WHAT ARE WIRELESS SOLUTIONS?
In the quest for mobility, wireless solutions play a vital role in a company’s ability to move around freely while maintaining their productivity. A 2010 study from AT&T found that 65% of small businesses depend on wireless solutions for the survival of their business. Let’s take a look at what wireless solutions are and how they impact the small to medium sized business world.
Types of Wireless Solutions Used in Businesses
Many companies all over the world use a variety of wireless solutions in their day-to-day operations. There are three types of wireless technology used in businesses: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Infrared. Wi-Fi has been the most adopted wireless solution thus far, however, companies are noticing a shift towards utilizing Bluetooth and Infrared technologies as well.
Bluetooth
Having come into the market in the early 2000’s, Bluetooth is a relatively new form of wireless technology. It’s a high-speed solution, used to exchange data over short distances and create highly secured personal networks. With Bluetooth capabilities, employees are able to connect phones, laptops, PDAs, and other mobile devices together seamlessly to securely exchange and manage data.
Infrared
While not as highly adopted, Infrared is still a great wireless solution to use in business due to it’s portability and high immunity to interference. Infrared transmitters are designed to both transmit and receive data through rear ports and adapters are often installed on many laptops and mobile devices. Infrared doesn’t require a lot of power, making it the ideal solution for laptops, phones, and PDAs. The directional of the Infrared beam gives the technology a higher level of security and ensures that data isn’t leaked to nearby devices.
Wi-Fi
Originally designed to be used for laptops and other mobile computers, Wi-Fi has morphed to being able to support areas such as Internet, VoIP, Televisions, and media players. Wi-Fi works by utilizing a series of access points located around the office in order to provide a strong, consistent connection to in-range devices. Creating local area networks with Wi-Fi significantly cuts costs for businesses by being scalable, easy to deploy, and having the ability to integrate with a number of different devices.
Wireless solutions and applications can be used in business for:
- Voice Communications
- Wireless Sensing
- Item Tracking
- Navigation and Location
- Quality Management
- Risk Management
- Networking
- Monitoring
- Energy Management
- Wireless Power Transfer
- Paging / Event Notification