'Wireless Communications' is the name of the new user forum at the electronica 2004 trade show to be held on the 9-12 November 2004 in Munich.
Key vendors will not only be showing electronic components and solutions for WLAN and WPAN, but also solutions for mobile telephony and networks, automation and logistics networks (such as M2M and RFID), embedded wireless, wireless security and other wireless technologies and application areas. The wireless congress that is being held on 10, 11 November, will enable an additional transfer of knowledge - especially with regard to the industrial use of wireless technologies. In the following, electronica provides a bit of wireless background.
Wireless communications
Using WLANs to surf the Internet and access local data without cables and on the move is already very popular. Nevertheless, wireless networks still offer several possibilities for developing this technology in terms of bandwidth and range. Theoretically, the 802.11b standard supports data throughput rates up to 11 Mbps; in reality, however, a maximum of 5 Mbps remain after the protocol overhead is subtracted. The further development of this standard, 802.11g, starts from 54 Mbps, but in reality, it achieves a throughput of approximately 11 Mbps. This is sufficient for use in the average home or office, particularly in light of the fact that these WLANs cover a maximum radius of 100 m.
However, a new standard is already promising more bandwidth and range, and is thus even giving the wireline telephone networks serious competition for the 'last mile'. As a wireless metropolitan area network (WMAN), the IEEE wireless access standard 802.16a has found rapid acceptance. This standard is also referred to as 'WiMax' (worldwide interoperability for microwave access), a name it takes from the company organisation that is responsible for it. WiMax covers the frequencies from 2 to 11 GHz and transfers up to 75 Mbs, which makes it 23 times speedier than today's fastest ADSL connection. The range is approximately 50 km, and 30 to 60 users can be served simultaneously by a single base station. The first WiMax components are scheduled to hit the market in 2005, but electronica 2004 will already be showing the corresponding technologies and systems in November.
When it comes to WPANs (wireless personal area networks), Bluetooth and ZigBee will be facing competition very soon. The new ultra-wideband (UWB) technology offers a very wide frequency spectrum of 3 to 10 GHz and features extremely low power requirements that even undercut Bluetooth. Nonetheless, this network offers a range of approximately 10 m (even up to 20 m in exceptional situations) and it transfers up to 480 Mbp. With such high data throughput rates, it is not only possible to wirelessly connect computers to their peripheral devices, it also becomes possible to connect a DVD player to a television set, for example, without any delay effects. One of UWB's particular advantages is the excellent protection that it offers against eavesdropping, since the short impulses that are sent out are very difficult to capture. The first devices with ultra wideband are also expected to arrive next year.
Further information on electronica 2004 and the forum is available at www.electronica.de
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