Wireless Networks are Slowpokes Only When Compared with LANS; Dial-up Modems are a Better Measure, Seybold Says
BROOKDALE, Calif. — March 11, 1994 — Wireless wide area data communications sometimes are dismissed as slow and inefficient because potential users mistakenly compare their throughput with local area networks rather than with dial-up modems, which are more closely related in terms of function, writes Andrew M. Seybold in The Outlook on Mobile Computing, now in distribution.
Moreover, Seybold says in an article entitled "Of Speeds and Feeds," because of cost and technology considerations, LAN activity and wireless network activity will probably always differ. To benefit from the advantages of wireless, it is necessary to consider the types of activities for which it is well suited.
"For example, sending and receiving full-motion video mixed with real time voice is not an option that will be available in our lifetime, or maybe ever," he says. "There is not enough wireless spectrum to provide the bandwidth required to permit every 'consumer' in the world to use his own wireless two-way interactive voice and video unit."
For the real world, he says, wireless e-mail is practical, technologically and financially appropriate, and available now.
"Just as gaining remote access to voice mail was a task worth achieving, so, too, is gaining remote access to e-mail — with the hope that access to faxes will also be available. The final frontier for mobile workers is to have all of their message sources funneled into a single, common repository so that with a single access they can discover what e-mail, voice mail and fax messages are waiting for them."
Many computing needs on the road can be met now but the characteristics of each technology must be respected, he says. In the case of wireless computing, this usually entails having the application resident on the mobile computing unit and loading only data by wireless, where in a local area network, a single copy of the application might reside on a server, for loading on individual users' computers for local use as required.
Doubters point out that most of the ARDIS network operates at 4,800 baud (upgrading to 19,200 baud), the RAM Mobile Data network speed is 8,000 baud and CDPD (when it becomes available) will only be at 19,200 baud, Seybold says, noting that LAN speeds can exceed 1 Mbps. But "speed is a relative thing," he adds.
"One of the interesting quirks in the 'speed' battle is that there are nationwide e-mail and public information services that offer only a few 9,600 access lines (or none at all) and that many users still call into these systems at 2,400 baud and are not complaining. If we assume that most dial-up connections are being completed at 9,600 baud today, that means that they operate in single session at about the same speed as wireless networks".
Wireless believers and non-believers alike are guilty of single-mindedness, Seybold says.
"They think that access must be one way or the other, or that a decision to go wireless is a total commitment to abandon the use of wires forever. The best systems will be those that provide a variety of access solutions — access solutions that are based on factors such as location, proximity to a telephone line, urgency of the information and the size of the file."
CONTACT:
Linda Seybold, 408/338-7701
408/338-7806 (fax)
or
Victor Wortman Co., Santa Monica
Victor Wortman, 310/393-6281