Emerging wireless: Who’s on first?

The autonomous ad hoc network is ideally suited to a range of mobile solutions.

As the world becomes increasingly reliant on instant communications and information services, emerging wireless networks have become entrenched as a core enabling element for new services. The rapid-fire explosion in number and variety of wireless devices, along with expanding network capabilities, has fueled the growth of disruptive technologies, such as peer-to-peer wireless networks, voice-over-IP (VoIP) via wireless and self-forming, autonomic wireless networks.

At the same time, lack of regulation and the growth of lower-cost technologies that need only minimal capital investments are enabling highly customized “boutique” solutions, defying the promise of any new single “killer app.” While this altered landscape is opening up new possibilities–such as the ability for rural and emerging regions to participate in global markets for the first time–it also presents a challenge to the traditional management and control of networks and their devices.

There is no doubt that, in the short term, cellular providers will continue to dominate wireless markets. Wi-Fi should continue as the predominant wireless network type for notebooks and pocket PC devices–due to low cost, unlimited market entry, existing high adoption rates and new industry standards that make investments in the new 802.11a and 802.11g technologies worthwhile for device manufacturers.

With technologies such as beam forming, Wi-Fi distances will continue to expand, increasing its influence. Inherent limitations with roaming and overload from too many competing access points, however, may limit Wi-Fi evolution until new standards and perhaps a new network layer are in place. Government will emerge from the shadows as a more visible player in the near future–and likely a leader in deploying new technologies, not just for safety and security reasons but also to achieve basic operational efficiencies.

One technology that is driving new players into the wireless arena and showing potential as the basis of new network and social paradigms is the ad hoc or mesh network. With its autonomic nature, device-tracking accuracy (which promises soon to be only a few meters) and low power requirement, the ad hoc network is ideally suited to a range of mobile solutions.

The wireless equivalent of grid computing, the ad hoc network is self-forming, self-healing, self-optimized–truly autonomic. It is already being used for communications on high-speed trains, as backhaul and connectors for Wi-Fi hotspots, and as the basis for new citywide networks.

The total number of wireless devices likely will soon reach into the trillions, with the billion-plus cellular phones out there today representing only a small piece of the pie. Ad hoc networks will fulfill a critical requirement for network self-sufficiency needed to accommodate this somewhat daunting scenario.

The bulk of wireless devices in the future are expected to be sensors and monitors, working in a machine-to-machine mode and driven by requirements for stability, safety and cost efficiencies. They will monitor temperatures, stress, access, vibrations, sounds, dust and air particles, and a seemingly endless parade of parameters. These sensors will need to operate without physical maintenance for years at a time, operating with low power and within environmental extremes. This is where self-forming, self-healing, peer-oriented capabilities of ad hoc networks really begin to shine.

Ad hoc sensor networks will also work collaboratively to gather and analyze data, working autonomously until the collective has reached a conclusion about their data, then reporting the result to another node or system, while reacting appropriately to what has been learned. This peer-to-peer vs. hierarchical approach allows nearly infinite scaling to be possible.

Going even further, autonomic ad hoc network nodes will strive to take care of one another, perhaps exchanging elements or software with neighbors. Even with these capabilities, though, there will still be much work to be done. To fully function in autonomous mode, ad hoc networks will require their own set of societal services, such as bartering, payments, certification and quality assurance.

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Chris Couper (above) is an IBM distinguished engineer and chief technology officer of the IBM pervasive wireless emerging business organization. Marilyn Murphy is IBM emerging broadband solutions executive/telecommunications.