Chapter 15. The Future of Wireless Networking

The future of technology is always difficult to predict. Usually you get some pretty generic statements that do not really tell you anything, or wild predictions that are usually wrong and provide little insight for those trying to figure out if the $400 worth of stuff they just bought is going to be useless a year from now.

In this chapter, we try to give you some points to think about regarding where this technology is going in the near future (which we see as being 2 to 5 years out). We hope to avoid being too generic or making any wacky predictions. We see wireless networking evolving as follows:

• Wireless networks will be faster.

• Wireless networks will go farther.

• Wireless networks will be in more places.