The manufacturers who are members of Wi-Fi Alliance and whose products pass satisfactorily these interoperability tests are free to mark their product packaging and products with the Wi-Fi logo.
Wi-Fi technologies have passed through several generations since their origination in 1997. Wi-Fi is backed to different extents under Apple Macintosh, Microsoft Windows and open source UNIX and the Linux operating systems. A device enable with Wi-Fi like a PC, cell phone, game console, PDA or MP3 player can connect to the Internet while within the range of a wireless network linked to the Internet. Hotspots are the area covered by one or more interconnected access points. These can cover as little as a room having wireless- unintelligible walls or various square miles covered by overlapping access points. Wi-Fi is helpful in creating mesh networks, which you can find in the city of London. Both architectures are also used in the community networks.
Wi-Fi allows connectivity in peer-to-peer mode, which helps the devices to get connected between them directly. This type of connectivity mode is very much helpful in consumer electronics and gaming applications. When Wi-Fi was first commercialized there were lots of problems because consumers were not sure whether the products from different vendors will work together. The Wi-Fi Alliance commenced as a community in order to solve this issue and address the needs of the end user and allow the technology to grow and mature. This Alliance created the branding Wi-Fi CERTIFIED to demonstrate consumers that products are interoperable with other products which are different and sold by different vendors but showing the same branding.
Wi-Fi networks have short and limited ranges. A distinctive Wi-Fi home router using 802.11g or 802.11b with a stock antenna might be having a range of 95 m outdoors and 32 m indoors. The range varies also with frequency band. Wi-Fi in the 2.4 GHz frequency block has little better range than Wi-Fi in the 5 GHz frequency block. Outdoor range with bettered antennas can be several kilometres or much more with line-of-sight. The performance of Wi-Fi also decreases exponentially with the increase in range. Wi-Fi is less reliable and fast as Ethernet or various other cable systems. 802.11g networks are having a maximum of 54 Mbit/s whereas cables are capable of reaching speeds of 1000 Mbit/s or more. Thus, Wi-Fi is not suitable for users or servers who want a faster LAN access.
Apart from the disadvantages, there are some advantages of Wi-Fi.
Wi-Fi permits LANs to be positioned without cabling for client devices, thus reducing the costs of expansion and network deployment. Areas where cables cannot be run, like historical buildings or outdoor areas, can host wireless LANs. Till 2007, wireless network adapters are assembled into most modern laptops. The price of the chipsets for Wi-Fi continues to drop substantially, thus making it an economical networking option included in more devices. Wi-Fi has acquired wide areas in corporate infrastructures, which helps with the deployment of RFID technology that can pig-a-back on Wi-Fi. |
