.
I don't see it as either/or. WiFi has a place, WiMax has a place, licensed spectrum has a place, and fiber has a role to play. From a technology perspective, wired services are farther along, as there is widespread recognition that fiber is where you want to go. In the wireless world, different players are promoting a lot of different and often confusing solutions. My rule of thumb is to only buy what you know is going to get used in the next 6-9 months. That's why I generally oppose "big" wireless projects that talk about wiring up whole cities....a lot of that infrastructure will be obsolete before the bandwidth gets used up.