Wireless Wide Area Networks: Trends and Issues

Wireless Wide Area Networks: Trends and Issues
Mobile computing devices are getting smaller and more powerful, while the amount of information is growing astronomically. As the demand for connecting these devices to content-rich networks rises, WWAN technology seems like the perfect answer. But today's wireless WANs have some limitations. This white paper discusses those limitations and how NetMotion™ overcomes them. · Specialized equipment and custom applications were needed for deployment over these proprietary wireless systems. · Often the wireless infrastructures themselves were difficult to deploy. · Only a small percentage of the working population was mobile, so corporations considered wireless data deployment a significant investment with little return. Why the resurgence of interest in wireless data networking technologies now? In the late twentieth century, a few interesting social and technological developments took place. In the late 1990's, businesses began seeing the economic benefit of having employees who work away from their campuses. These remote (and sometimes nomadic) workers needed access to everyday corporate information to do their jobs. Providing workers with remote connectivity became a growing challenge for the information staff. Handheld and pocket-sized computers became powerful enough to be useful. The convergence of Internet networking technologies made IP the de facto standard. New standards such as General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) were being adopted to provide wireless network services. With the development of such technology, the promise of faster access speeds from new wide area wireless interconnects began to approach (or in some cases exceed) standard connections over landlines. These factors created the environment for the anytime, anywhere connected worker.

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