Emerging WLAN Technologies
Globalization has resulted in massive mobility and increasing demand of connectivity. In addition to many other technical advancements, it has leveraged in a shift to wireless LANs (WLANs) from conventional wired LANs. Wireless local area network (WLAN) is communication technology through which various devices are connected on radio signals instead of any physical media.
Wireless communication technologies are emerging from the basic WIFI to advanced technologies with higher bandwidth and broader coverage areas. WIFI is the most used WLAN technology in current era. IEEE. 802.11(a,b,c) are referred regarding WIFI standards of bandwidth and modulation techniques. A typical WIFI network consists of a backbone network, Access Points (APs), Links between APs and user end wireless nods. Backbone network is provided by an Internet Services Provider (ISP), APs are installed at user’s premises to connect the user device with the internet, Links between APs are established to increase the coverage and, lastly, Wireless nods are user equipment i-e Mobiles, Tablets or Laptops. In addition to WIFI, Below are top 3 emerging WLAN technologies:
1. Li-Fi (Light Fidelity)
Li-Fi works on almost same dimension as WIFI does except the signal is light instead of a radio wave. Li-Fi uses visible light (including all wavelengths from Infrared to Ultra violet) as a medium and On-off keying (ook), Variable pulse position modulation (vppm) & Colour shift keying (csk) modulation techniques for transmission and receiving the signals. Some of the key features of Li-Fi are security of data (as the signals cannot pass through the walls) and limited interference issues as faced in case of radio waves in WIFI. Li-Fi works on IEEE 802.15.7 Standards and has a range of 10 meters. It has data transfer rate of upto 100Gbps, however, due to limitation of range, it is best used for short distance indoor communication.
2. 5G Portable Devices
5G or 5th generation (5G) wireless communication is one of the emerging WLAN technology to cope with rising bandwidth demand. 5G provides low E2E latency, higher data rate, long range coverage, higher BW capacity & last but not the least, higher reliability. Moreover, energy efficiency, Ultra HD video gaming, Internet of things (IOT) enablement & Virtual/Augmented (AR/VR) realities are also some of the salient features of 5G. 5G uses Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) & Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) access technologies with Packet Switching (PS) as a transmission mean.
3. Gi-Fi (Gigabit Wireless Technology)
Gi-Fi is another emerging WLAN technology that is atleast 10 times faster that WIFI. It has transfer speed of 5Gbps and can be used for indoor and short range communications. The technology comprises CMOS-based 5x5 millimeter electronic chip and it is supported by IEEE 802.15.3C standard. Due to nano technology of the hardware equipment, its power consumption is normally in the range of 2 milli watts. Time Division Duplex (TDD) is used for transmission and receiving of the signals and working of Gi-Fi is done on 60Hz frequency.
Due to high speed and limitation of range, Gi-Fi has best application in homes and offices. It can be used for high speed Image or Video data transfer, local appliances control, inter-vehicle communication, broadcasting of video signals in sports stadium or other institutions where short distance high speed communication is required.
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