RAWCON 2001 Tuesday Evening Panel Session

Usage of wireless local area network (WLAN) technology has grown dramatically in the past two years, as more PCs include the IEEE 802.11b interface, as prices fall for home access points, and as service providers deploy publicly accessible WLANs in airports, hotels, and elsewhere. As technology enhancements continue to improve the speed, security, and quality of service of WLANs, what will be the next technological challenge? What are the tradeoffs between WLAN service in the 2.4 GHz band vs. the 5 GHz band? Will high-rate spread-spectrum technology (802.11g) share the market with newly developed OFDM technology (802.11a)? How critical is the capability to roam between WLAN networks, or between WLAN, GPRS, and Bluetooth networks? What are the limits imposed by interference, coexistence, and interoperability? What is the potential impact of harmonization of the 5 GHz WLAN standards (802.11a and HiperLAN2)? The panelists present the perspectives of service providers, hardware designers, system developers and others on these issues.

The moderator: Craig J. Mathias is a Principal with Farpoint Group, an advisory and systems-integration firm in Ashland, MA. Farpoint Group specializes in emerging communications technologies, products, and services. Craig has published numerous technical and overview articles on a variety of topics, and is a well-known industry analyst and frequent speaker at industry conferences and trade shows.  He is currently a member of the Advisory Board for the COMDEX Fall and COMDEX Chicago Conferences, Program Chair of the Key3Media eMobility Conferences, Chair of the Advisory Board for Wireless LAN Research Labs at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, an Affiliate Analyst (wireless communications) for Mobile Insights, and a monthly columnist for Electronic Engineering Times.