Computer Industry View

Computer Industry View
Just as cordless telephones and cellular telephone services met the demands of subscribers
for untethered wireless access to the PSTN, early wireless local area networks
(WLANs) met the demand for a wireless replacement of the wired attachment of
office computers to the installed wired Ethernet LAN. WLAN technology provided
the convenience of being able to relocate computers without incurring the costs of
rearranging cabling. Also, WLANs provided a logical solution for buildings in which
wiring installations would be difficult or especially expensive. Thus, the initial motivation
for WLAN technology was simply cable replacement, with resulting savings in
LAN-installation and LAN-maintenance budgets. As the computer industry designed
and produced portable, laptop, and palm-top computers in steadily more compact
and lightweight configurations, the computer users’ demands for wireless connectivity
became steadily more sophisticated. The laptop computer became a standard piece of
equipment carried by the business road warrior, as essential to doing business as the
cell phone or pager. Users wanted not only wireless connectivity to the home-office
wired LAN, but also wanted wide-area wireless access to the PSTN and to wired data
networks and eventually, to the Internet. Along with these user demands came demands
for steadily higher data rates on wireless connections from laptop computers. These
demands stimulated the development of wireless campus-area networks (W-CANs) and
broadband Internet access. Thus, we are seeing the evolution of the laptop computer
into a computing-and-communicating device.