Happy Belated Birthday Wi-Fi – A Technological Revution

Wi-Fi as a product name and standard that is 20 years old this weekend. I started in Wifi well before this, when it was just called 802.11 by proxim and aeronet (later att and Cisco). In those days the hardware clients available did not necessarily work well with the competing access points. Today you can buy almost any Access point and have it connect to Wi-Fi. This is due to the hard work that both eTribeca and many other deployment organizations put countless hours to make Wifi Seamless in both home and enterprise alike.

Imagine in the past you needed special drivers on your operating system and perhaps implementations like CCX from Cisco to seamlessly run from one location to another even in the same building. Today basic Wi-Fi is taken for granted but we still have a long way to go. The latest standard 802.11ax is the first step and we may take another 5 years from now to see the next major interoperability in WiFi systems increase seamlessly work.

The new iPhone 11 as well as other manufacturers have started to add the .AX standard and CBRS capability. I have been advising those making new client purchases to embrace these technologies not for what they can use today but where it will be in 2022 and beyond cBRS is a 3.5 GHz capability that I hope to see turned on for in building by both the carriers and companies like ours by manufacturers like Ruckus.

Imagine being able to take a phone call or video call from outside and walk right through the hospital without loss of signal or connection. Other than the cool factor maybe this is what can be used in telemedicine and other critical services. (eTribeca) puts these technologies to be together in reliable and unique ways for both small and medium size as well as Enterprise clients. I think the early adopter mentality this leap forward in technology and has more merit as we coming to 2020 and needs the discussion to be started soon as possible.