Wireless Networks of the Future

Among the alphabet soups of technology that can be a huge help to small businesses, few are less taste-tempting to the uninitiated than those of wireless networking. But those of you who rely (or want to rely more) on mobility need to know about Wi-Fi, EVDO, GSM, LTE, WiMAX and CoWIOG. (Actually, I just made that last one up, but who would know?)

So, I’m going to rearrange the letters in the soup into something a bit simpler and more meaningful: SERIOUS SPEED. That’s not all it boils down to, but it’s the foundation of a new world of possibilities that are coming with the next generation — the fourth generation, hence “4G” — of wireless networks. What’s also exciting is that this next generation of wireless networks is already rolling out. If you’re living in Baltimore or Portland, Oregon, where WiMAX services are now available, you’re the envy of those who depend on wireless networks.

Here’s a bit of background. Wireless networking technologies have been evolving steadily since first appearing in 1991. Today, most of us in the United States live in an area served by a second- or third-generation wireless network. These are, respectively, the “2G” and “3G” networks, though most of the 2G networks are really 2.5G or 2.75G (you can see that they’re really trying to distance themselves from the pure “2G” moniker, because 2G was really slow and built primarily to support voice traffic from cell phones). With the later 2G networks, we saw service names like EDGE, which would connect your laptop wirelessly to the Internet at data rates of up to 114 Kbps up and down. That’s twice the speed of a dial-up connection, but by broadband standards it’s painfully slow.

As the 3G networks rolled out around the country (with service names like EVDO and HSPA), we suddenly started experiencing some serious connectivity. We could wirelessly connect to the Internet and surf the Web or download files 10 times faster than we could on a 2G network connection. We can now get downstream bursts as high as 2 Mbps on the latest 3G networks, with upstream bursts approaching 1.8 Mbps.

That’s great for Web surfing or applications such as e mail, where the amount of actual data you have to move across this wireless space is relatively small. But as broadband networks go, it’s not quite broad enough for, say, smooth-motion video conferencing or even the routine exchange of large files. Try to download a file of, say, 25 MB, and you’re looking at the screen for a long, long time.

And that’s where the 4G networks shine. The next generation of wireless networks — with names like WiMAX and LTE (for Long Term Evolution) — will deliver speeds that can theoretically reach 70 to 100 Mbps. Even the earliest implementations, such as the WiMAX offering from XOHM, in Baltimore, are today delivering 2 to 4 Mbps streaming speeds, and that really is bandwidth enough to move large files wirelessly or have an ongoing HD video conference from your laptop while riding in the back of a taxi.

WiMAX is currently being rolled out. Clearwire Communications, which owns XOHM, is expanding services in Baltimore, has recently added WiMAX in Las Vegas, and expects to roll out its WiMAX services to more than 80 markets by the end of 2010. WiMAX broadband modems are available today from multiple vendors, and laptop vendors, including Asus, Dell, Lenovo and HP, are building laptops with embedded WiMAX chips.

“I saw a demonstration of wireless WiMAX teleconferencing a few weeks ago,” says Martin Griss, director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Silicon Valley campus and director of its CyLab Mobility Research Center. “We got in a cab and drove around the city while having a wireless video conference in real time. You can’t have that kind of real-time videoconference on a 3G network — it’s just too choppy. But on WiMAX, it was actually pretty good.” In contrast to WiMAX, another 4G wireless network — LTE — is in the works but is not anticipated to be available for general use before 2010.

For mobile businesses, though, either network promises to significantly lower the barrier to success. You’ll be able to collaborate more efficiently, move large files back and forth with the same ease that you save them to a hard drive, even take advantage of more and more smartphone- and cloud-based applications that would not be feasible without high throughput. It’s all exciting, and it’s all about to break wide open.

Mark A.R. Mitchell is an avid technology buff and reporter covering small business products and the Consumer Electronics Show. He holds a master’s degree in English literature from Harvard and has worked with leading technology companies and research universities.