Hardware: Wireless Modems

Brief History:

When one thinks of wireless Internet access, one usually immediately thinks of laptops
and "hot spots" The truth is that since the popularity of cellphones and PDA's that
there has been wireless Internet access to a small degree. A lot of cellphones and
PDA's allow their users to access email, view websites that have been written in code
just for cellphone or PDA use, as well as having instant messaging programs that can
be used by the owner.

Today, wireless Internet access is growing in popularity in response to the growing
number of laptops being sold and the growing change in society that wants to be able
to have the amenities of home no matter where they may be at the time. This has lead
to the growth and development of what is termed as "hot spots" or terminals that are
equiped with modems for Internet access that are also equiped with wireless nic cards
that allow anyone with a wireless Internet capable computer to virtually plug into the
terminals modem without the need for any wires and then connect to the Internet.

How Wireless Access Works:

A laptop or any computer equiped with a wireless nic card will send its digital shock/no
shock message by sending the message in the form of a radio wave instead of the
conventional pulses that a wired computer would have to send. As it stands today
these radio messages are governed by one of two response/accept systems.

The first style of the system is called CSMA/CA which is a collision avoidance system.
The nic card will send out a short message to see if there is any other traffic and if
there is then the nic card will not send the whole message and will thus wait for when
it gets a response from the modem that it is trying to communicate with that there is
no current traffic and that it is ok to send a message at that time.

The second style of the system is called RTS/CTS which stands for request to
send/clear to send. With this system the main computer sends a message to the
modem it wishes to talk to that it requests to send a message, the main computer then
waits until it gets a clear to send signal back and then the communication can begin
without interruption.

Downfalls of Wireless Access:

Right now there is the overall standard call number of 802.11 that is a group(s) of
people that are coming up with the standards that will govern wireless applications. A
big part of this 802.11 standard group is the sub-group called 802.11g which is
concerned with the security of this emerging wireless Internet access technology.
Since the messages are sent via radio waves between the computer and the receiver
in whatever form it may be, weither a router, a modem, or dumb terminal, these radio
waves are subject to being hijacked while they are traveling through the air.

The other downfalls as of right now is for one the throughput is only rated at 54Mbps
and that is actually considered a higher number then what is actually achieveable at
this point in time. Another downfall is that radio waves besides being subject to being
hijacked are also subject to interference by many sources such as microwaves in the
air, satelitte television waves and so on. The last downfall which is becoming less of
one as we speak is the lack of outside the house locations to be able to connect with a
wireless capable laptop. With more airports, businesses and cities across America
unleashing more "hot spots" this downfall will soon be a thing of the past.