Wireless but not clueless

Box 5 | Competition

Fibres

For all its strengths, WiFi still has to compete with other promising technologies. Optical fibres carry the vast majority of information traffic around the world and new developments may even increase their role. A research team at the University of Sydney has developed what it calls 'photonic chips', which could be used to replace silicon-based electrical connections, with massive increases in speed and energy efficiency. The wires are one hundred times thinner than existing optical fibre, roughly the diameter of the wavelength of visible light. In the future they could be used to link computers, allowing data to be sent at speeds and volumes even greater than is now possible with WiFi technology. This technology will still be constrained by the fact that it involves a physical connection – a cable – but nevertheless it could play a huge part in future connectivity.

WiMAX

WiMAX is the term used to describe wireless systems that implement a different industry standard, IEEE 802.16. It was designed originally to provide broadband internet access to stationary devices in the 2–11 GHz radio frequency range, but its proponents are also developing it as a way to service mobile devices in a similar way to WiFi. It can cover a wider area than WiFi (up to 50 km), which makes it an attractive option for providing wireless internet access at a reasonably large, metropolitan-area scale.

Boxes
Box 1. Hotspots and meshes
Box 2. Remote sensors and their applications
Box 3. Security and encryption
Box 4. Increasing speed

Related sites
Bandwidth leads to democracy (Prime Minister's Prizes for Science, Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training)
Scratches in glass break electronic traffic jam (The Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems, Australia)
Photonic chips (The Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems, Australia)
Battle for the future of mobile broadband (New Scientist, 29 October 2005)
Accelerating the internet to the speed of light (The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia)

External sites are not endorsed by the Australian Academy of Science.
Posted January 2007.