Wireless Signals

Wireless signals are all around us as we walk or drive around the city or town where we live. The four types of wireless technologies that are out there are Wi-Fi, Cellular, Bluetooth, and WiMAX. We will be looking at these types of wireless technologies a little more in depth, where are they most commonly used, and how they differ from one another. The first wireless technology that we will be looking at is the Wi-Fi wireless signal. The Wi-Fi signal is mainly associated with computer networking, the specification used to create a wireless local area network is the IEEE 802.11. One would use this type of wireless technology if you were a business owner opening up a coffee shop and needed a public network. The network would have a wired connection to an internet source, then leading to a wireless router that transmits and receives the data from all of the customer’s devices that want to use the Wi-Fi. This will also connect all of the devices to one another through the network. The next type of wireless technology that we will be looking at is Cellular.

This type of wireless technology is most often associated with wireless telephones. The cellular network is connected to cells that will enable a user to move around freely while staying connected to the network. This type of signal is used everywhere you go nowadays and are used by everyone. There are a multitude of devices that use these networks at one time and those include, smart phones, tablets, and some computers can use the cell towers to get a signal to be able to use the internet. The first generation of cellular signals was completely analog, and from there with the growing demand of faster speeds and better connectivity technology brought us 2G, 3G, and the ever popular 4G phones.

Bluetooth is the next technology that we will touch on and is very similar to the Wi-Fi and cellular networks but on a more local scale. Bluetooth was designed to connect a smaller device to a larger device, similar to a step up or step down that connect to a ratchet in order to tighten a larger or smaller bolt. Bluetooth will connect your smart phones to your car, wireless computer mouse to your computer. This Bluetooth has a maximum range of around 50 feet and enough power to have the speed to enable the user to constantly stream a video. The last but certainly not the least of the wireless technologies that we will look at is WiMAX. This type of technology is an over the air data and is fast becoming the realm of cellular providers. WiMAX offers fast web surfing at home without the need of cable or DSL. One would use this type of technology if they do not live close to a town and cannot get cable or DSL out to their house but are still able to connect to the cell towers.

References

Four Different Types of Wireless Technologies. (2012). Retrieved from http://techchannel.radioshack.com/description-four-different-types-wireless-technologies-2190.html Wireless technologies comparison. (2013).