WLANs: More than a Cable-Pulling Alternative

Pulling cable is a large fixed cost in setting up and deploying a new network installation. In the early 1990s, Category 5 UTP cable commanded a premium price and most companies didn't need it. However, many companies installed Cat 5 UTP cable because they didn't want to expend the time and expense of pulling cable later. An alternative to cable pulling is the wireless LAN (WLAN), which became available in the mid-1990s. But at that time, WLANs were slow, proprietary, and very expensive, which seriously limited their use outside vertical market environments.

Cabled networks gradually became easier to install, offered increased speeds, and became commodity hardware. Wireless networks continued to advance with increased network speeds but remained too expensive and too proprietary for most companies. Then, in 1997, the IEEE ratified the 802.11 specification for wireless network implementations in the hope of creating a standard.

The 802.11 specification was promising because its design provided interoperability between vendors that chose to use the same Physical Layer: either Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum*DSSS*or Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum*FHSS. Both technologies are radio frequency (RF)-type systems.

In the 802.11 specification, DSSS supports speeds up to 2Mbps with a fallback of 1Mbps if the transmission is too noisy, and FHSS supports a speed of 1Mbps with the ability to transmit at 2Mbps if the transmission is exceptionally clean. DSSS has the advantage of higher speeds in most situations; however, FHSS can cram more LANs on the same frequency and offers a higher level of native security because the transmission frequency constantly changes.

But even with a ratified specification, the WLAN remained a bit player, primarily because the 802.11 specification's speed was a step backward in the network world, which had moved well beyond 2Mbps networks. And even with a standard in place, cost remained a huge hurdle to companies considering wireless network adoption. Individual NICs cost as much as $500, and each user group also needed a cabled network connection to a wireless hub (called the Access Point), which usually cost about $1000. Low production volumes and lack of vendor cooperation in assuring potential users that their devices would interoperate kept the costs of wireless networks high. Meanwhile, wired product vendors dropped prices exponentially.

The slow speed of WLANs made them tough for wireless vendors to sell to mainstream IT departments throughout the 1990s. However, certain vertical markets, such as warehouse inventory management and hospital patient management systems, adopted wireless networks and tablet-based com-
puting to deal with the paperwork load. To these users, wireless networking at any speed was a godsend.

Remember that speed is relative. If you tell a network administrator that you're installing a 2Mbps network, he or she will tell you that you're out of your mind. If you tell him or her that you're installing a 2Mbps Internet connection, he or she will kiss your feet.