The Promise of Wi-Fi

Welcome to the first installment of the "Promise of" series. Not meant as a treatise on the technology but a critique of it's merits and suitability for the "cause." Wi-Fi a.k.a 802.11x is a mature wireless technology for use in building Local Area Networks. Networks built using Wi-Fi certified equipment have a range of ~25m-100m (~81ft-325ft). These Wi-Fi standards are constantly being refined to efficiently utilize available spectrum and to integrate management capabilities. The advantage of Wi-Fi is that it can be connected in a variety of topologies and the equipment involved do not require alot of power to operate thus making it suitable for environments where getting electricity is a problem.

Wi-Fi networks consist of access points(AP), computers with wireless cards, and a power source(usually a crucial component in developing countries). Wi-Fi networks can be installed as Ad-hoc nodes where each nodes is a peer to the other and coverage can be added by simply adding an access point. They can also be connected using a single AP as a master node that manages the connection to the internet and to each other. There is no one-size-fits-all configuration. Depending on the site planning findings the network designer decides which configuration is suitable.

Pros: Mature technology, multiple equipment vendors, relatively low maintenance, equipment interoperability.
Cons: Different modulation schemes use different spectrum(2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), this can be a potential problem with local regulation policy, weak security.

For a practical implementation of a community project track the Green Wi-Fi project at www.green-wifi.org (commentary coming in a future post). This guys are doing an awesome job and they could use our support.