Wi-Fi vs. WiMax - Wi Do I Care?
Wi-Fi vs. WiMax - Wi Do I Care?
Wi Fi Fo Fum, I think I smell the blood...oops wrong tale. This
story doesn't involve giants, but it does involve giant leaps
forward in technology that will affect us all.
The other day I was watching two kids play. Each had a tin can
up to their ear and they were speaking to each other on the
'phone'. Talk about technological leaps. Yes, the string that I
used as a kid to hook up this intricate communication system had
disappeared, and they were now wireless!
When I was Batman back then, the string always kept me close
enough to Robin so we could hear each other, even around the
corner of a cinder block wall. Unrestricted by 'the magic
string' these kids tended to drift out of range from time to
time. Showing true genius, they engaged Billy's little brother
to position himself on middle ground, and he relayed wireless
messages back and forth. They called him 'tower'. I laughed.
It really is a reflection of a changing world. We've gone from
HiFi to Wi-Fi, and next on the endless chain is WiMax. The
transition from 'High Fidelity', which simply related to sound
quality, to 'Wireless Fidelity' or Wi-Fi, took about
thirty-eleven years. The transition to WiMax is already in play,
yet most of us haven't figured out what Wi-Fi is really all
about.
According to the 'Webopedia', the term is promulgated by the
Wi-Fi Alliance, and is short for Wireless Fidelity as I
indicated above. What it means is that you can access the
Internet from a laptop computer with the right stuff (wireless
card) in various locations without the burden of a physical wire.
Hold it - Webopedia? Yikes! Yes, it's real, and it defines and
explains web 'stuff'. I guess Babe Ruth probably thought that
Encyclopedias were on the bleeding edge, yet I wrote my 7th
grade essay all about him using that standard, great source of
knowledge. Makes you wonder what 'pedia' is next doesn't it?
It goes on to say that any products tested and approved as Wi-Fi
certified (a registered trademark) by the Wi-Fi Alliance are
certified as interoperable with each other, even if from
different manufacturers.
That's kind of like Fords & Toyotas use the same gas to make
them go, and their owners use the same ramps and highways to
pick up milk, or go to the cottage. Even Hudson Hornets used a
leaded version of the same fuel.
An example where this wasn't so well planned is the access to
the electricity grids in Europe as opposed to North America. The
same plugs don't work in both places.
Rather than making that mistake, the Alliance has created an
accepted standard so that manufacturers create equipment, and
the like, that can be used in a similar fashion to access the
web. That means that your laptop, regardless of brand, will use
the same 'hot-spots' to get access. Hot-spots are areas where
the facility, like Starbucks or the hotel that owns the lobby,
has put in the proper equipment to provide access from your
wireless card to the great big cloud called the Internet. The
wireless card is the gas for the Fords & Toyotas, and the
hot-spot is the on ramp.
And therein lie both the beauty and the problem. The beauty is
that I can access the web from Starbucks in Atlanta, as well as
a hotel lobby in Vancouver. If you've ever seen someone doing
the hippy-hippy shake with their computer in their hands, you're
probably witnessing the problem. Wi-Fi access is limited in both
speed and distance. The twisting person was probably trying to
get a more consistent signal in the 'hot-spot'.
Enter WiMax. That's not Max Smart and his wireless shoe
communications, but it is the next generation of Wi-Fi.
According to WiMaxxed.com it "will connect you to the Internet
at faster speeds and from much longer ranges than current
wireless technology allows." They go on to say "WiMax promises
up to a ten mile range without wires, and broadband speeds
without cable or T1."
The result - we are absolved from the penance of viewing way too
many hippy-hippy shakes. Well, not so fast, don't throw out your
dancin' shoes quite yet. It's not on the Wal-Mart shelves for
next Christmas, but there are a lot of indicators that it's
real, and it's just around the corner.
First of all, it is an acronym for Worldwide Interoperability
For Microwave Access, and it has actually been in the works for
quite a while now. An article titled 'FCC Move Could Boost
WiMax', states "A number of vendors and carriers have announced
products, testing, or support for the standard in the last
month, including Intel, Nokia, AT&T, BellSouth, Sprint, and
Motorola." These companies aren't akin to Duke's Pool Room -
these are the big boys.
The article continues to say, "Congress has been lobbied for
months now to free more frequencies for wireless broadband."
AlcaTel states that WiMax will "bridge the digital divide by
delivering broadband in low-density areas." If you really study
that statement, you can see where we are in the world today.
Where governments once ensured that all residents were able to
receive phone service in the Ma Bell days, that lingo is now
being used in relation to broadband access to the Internet. May
everybody have equal access is the refrain, but only if it's
high speed!
So instead of hot-spot hopping, WiMax will provide true wireless
mobility. And there's more. In an article by Al Senia of
America's Network, he states that 'Phone manufacturers such as
Samsung and LG are expected to introduce Wi-Fi handsets
compatible with this service by year's end."
O.K., so that's VoIP, except it's wireless VoIP in hot-spots.
Next is WiMax, with wide-area wireless VoIP.
To be sure, there are quality and security issues to be
resolved, whether that's for surfing, voice applications, or a
gazillion other Internet applications, before wider market
acceptance is achieved. However, I attended a recent
presentation by the Gartner Group, where the presenter stated
emphatically that security is not an 'if' but rather 'how much'.
His meaning was clearly that the level of security required for
business applications will be achieved, and that commercial
providers will find the economic model that works. Ditto for
quality.
We used to trade information at the speed of the Pony Express,
when the air was just filled with farm smells. Now when the air
is filled with zeros and ones, information is transferred at
speeds faster than Clark Kent. If we're to remain on competitive
even ground, we had better pay attention to these applications
that are on the horizon. We have to assume that our competitors
are paying attention.
It took a century to transform from Alexander Bell's basic
invention to wireless phones. However, in the last decade alone,
the Internet has met with wide acceptance by business, VoIP has
become more common, Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi VoIP is now a reality, and
WiMax and wide area wireless VoIP is very nearly on the market.
In the past, I've often used an example of future possibilities
by alluding to a chip in our eyebrows that can transmit
holographic images around the globe. That's not even that
far-fetched anymore, so I guess I'll have to come up with a
better example. I'm going to have to track down the Jetsons and
Star Trek reruns.
"Grandpa, why is the sky blue?" That's always been a puzzler.
What on earth are you going to say when the question is
"Grandpa, why is the sky zeros and ones?" That's when you ask
yourself, "Wi me?"
That begs another question. Where do all the zeros and ones go
when they're used up? Is there a big Z&O dump somewhere? Or
should that be backwards - OZ. Oh, that Wizard, I knew he was up
to something.