Beyond Wi-Fi – The 5 next big things.

Ultrawideband

This superfast, short distance wireless technology promises data speeds 10 times faster than Wi-Fi. It works by transmitting its signal over a wide swath of frequencies, including licensed bands, at such a low power that it doesn’t interfere with the other occupants of the spectrum.

By Xeni Jardin Wired.com

That’s the idea, anyway. In February 2002, the FCC approved UWB for short-range applications despite howls of protest from the FAA and wireless carriers like Verizon and Sprint. Early tests by NASA, among others, raised questions about potential interference with airplane collision-avoidance systems and existing wireless networks. The FCC ruling allows development to proceed while these questions get addressed.

If it works, UWB could give rise to a new generation of portable and home entertainment products. Digital video, audio, or television streams could be managed with UWB quality equal to a hardwired system, and its high speed and low power consumption make it perfect for home networking. First-generation UWB products are expected in late 2003, but it could be five more years before UWB is widely adopted.

Mesh Networks

One of the most highly anticipated technologies, mesh networking turns nearly any wireless device into a router, creating an ad hoc network. Members of a network no longer rely on a central routing hub to distribute data – instead, the information hops from one user’s gadget to another until it gets where it’s going. Each connected cell phone, PDA, or laptop pitches in a little routing power, forming a spontaneous, temporary wireless cooperative. The advantages include cheaper service and wider coverage areas. Plus, proponents claim mesh can send data at speeds above 6 Mbps – about 15 times faster than DSL. Using higher bandwidth protocols like UWB, those speeds could reach 500 Mbps. But there are challenges: How will data remain secure as it passes from device to device before reaching its destination? How can participants be billed for connectivity? And dynamic routing can be complex; these systems slow to a crawl if traffic is poorly managed.

Software-Defined Radio

Just as remote controls proliferate in our living rooms, our lives are filling with incompatible wireless devices, from cell phones to baby monitors. Even if they have very different functions, these gadgets share many of the same basic technologies: transmitters and receivers, batteries and antennas. Universal remotes exist; why not universal wireless devices?

That’s the inspiration for the growing software-defined radio movement. Rather than determine a wireless device’s function with dedicated hardware, gadget makers can keep the electronics to a bare minimum of generic radio chips and control them with software, which can morph endlessly. Think of the difference between a PC and a cash register: Both may be computers, but one is a general-purpose device whose function is defined by software and can be changed at will, while the other is hardwired for a single task.

Software-defined radios can reconfigure themselves automatically to recognize and communicate with each other. This could impose order on the current Babel-like chaos of competing wireless standards (CDMA, GSM, TDMA, and countless others), transforming today’s rigid networks into nimble, open systems. The big payoff: improved system performance, cheaper service cost, and seamless roaming. With instant reprogramming, you can carry a single gadget for multiple uses. A cell phone becomes a garage door opener, which morphs into a mobile gaming device, which then – presto! – turns itself into a TV remote. But none of this will happen overnight. The key digital signal processor chip is still under development. Watch for new Intel CPUs to include a type of software-defined radio that will likely be able to adapt to different wireless LAN standards. If all goes well, software-defined radio will make its way into cell phones and other mobile units by 2008.

Wireless Personal Area Networks

This short-range technology lets everyone have their own little local wireless network. Within a personal bubble of operating space, PCs, PDAs, mobile phones, and digital music players detect one another and interact. Defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers as a zone of at least 10 meters (32.81 feet) around a person, WPANs could forever eliminate snarls of cable and wire that booby-trap homes and offices. In their place: wearable, smart computing devices that converse on the fly, as well as new mobile digital payment systems and personal security technologies.

Devices within a WPAN create a flow of machine-to-machine communication that personalizes services spontaneously. But managing device interoperability, maintaining always-on connectivity between machines, and ensuring that personal information stays safely inside users’ bubbles won’t be easy. General Atomics, IBM, and Philips are among the tech titans said to be exploring WPANs. Watch for these networks to proliferate within two to five years.

Adaptive Radio

It’s only polite to listen before speaking so as not to interrupt, but that’s something radio is still learning. Adaptive radio is a move in this direction: a technology that lets wireless devices scout out the spectrum wherever they are, avoiding interference by tuning their transmissions to the available gaps. Such devices can modify their power, frequencies, or timing to suit the environment they find themselves in, making such adjustments at occasional intervals or constantly checking and changing as airwave traffic shifts around them. Some also rely on smart antennas that use phased-array technology to aim their transmissions at the receiver, rather than broadcasting in all directions like most antennas.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.05/unwired/futurewifi.html