Wireless network - Definition and Overview

Wireless networks are telephone or computer networks that use radio as their carrier or physical layer.

• Wireless LAN - local area networks
• Wireless PAN - personal area networks
• GSM - Global standard for digital mobile communication, common in most countries except South Korea and Japan
• PCS - Personal communication system - not a single standard, this covers both CDMA and GSM networks operating at 1900 MHz in North America
• Mobitex - pager-based network in the USA and Canada, built by Ericsson, now used by PDAs such as the Palm VII and Research in Motion BlackBerry
• GPRS - General Packet Radio Service, upgraded packet-based service within the GSM framework, gives higher data rates and always-on service
• UMTS - Universal Mobile Telephone Service (3rd generation cell phone network), based on the W-CDMA radio access network
• AX.25 - amateur packet radio
• NMT - Nordic Mobile Telephony, analog system originally developed by PTTs in the Nordic countries
• AMPS - America Mobile Phone System
• D-AMPS - Digital AMPS, also known as TDMA

Tutorial

• Wireless Networking Tutorial (http://www.wirelessnetworkstutorial.info/)

Some research institutes

• University of California, Berkeley
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Helsinki University of Technology
• Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden)

Some companies

• Handsets, network equipment
  • Nokia
  • Motorola
  • Ericsson (network equipment only)
  • Siemens AG
  • Sony Ericsson (handsets only)
  • http://wlab.de
• Service provider
  • Boingo

Some communities

• RedLibre
• FreeNetworks
• Personal Telco

Some ideas

• Warchalking

• All about MESH-Technology (German language) (http://www.CityMesh.de)

See also

• Community wireless network
• Wireless LAN