advisory

Wireless networks are a useful complement to a wired network, allowing network connections to be obtained anywhere within an area rather than only at fixed network connection points. However, wireless networks suffer from a number of problems that do not affect wired networks, in particular that the medium they use to transmit packets is a scarce resource subject to physical limits. Whereas the capacity of a wired network can be increased indefinitely by adding more cables, a wired network only has available a finite (and in some cases very small) number of frequencies.

What is mobile networking? Mobile networking refers to technology that can support voice and/or data network connectivity using wireless, via a radio transmission solution. The most familiar application of mobile networking is the mobile phone. In the past, wireless communications predominantly used circuit switching to carry voice over a network; however, more recently both voice and data are being transmitted over both circuit-switched and packet-switched networks.

Wireless networking is virtually synonymous with the deployment of equipment supporting one or more of the 802.11 family of standards. These have experienced a period of rapid growth of use in recent years, and the problems and caveats associated with networking to these standards are well documented. Essentially 802.11 can be viewed as a technology to both supplement and extend the traditional wired local area network (LAN).

Scott Armitage, Loughborough University 23 July 2010