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Wireless Technologies - Economic Advantages for Africa

Prince T. Monna1

According to the term is generally used for mobile IT equipment. It encompasses cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDA's), and wireless networking. In other words wireless technology comprises a network system that functions to connect people especially business people who do business while on the move to their offices and or customers and associates through Wireless Networking Network.

So, what are Wireless Networking Networks:

In order to understand the meaning of wireless networking and ultimately how they function, it is very important to first give a brief definition of <”/a> According to Computer networking is generally concerned with communication between computer systems. This communication can therefore be defined as “the scientific and engineering discipline used to make this happen”.

Furthermore it must be noted that this communication between computers or any other IT equipment capable of wireless communication involves in most cases, at the least, two computers separated by a short distance (e.g. via Bluetooth) or thousands of miles (e.g. via the Internet). Computer networking is therefore sometimes considered to be a form of telecommunications. Thus Wireless networks can therefore “be referred to as telephone or computer networks that use specific technology as their carrier or physical layer” .

Wireless networking is, according to a process of providing a connection to a DSL service through a wireless router so as to provide a convenient way to connect a small number of wired and any number of wireless computers. They further say that this process of routing information through a wireless router is beneficial because through it the integration of wireless connections to these computers, sharing or exchanging multimedia information and data can be done without the hassle or nuisance of cables. Thus ultimately Communication between these two mediums is further enabled by the use of “standard network protocols and any technology which does this perform wireless networking”.

According to Intoweb Wireless LANS are the most popular for wireless networking and has fuelled emerging industries such as IEEE 802.11 offering solutions and applications in the impossible event of wireless networking.
Now it becomes very crucial for easy understanding of wireless technology that I give a few types of wireless networking systems for illustration purposes. Two dominant types of wireless networking can be found. These include:

1. Ad-Hoc or Peer to Peer Networking:this type of network comprises a number of computers each with wireless networking interface cards that functions to aid with direct communication among every wireless enabled computer. Printers and files are shared this way. Access to wired LAN resources is not enabled unless one of the computers acts as a bridge to the wired LAN using special software for the process of "bridging" (see Intoweb

2. Access Points: some wireless networks use access points (also referred to as base stations). Access points act as hubs as they provide connectivity for wireless computers. According to Intoweb, Wireless LANS are connected to wired LANS and hereby allowing access to LAN resources by wireless computers and these LAN resources can include existing Internet connectivity or file servers. “Two kinds of access points exist namely dedicated hardware access points and software access points” (Intoweb).

Hardware access points include examples such as Apple's Airport Base Station and offers support for a number of wireless features. Software access points run according to the specifications of ad-hoc wireless networks and offer support for features not included in hardware solutions, but may also not include those wireless features required by the 802.11 standard (Intoweb).

"Roaming"

Communication between wireless enabled systems functions through a process called roaming. In other words through a process by which computers can send information from one access point to another through a wireless medium often a blue-tooth or through internet. A steady network is ensured with the incorporation of hardware and software. Communication through wireless technology is often very safe for the user, because it is initialized by passwords and secret pin code to function.

So, What does this mean for South Africa?

South Africa has a fast developing and a very stable and promising economy. With the advent of globalisation and in the interest of global markets accessibility, South African businesses and businessmen ought to be techno-literate and techno-savvy. Participation into global markets would often mean that business people are mostly on the move and scarcely in their offices. However, the office still has and must run efficiently or else the purpose for global business meetings is defeated. Now to be able to juggle these two balls at the same time, South Africa and African businesses needs wireless technology to aid their day to day running of their business from anywhere in the world.

Through internet connectivity this is then made possible but internet can be slow and information slippage can happen. Thus a better means of communication like broadband and other video conferencing systems becomes very useful to South African businessmen who do business on the road.

posted by PT @ 6:04 AM