InStat: Embedded Wi-Fi, Wireless Switching Fueling WLAN Growth

Sixteen-million notebook PCs with embedded Wi-Fi will ship to businesses this year, and by 2005, Wi-Fi will be included as a standard feature in 95 percent of all notebooks, according to In-Stat.

In addition, the access point/switch architecture introduced by various startups and some traditional WLAN hardware vendors has presented one way of easing the management, security and configuration of large-scale WLAN roll-outs, according to In-Stat.

Gemma Paulo, a senior analyst at In-Stat, said in the report that these factors are helping introduce a new phase in the Wi-Fi business market that will feature more horizontal wireless deployments, "not just the tried-and-true verticals of education, health care and retail."

The infrastructure market will evolve over the next two to three years, as end users require solutions that best simplify installation, improve performance and enhance and simplify security and management, according to In-Stat.

The In-Stat report also notes Cisco Systems' dominance in the enterprise access point market and predicts that Cisco, which supports an intelligent access-point infrastructure, may be evaluating solutions from a handful of vendors developing technology designed to significantly increase the performance of today's standard access point. For instance, In-Stat noted that vendors including Austin, Texas-based Bandspeed and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Airgo Networks are relying on smart antenna technology to bolster an access point's performance, coverage, capacity and throughput capabilities.

In-Stat's report also noted that the dual-mode concept has become king in the wireless market. For example, chip makers Atheros, Sunnyvale, Calif.; Texas Instruments, Dallas; Broadcom, Irvine, Calif.; and Intersil, Milpitas, Calif., are all focusing on 802.11a/g solutions, and Intel is expected to roll out a dual-mode mini-PCI in Centrino by the end of 2003.