Introduction
There is much technological advancement in the modern times that could greatly affect the daily lives of the people. One of these brilliant inventions is the Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is a technology that could be used to connect the devices into the internet or into a wireless Local Area Network (LAN) (Katz, 2006). With this technology, changing information and data could become more mobile since people would not need cables and connectors to connect the devices into a network. Wi-Fi accelerated the technological advancement of exchanging data and accessing to the internet. It is not easy imagining life in the modern times without the Wi-Fi (Hampton & Gupta, 2008).
Wi-Fi is a wireless technology that could connect a LAN which provides the connection of devices for the exchange of data or connect to the internet using radio waves. The name Wi-Fi was created by the alliance that builds and manufactures it, and they also made it as a trademark. The Wi-Fi products are regulated by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer (IEEE). In modern English, Wi-Fi is a term used for a synonym for wireless Local Area Network or WLAN. However, only the ones accepted by the Wi-Fi Alliance could get the interoperability certification for using the trademark (Wi-Fi Alliance, nd).
There are many devices that could use the Wi-Fi such as laptops, smartphones, tablet computers and personal computers. The Wi-Fi could connect these devices into the internet using the wireless network access point or the hotspot. Wi-Fi technology has been improving over the years. The alliance and the regulatory policies concerning the Wi-Fi helped in developing the technology to a device or products that could be used by many. Wi-Fi also helped in improving some of the related industries such as smartphones and other mobile devices (Hampton & Gupta, 2008). The objective of this research paper is to analyze the evolution of Wi-Fi technology. It opts to discuss the technology, the alliance, regulatory issues, global implication and its future trends.
Brief History
The technology of Wi-Fi operates at the radio spectrum of waves. In 1985, the technology was allowed to progress by using the wireless spectrum without government license. It was the decision of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to allow the engineers to study the used of some bands of the spectrum which was not used in telecommunications. These spectrums were often called the “garbage bands” which operates at 900 Megahertz, 2.4 Gigahertz and 5.8 Gigahertz. It is the spectrum that operates in the microwave which was used to heat food. The operation of the unused radio spectrum was only the start of the development of the WLAN (Technology Quarterly, 2004).
The creation of the Wi-Fi was accelerated with the establishment of the standards which was made to regulate the industry of WLAN (Katz, 2006). Some companies manufacturing the LAN used the radio spectrum to create an equipment that could connect devices into a wireless connect or WLAN. It was a technology inspired by the development of the Ethernet or the computer networking technology used to develop LAN and other larger networks (Technology Quarterly, 2004).
In 1997, new standards were implemented by the alliance of WLAN and the IEEE which made the prototype technology to become what is the Wi-Fi used in the modern times. There are two variants that were created to regulate the used on the unlicensed spectrum which was the 802.11b or the WLAN operating at 2.4 Gigahertz and the 802.11a or the WLAN operating at 5.8 Gigahertz. Since then, companies involved in the development and manufacturing the WLAN products created devices that are compatible with the standards (Technology Quarterly, 2004).
Technology of Wi-Fi
The basic technology of the Wi-Fi or the WLAN is composed to two or more parts of nodes which are wireless. These nodes or stations are the ports that the devices could connect to have an access to the LAN or whatever the WLAN is connected into. In most cases today, one of the nodes in WLAN is connected to the internet since it is its most relevant use. These nodes should recognize other devices that connect to the nodes and establish a communication or exchange of data (Hampton & Gupta, 2008). There are two cases in which the WLAN operates which is the Independent Basic service set (IBSS) and the Extended Service Set (ESS). The IBSS is used to operate a temporary stations or ad hoc networks while the ESS is connected to the Distribution System (DS) (Horrigan, 2007).
In the WLAN chain, there could be three main links that forms the connection of the networks which are the access point, client adapter and the bridge. The access points are usually the base station and the bride of the wireless and wired networks. The client adapter or the Network Interface Card (NIC) is used by the personal computers or the workstation to connect to the wireless network. The bride is used to connect wireless network which is at Media Access Control (MAC) Level (Horrigan, 2007).
One of the main examples of Wi-Fi device is the Wireless Access point or the WAP. It used wireless connections using access points and links the devices using a wired LAN. It is a technology which is similar to the connections of the Ethernet hub but instead of establishing a LAN communication, it relays wireless communication which allows connection to the other devices connected to the LAN (Horrigan, 2007).
Another Wi-Fi device is the wireless routers which is the integration of the access points in a WLAN. The wireless router enables or provides WLAN connection which is also connected to the cable modem or an internet modem. One main advantage of the wireless routers is that it could connect many devices to the internet using the cable connection modem. The routers only have a limited access points but it could also be connected to a port system which allows different connection to the access points (Horrigan, 2007).
The wireless Ethernet Bridge is device that could connect the wired LAN into a WLAN. The network could also be used in linking the different wire networks which is far away from each other into a wireless network. To increase the range of the wireless network, some Wi-Fi devices could be connected into a range extender or wireless repeater. These are only some of the technologies developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance (Horrigan, 2007).
Companies Involve in the Technology
There are many companies involved in the commercial use of Wi-Fi and the manufacturing of Wi-Fi devices. The Wi-Fi or the WLAN services are usually available in many institutions such as schools, universities, offices and commercial establishments such as internet café (Katz, 2006). In the modern times, commercial Wi-Fi devices and services are also available in many residential areas especially in the developed countries such as United States and United Kingdom. In the modern times, the Wi-Fi services are available in the 25 percent of the world’s residential areas. There are also almost two billion quantities of Wi-Fi devices sold around the world (Ishii, 2006).
In the United States, the T-Mobile company provides the Wi-Fi services in the major institutions such as airports, hotels and internet café. The Starbucks is the largest café industry that is provided by the T-Mobile for the WLAN services. In the other places in the United States such as Washington, the Columbia Rural Electric Association is the provider of the 2.4 Gigahertz service of the Wi-Fi. Other major Wi-Fi hotpots in the United States are WiSE Technologies, Boingo Wireless, Wayport and iPass. Some restaurants provide their customer with their own Wi-Fi services such as Panera Bread (Ishii, 2006).
In Europe, T-Mobile is also responsible in providing Wi-Fi services in the airports and Hotels especially in the United Kingdom. The urban places in France could access wireless internet services provided by the Ozone and OzoneParis while the als@tis was the largest provider of Wireless internet service in the rural places. Other companies also provide Wi-Fi services in Europe such as BT Openzone, ReadyToSurf and The Cloud (Ishii, 2006).
Other companies used their telecommunication stations to provide wireless internet services such as the GlobeQUEST in the Philippines. While other companies provide wireless routers as the device used for accessing the internet. These companies include Vex in the Brazil, PLDT in the Philippines, Pacific Century Cyberworks in Hong Kong and FatPort in Canada. Although there are many companies and Telecommunication Corporation that provides the Wi-Fi services and devices, they were regulated by the Wi-Fi Alliance (Farivar, 2008).
The Wi-Fi alliance is a group or organization of companies which provides the Wi-Fi services and devices. It was establish to create the standards and regulate the use of Wi-Fi products such as routers, bridges or adapters. It is also created to regulate the use of the unlicensed radio spectrum since most devices could access the bandwidth. The Wi-Fi alliance is only built to protect the public and the Wi-Fi industry for the harm of WLAN services and security. The standards set by the Wi-Fi alliance enables the development and the evolution of the technology which is used everywhere in the world (Wi-Fi Alliance, nd).
Regulatory Issues
The regulation and standardization of the Wi-Fi services and devices is essential for the development of the technology. There are many reasons why the Wi-Fi technology should be regulated since it could provide many social, economic and political implications. Ensuring the compatibility of the Wi-Fi services and devices is only a part of the regulatory issues for the technology. The regulatory issue of security and world-wide access is also a problem with the technology. The Wi-Fi alliance and other companies involved in the regulation of the WLAN are responsible for the development and the evolution of the technology.
The most critical issue for the regulation and standardization of the Wi-Fi services and devices is the allocation of the spectrum. The IEEE and the Wi-Fi alliance both agreed to regulate and separate the use of the 5.8 and the 2.4 Gigahertz radio spectrum. With the development and the progress of the mobile technology, the spectrum should be expanded to maximize the benefit and the access for the Wi-Fi technology (Farivar, 2008). Setting the spectrum policy should be reviewed and changed to accommodate the increasing demand for the WLAN.
Another main regulatory issue that the Wi-Fi technology faced is the issue of the convergence of the telecommunication and the media. Since WLAN could be connected to the communication system and the internet, the user can access wide range of multimedia services. It provides an issue of regulation since many of the private properties could be accessed by anyone or anywhere. Most of the countries such as Australia regulate the convergence issue by creating legal and regulatory framework.
Another regulatory issue is the security of the public and the users itself. The wireless network could be accessed by many devices. The security system provides the users for the privacy of their works. However, security could be easily breached by anyone since the Wi-Fi technology is operating at unsecured wireless access points as long as the hackers know the IP addresses. With the emergence of the Wi-Fi technology, hacking could become easy since the hackers could use the network that operates in the technology to access the network itself or the other devices that is connected to it.
Global Implication
The main implication that the Wi-Fi technology has given to the society is the wide range of opportunity for economic and social development. It was based on the idea that when people could interchange knowledge and information more affordably, then development is much easier. It could change the lives of the people by simply making it easier to access the internet and to exchange information and data for affordable medium (Bar & Park, 2006).
One of the major contributions of the Wi-Fi technology is the development of the mobile industries. Mobile devices such as laptops and phones are available in the market for two decades. However, it used became widely accepted with the development of the wireless technology (Bar & Park, 2006). The mobile industry has been progressing in the modern times since its major application for the consumers are greatly improved. The business sector and the society itself are changing due to the trend provided by the mobile technology. The development of the mobile technology is the result of the evolution of the Wi-Fi or the WLAN (Hampton et al, 2007).
The shift of the society towards mobile technology was the result of the Wi-Fi devices and services. In the business sector, employees could communicate more easily which provides the company or the organization to the engagement and marketing opportunity. The society is also becoming dependent on the Wi-Fi technology due to the increase and development of the mobile devices. Due to this dependency, the industries related to the Wi-Fi technology such as mobile devices are also progressing (Hampton et al, 2007).
There are many advantages and positive implications that the evolution of Wi-Fi technology provides. However, the WLAN technology is also associated with the negative social, political and legal implications due to the regulatory issues. One major implication of the Wi-Fi technology is the wide range of access for users especially the minors. With the help of the Wi-Fi, government could have a difficulty in regulating the minors for the access of pornography and other violent subjects (Hampton et al, 2007).
Another major global implication of the Wi-Fi technology is the issue about its access in the rural areas. The access of the WLAN in many communities represents its development and progress. However, many of the marginalized rural areas such as many places in the Africa could not access the Wi-Fi technology due to lack of investments and non-regulation of the licensing and spectrum allocation (Hampton et al, 2007).
Future Trends
One of the major trends in the modern times is the free public Wi-Fi offered by the companies and the government of different countries. It is the trend to remove the issue of non-regulation of the spectrum allocation and the economic imbalance that results from the social and economic development of the users of the Wi-Fi. Some of the marginalized areas such as Africa do not have a sufficient access to Wi-Fi services and devices. This is one of the reasons of their slow growth and progress unlike the areas with WLAN users (Telecom Regulatory Authority, 2003).
There are major developments that established a positive future trend for the technology of the Wi-Fi. One of this is the standardization and the regulation of the technology which contributes to the development of the market. The standards and regulation used by the Wi-Fi association is stable since its creation in 1997. The separate standards of 802.11a and 802.11b helped in the elimination of some regulation issues such as spectrum allocation. Another future trend for the WLAN technology is the advancement and improvement of the Wi-Fi services and devices. The internet connection of the Wi-Fi devices becomes faster as the improvements in the services are being developed. The devices and services are also improved in the part of security and reliability. Also, some of the related devices are also developed such as range extender and wireless repeater (Telecom Regulatory Authority, 2003).
Wi-Fi technologies in the future are becoming more credible and affordable. The vendors of the Wi-Fi devices and services are focusing on improving the credibility of their products. Adding credibility makes the technology to stay high in the market. The demand for WLAN is increasing rapidly due to the major improvements made by the companies in the technology. With these trends, there could become more competition of companies and more demand to the technology that could lower the price of WLAN devices and services. The prices of the wireless access points and the NICs are decreasing today and it could decrease dramatically in the future. The future trend of the Wi-Fi technology appears to be more credible and affordable. With these trends, there could be a future where anyone could access the internet and different networks due to the Wi-Fi technology (Telecom Regulatory Authority, 2003).
Conclusion
The technology of the WLAN or the Wi-Fi is growing due to the technological advancements and other major factors such as convenience and price. The world is shifting into becoming more mobile since people can now access different networks and the internet anywhere at any time using the WLAN technology. From the technology that was using an unlicensed radio spectrum, the Wi-Fi technology was developed using standardization and regulation of the Wi-Fi alliance. The Wi-Fi technology has resulted to social and economic progress although some of the regulatory issues should be faced. The future trend of the WLAN technology is positive. The future could experience a more credible, reliable, compatible and affordable Wi-Fi technology.
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