Abstract :
In city after city, high-speed wireless access may be the next Internet revolution. The author discusses the use of a Dell laptop outfitted with a prototype card that communicates with a test network set up by broadband wireless start-up MeshNetworks Inc. for exploiting wireless Internet technology. Even at speed-limit speeds, the Mesh network held up, with download data rates of at least 500 kb/s. Mesh, along with Ricochet and other wireless point-to-point networks, are the best hope for a fully mobile future - a world where we can teleconference each other, watch news and entertainment in real time, order from online catalogs, pay our bills, and answer e-mail - anywhere, anytime, on ever smaller and sleeker handheld devices powered by ever more powerful microprocessors and software.
Keywords :
Internet; broadband networks; land mobile radio; laptop computers; microcomputer applications; 500 kbit/s; Dell laptop; MeshNetworks; Ricochet; broadband networks; data rates; e-mail; entertainment; high-speed wireless access; microprocessors; online catalogs; prototype card; software; test network; wireless Internet technology; wireless point-to-point networks; Catalogs; Cities and towns; IP networks; Internet; Mesh networks; Portable computers; Prototypes; Teleconferencing; Testing; Watches;
