Life, Liberty and WLANs: Wireless Networking Brings Freedom to the Enterprise

The business Wireless LAN (WLAN) market was remarkably resilient over the course of 1H 2001, with a growth rate exceeding expectations, even in the midst of the technological economic downturn. 1H01 was buoyed by strong sales to verticals, including education, retail, financial and healthcare. From a horizontal vantage point, Fortune 500 companies built out their existing WLAN networks, and small and medium businesses moved to embrace WLANs. Asia Pacific and Europe remained strong geographic segments, however, North America grabbed the lion's percentage of the market.

Although 1H01 was strong, and the beginning of 3Q01 is expected to be strong due to high seasonal educational sales, September's sales were certainly affected negatively by the events of September 11. Overall, market performance in 2H 2001 and 2002 will be shaped by WLAN wild cards: (1) the faster-than-anticipated release of 802.11a products; (2) the economic situation of North America and the world in the aftermath of the terrorist activities in the U.S.; (3) the fate of 802.11g in the November meeting, after the cancellation of the IEEE 802.11 Task Group G meeting in September; (4) the release of Turbo 802.11b products based on TI's PBCC baseband processor and (5) the acceptance of XP as a must-have upgrade for the business.

• Executive Summary
  
  


• Methodology
  
  


• History of the Wireless LAN Market
  
  
  
  
  • The Early Years
    
    
  
  
  • The Early Years
    
    
  
  
  • The First IEEE WLAN Standard
    
    
  
  
  • A New Generation for the WLAN Market
    
    
  
  
  
  


• WLAN Architectures
  
  


• Wireless LAN Market Drivers
  
  
  
  
  • Price/Performance
    
    
  
  
  • Security
    
    
    
    
    • WEP's Weaknesses
      
      
    
    
    • Why WEP was Chosen
      
      
    
    
    • WEP Attacks
      
      
    
    
    • A Standard for Security Enhancements - IEEE 802.11i
      
      
      
    
    
    • WLAN Specialty Security Solutions
      
      
    
    
    • End-Product Vendor Security Enhancements
      
      
    
    
    • Kerberos
      
      
    
    
    • RADIUS
      
      
    
    
    • IEEE 802.1x
      
      
    
    
    • Windows XP
      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Management
    
    
  
  
  • Roaming
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Wireless LAN Standards and Interest Groups
  
  
  
  
  • IEEE 802.11
    
    
  
  
  • 802.11b
    
    
  
  
  • 802.11g
    
    
    
    
    • 802.11e
      
      
    
    
    • 802.11i
      
      
    
    
    • 802.11f
      
      
    
    
    • 802.11h
      
      
    
    
    • 802.11a
      
      
    
    
    • HiperLAN1
      
      
    
    
    • HiperLAN2
      
      
    
    
    • HomeRF
      
      
    
    
    • Wide Band Frequency Hopping (WBFH)
      
      
    
    
    • Bluetooth
      
      
    
    
    • Ultra-Wideband
      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• WLAN Silicon Providers
  
  


• 5GHz Players
  
  
  
  
  • Direct Sequence
    
    
  
  
  • Frequency Hopping
    
    
  
  
  • Industrial Embedded
    
    
  
  
  
  


• WLAN Forecasts
  
  
  
  
  • The Indoor WLAN Market
    
    
  
  
  • WLAN NIC Market Forecasts
    
    
  
  
  • WLAN Access Point Market Forecasts
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Geographic Breakdowns
  
  


• Wi-Fi Vertical Breakdowns
  
  


• Vendor Profiles
  
  
  
  
  • 3Com
    
    
  
  
  • Agere
    
    
  
  
  • Avaya
    
    
  
  
  • Buffalo Technologies
    
    
  
  
  • Cisco
    
    
  
  
  • Compaq
    
    
  
  
  • Dell
    
    
  
  
  • D-Link
    
    
  
  
  • Enterasys
    
    
  
  
  • Intel
    
    
  
  
  • Intersil
    
    
  
  
  • Linksys
    
    
  
  
  • MobileStar
    
    
  
  
  • Proxim
    
    
  
  
  • Resonext
    
    
  
  
  • Symbol Technologies
  
  
  
  

List
of Tables

• Table 1. Wireless LAN Timeline
  
  


• Table 2. IEEE 802.11 Working Group I's Planned Enhancements
  to Security
  
  


• Table 3. WLAN Specialty Security Solution Vendors
  
  


• Table 4. Vendor-Specific Security Solutions
  
  


• Table 5. WLAN IC Providers
  
  


• Table 6. 5GHz Players
  
  


• Table 7. Direct Sequence Enterprise WLAN NIC Unit (k) Market
  Shares
  
  


• Table 8. Direct Sequence Enterprise WLAN NIC End-Use Sales ($k)
  
  
  


• Table 9. Direct Sequence Enterprise WLAN Access Point Unit (k)
  
  
  


• Table 10. Direct Sequence WLAN Enterprise Access Point End-Use
  Sales ($k) Market Shares
  
  


• Table 11. Frequency Hopping Enterprise WLAN NIC Unit (k) Market
  Shares
  
  


• Table 12. Frequency Hopping Enterprise WLAN NIC End-Use Sales
  ($k) Market Shares
  
  


• Table 13. Frequency Hopping WLAN Enterprise Access Point Unit
  (k) Market Shares
  
  


• Table 14. Frequency Hopping WLAN Enterprise Access Point End-Use
  Sales ($k) Market Shares
  
  


• Table 15. Industrial Embedded Card Market Shares
  
  


• Table 16. Industrial Embedded Card End-Use Revenues Market Shares
  
  
  


• Table 17. Worldwide Enterprise WLAN Annual Unit Forecast 1999-2005
  (000's)
  
  


• Table 18. Enterprise WLAN Annual End-Use Sales 19989-2005 (US$M)
  
  
  


• Table 19. Total In-Building WLAN Hardware Unit Shipments (000s)
  and End-Use Revenues ($M)
  
  


• Table 20. Enterprise WLAN NIC Forecast by Transmission Type
  
  
  


• Table 21. WLAN NIC End-Use Revenues by Transmission Type
  
  


• Table 22. Enterprise WLAN AP Unit Forecast by Transmission Type
  
  
  


• Table 23. Enterprise WLAN AP End-Use Revenues ($M) by Transmission
  Type