Get Online Minus The Wires With Wireless Broadband
Ray Lam
Years ago, a wireless was a radio. Now, having a wireless doesn't mean you sit around listening to a box and trying to imagine pictures. It means wireless internet.
There are two types of wireless connections for your home. The first is Wireless Networking. This is a type of LAN which doesn't require the use of hubs to connect everyone to the same network. It's useful in houses where there's more than one desktop PC, and perhaps a laptop or two as well, as you don't need wires trailing all over the place. Wireless networking works by having a single central router that receives the signal from the telephone line and transmits a signal which is picked up by the closest wireless devices such as your home computers.
WiMAX is a protocol by which signals are sent to wireless broadband users. A WiMAX base station can theoretically beam a signal as far as 50km (31 miles), meaning that a single station could potentially cover an entire city (unlike Wi-Fi, which is only available in "hotspots").
Although WiMAX are networks are available in several major metropolitan areas in the US, base stations are very expensive to build, and aren't cost effective in less densely populated areas. Because of this limitation, WiMAX technology is not yet available in most non-urban regions.
Although WiMAX has been a major technological achievement, wireless broadband certainly doesn't stop there. There are a number of other cutting edge wireless protocols currently in development. The most notable of these is a new protocol called xMax, which is similar to WiMAX, but a lot more efficient. It can cover a broader range at a lower cost, by piggybacking on radio frequencies. Although xMax is not yet available to the public, it will most likely be launched within the next couple of years.
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