Wireless Networking: Wi-Fi and WiMAX

In this digital era, telecommunications and networking technologies are instrumental in enabling people and businesses across the globe to interconnect and transact, shrinking the physical world into a global digital village. However, even after a decade of active proliferation, this connectivity is still eluding the geographically remote and economically backward areas depriving the people there from participating in the digital revolution. Such disconnections can be attributed to the inability of the cable-based telecom and networking technologies of the past to facilitate access to affordable and quality service across wide geographic areas. Early wireless communication technologies were also limited in their capacity and reach, though costly. However, the hard work of several research agencies across the world has paved the way for the advent of advanced wireless communication technologies like Wi-Fi and WiMax. These next generation wireless technologies promise to facilitate high-speed connectivity in wider areas at less cost with better convenience. Since inception, these technologies have been widely accepted by the industry and lots of products and services are offered based on these technologies. These technologies, being relatively new and of a path breaking nature, one needs to understand what they are and how they work. This book provides an insight into these next generation wireless technologies. It covers the concepts, standards, applications, issues and challenges pertaining to these technologies. Students, researchers, faculty and managers in the domain of telecommunication will find this book interesting as well as instructive.