What is WiFi?WiFi is a brand originally licensed by the WiFi Alliance, a global, non-profit organization that promotes the usage of a single worldwide standard for high-speed wireless local area networking. The term describes the underlying technology of wireless local area networks that enable consumers to access the Internet in unconventional areas, away from their home or office.
Although WiFi was initially developed to be used for mobile computing devices, such as laptop computers, it is now increasingly being used for more applications, including Internet and VOIP phone access, gaming, and basic connectivity of consumer electronics such as televisions, DVD players, and digital cameras. Currently technology is being developed to allow WiFi to be used by cars on highways in support of an Intelligent Transportation System that will increase safety, gather statistics, and enable mobile commerce.
What is a Hotspot?A WiFi device, such as a computer, telephone, or personal digital assistant (PDA), can connect to the Internet when it is in proximity of an access point. The region covered by one or several access points is called a hotspot, which can range in area from a single room to many square miles of overlapping hotspots. WiFi can also be used to create a Wireless mesh network, such as the one that can be found in Wireless Philadelphia, and metro-scale networks like in Taipei .
A WiFi hotspot is a venue that offers wireless Internet access to the Managed WiFi Meshed Network Internet Services. In particular, the adoption of wireless mesh networking has and will continue to accelerate rapidly, potentially dwarfing industry estimates, as the hardware includes scalable growth, high throughput, low latency, resiliency and reliability are proven through successful deployments
Today, an abundance of both free and commercial hotspots can be found operating everywhere from restaurants and libraries to airports and train stations. Many small venues opt for multifunction wireless routers, which incorporate a wireless access point into a regular Ethernet router for a single, relatively simple to configure appliance product, while larger hotspots combine a network of access points wired back to an "intelligent" gateway which handles the access control.
Typically, commercial hotspot operators rely on a system combining captive portals at the branch hotspots, and a central authentication and payment/billing system that controls access to the service. The gateway at the hotspot intercepts Internet traffic from users' wireless devices, and in the case of web traffic, redirects to a web page prompting for payment or login information, depending on the business model of the hotspot operator. This gateway then communicates information returned by the users to an authentication and billing system, which determines whether or not to grant access to the user.
Some commercial hotspots may also feature what is referred to as a walled garden, or a collection of selected places that can be accessed on the Internet without restriction.
Solutrea: OpportunitiesSolutrea provides wireless Internet hotspot services in Canada, as well as with several roaming partners in the US and in Europe . With the rapidly growing popularity of wireless broadband, wireless capabilities are being built into most new consumer electronic devices, and Solutrea is expanding its network coverage to meet demand.
WiFi is in the tornado phase of market acceptance, where many establishments are asking for the implementation of these services. The market for broadband wireless is also growing rapidly. The commercial U.S. wireless market will grow to $3.9 billion by 2009 and ABI Research estimates the global market for Mesh products will soar from $116 million to $1.3 billion during this period of time.
With the introduction of WiFi phones and dual-mode Cellular/WiFi phones, the increased use of video surveillance and other video and interactive multimedia content, convergence is just around the corner. Solutrea and its hardware partner, Strix, are uniquely qualified to address the opportunity presented by converged services to enable true multi-service broadband access with 100% reachability and 100% mobility without boundaries.
Solutrea plans to implement WiFi meshed networks for municipalities across North America, which will be uniquely designed with accessibility to Public Safety networks and high speed WiFi access.
Why implement Wireless Meshed Networks Here are a few of the benefits:
- High-Speed Mobile Broadband Mesh for City and Country-Wide Access
- High-Speed Mobile Broadband Across Large Hot Zones
- City-Wide Wireless Mesh for Large-Scale VOIP Deployments
- Cellular Backhaul Over Resilient High-Speed Wireless Mesh
- High Performance and Scalability for Public Hot Zones and Private Access
- High Speed Public Safety Communications Networks
- Cost Effective and Highly Resilient Distributed Video Surveillance Services
