Just when it seems homebuilders are moving to embrace data cabling around the home, technology is shifting the goalposts and threatening to make some of that cabling redundant. While structured cabling systems may be cheap, wireless networking is even cheaper and it is no longer something out there that may happen some time: it’s here now.
Apple has been producing a wireless system called Airport for some months and by all accounts it is blisteringly fast and works through walls. The base station has a retail cost of under £300 and Airport-enabled networking cards cost an additional £100 for each unit you want to connect. So there is now a cheap, reliable wireless networking system that enables both communication between computers and with the internet without any cabling besides power. With a laptop, you are freed from even this requirement, except for recharging.
Airport takes off
The Airport base station is just 80 mm high and 175 mm in diameter and it has much of the functionality of a patch panel. Unlike a patch panel, it doesn’t require a dedicated wiring closet - it simply plugs into any standard electrical wall socket. It comes with a 56k modem built in and is capable of wireless communication with any other Airport enabled machine within a 50 m radius, although the exact distance depends on the intermediate wall construction.
Unlike infra-red, radio waves can travel through objects. Several users can all connect to the internet simultaneously using the same ISP over one Airport unit, even viewing different pages. And files can be exchanged between Airport enabled machines at Ethernet speeds. Airport represents not just an alternative to building in a cabled network but is in many ways an improvement.
Ethernet port
One piece of home-office kit currently lacking Airport support is the printer. But the Airport base station has an Ethernet port which allows you to build a hard-wired network to run alongside the wireless one. As the product develops, Airport-ready devices like printers are likely to come onto the market.
Although developed by Apple, in collaboration with Lucent, Airport is not a proprietary product and there is no reason why the far more common Windows-based PCs couldn’t be built using the same technology. There are already configurations that allow you to run a Windows machine using Airport - check www.msrl.com/airport-gold. Wireless-networked PC cards are now starting to appear and waiting in the wings is Bluetooth, a wireless communications system being developed by industry leaders, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic, Psion and Sony.
Phones are another area where wireless technologies present an alternative to hard wiring. The latest generation of DECT cordless phones operate up to 300 m from the base station and offer the bells and whistles normally associated with hard wired PBX networks. There are a number of suppliers - BT, Philips, Samsung, Ericsson, Panasonic - and prices start at around £70 for base stations and £50 for additional handsets. The original cordless phones were dogged by poor reception and sometimes barely audible, but since then technology has improved dramatically and not only are DECT phones as clear as any land line, they also come with built-in networking capabilities which allow you to route calls from one handset to another - most will support at least six handsets - or use the whole system as an intercom: in short much of the functionality of a hard-wired network at a fraction of the cost.
Both these technologies have been designed with the home in mind and when owners move home, they can take the infrastructure with them. So why bother with structured cabling?
No alternative for TV
Well, TV distribution is one area where wireless does not yet present a credible alternative to cable. There is a range of products called video senders which allow you to transmit images from one TV set to another, but this technology is far from mature and does not permit multi-channel viewing. And audio distribution seems likely to stay cabled for a while to come, although more wireless speakers are appearing on the market. Frank Mooney of data cabling installer IPHomenet, remains confident cable will be around for a long time: “They have been telling us about wireless LANs for years but they haven’t taken off. I don’t think they will happen, certainly not to the extent that they will control everything in the home.”
Source
Building Homes
