> *What can WiFi really do over wide areas without putting a base
station ever few hundred yards?
To me the interesting piece is what Debi mentioned:
> a peered mesh network architecture versus a star.
Think about an ISP deploying broadband to a suburb or metropolitan area
if they don't have access to decent physical wires (cable, DSL, fiber,
etc.). The provider could pay for a single backhaul line to the
neighborhood and use one "company" base station to bring connectivity to
several homes. Each subscriber to this service can then become a P2P
"base station" expanding the coverage to several more homes. If there
are problems with gaining a critical mass of uptake, the ISP could seed
an area by giving people in key homes free broadband.
Now the question as it relates to this forum is...
IF you assume that the number of WIFI (802.11 or other) hotspots grows
sufficiently in an area to effectively cover many neighborhoods or
metropolitan areas, and you assume that they are faster and/or cheaper
than more traditional wireless networks ...
Would it ever make sense for handsets to become aware of (and then
utilize) these networks where available?
-Allen Eichler
Received on Wed Jun 25 17:21:19 2003