Why Wireless? The widespread reliance on networking in business and the meteoric growth of the Internet and online services are strong testimonies to the benefits of shared data and shared resources. With wireless LANs, users can access shared information without looking for a place to plug in, and network managers can set up or augment networks without installing or moving wires. Wireless LANs offer the following productivity, convenience, and cost advantages over traditional wired networks: • Mobility: Wireless LAN systems can provide LAN users with access to real-time information anywhere in their organization. This mobility supports productivity and service opportunities not possible with wired networks. • Installation Speed and Simplicity: Installing a wireless LAN system can be fast and easy and can eliminate the need to pull cable through walls and ceilings. • Installation Flexibility: Wireless technology allows the network to go where wire cannot go. • Reduced Cost-of-Ownership: While the initial investment required for wireless LAN hardware can be higher than the cost of wired LAN hardware, overall installation expenses and life-cycle costs can be significantly lower. Long-term cost benefits are greatest in dynamic environments requiring frequent moves and changes. • Scalability: Wireless LAN systems can be configured in a variety of topologies to meet the needs of specific applications and installations. Configurations are easily changed and range from peer-to-peer networks suitable for a small number of users to full infrastructure networks of thousands of users that enable roaming over a broad area.

•Customer Considerations While wireless LANs provide installation and configuration flexibility and the freedom inherent in network mobility, customers should be aware of the following factors when considering wireless LAN systems. •Range and coverage The distance over which RF and IR waves can communicate is a function of product design (including transmitted power and receiver design) and the propagation path, especially in indoor environments. Interactions with typical building objects, including walls, metal, and even people, can affect how energy propagates, and thus what range and coverage a particular system achieves. Solid objects block infrared signals, which imposes additional limitations. Most wireless LAN systems use RF because radio waves can penetrate most indoor walls and obstacles. The range (or radius of coverage) for typical wireless LAN systems varies from under 100 feet to more than 300 feet. Coverage can be extended, and true freedom of mobility via roaming, provided through microcells. •Throughput As with wired LAN systems, actual throughput in wireless LANs is product- and set-up-dependent. Factors that affect throughput include the number of users, propagation factors such as range and multipath, the type of wireless LAN system used, as well as the latency and bottlenecks on the wired portions of the LAN. Data rates for the most widespread commercial wireless LANs are in the 1.6 Mbps range. Users of traditional Ethernet or Token Ring LANs generally experience little difference in performance when using a wireless LAN. Wireless LANs provide throughput sufficient for the most common LAN-based office applications, including electronic mail exchange, access to shared peripherals, Internet access, and access to multi-user databases and applications. As a point of comparison, it is worth noting that state-of-the-art V.90 modems transmit and receive at optimal data rates of 56.6 Kbps. In terms of throughput, a wireless LAN operating at 1.6 Mbps is almost thirty times faster. Scalability Wireless networks can be designed to be extremely simple or quite complex. Wireless networks can support large numbers of nodes and/or large physical areas by adding access points to boost or extend coverage. Safety The output power of wireless LAN systems is very low, much less than that of a hand-held cellular phone. Since radio waves fade rapidly over distance, very little exposure to RF energy is provided to those in the area of a wireless LAN system. Wireless LANs must meet stringent government and industry regulations for safety. No adverse health affects have ever been attributed to wireless LANs. Summary Flexibility and mobility make wireless LANs both effective extensions and attractive alternatives to wired networks. Wireless LANs provide all the functionality of wired LANs, without the physical constraints of the wire itself. Wireless LAN configurations range from simple peer-to-peer topologies to complex networks offering distributed data connectivity and roaming. Besides offering end-user mobility within a networked environment, wireless LANs enable portable networks, allowing LANs to move with the knowledge workers that use them. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Wireless LAN Alliance.