Wireless WAN

A wireless wide area network (WWAN), is a form of wireless network. The larger size of a wide area network compared to a local area network requires differences in technology. Wireless networks of different sizes deliver data in the form of telephone calls, web pages, and streaming video.

A WWAN often differs from wireless local area network (WLAN) by using mobile telecommunication cellular network technologies such as LTE, WiMAX (often called a wireless metropolitan area network or WMAN), UMTS, CDMA2000, GSM, cellular digital packet data (CDPD) and Mobitex to transfer data. It can also use Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS) or Wi-Fi to provide Internet access. These technologies are offered regionally, nationwide, or even globally and are provided by a wireless service provider. WWAN connectivity allows a user with a laptop and a WWAN card to surf the web, check email, or connect to a virtual private network (VPN) from anywhere within the regional boundaries of cellular service. Various computers can have integrated WWAN capabilities.

A WWAN may also be a closed network that covers a large geographic area. For example, a mesh network or MANET with nodes on building, tower, trucks, and planes could also be considered a WWAN.

A WWAN is also different from a low-power, low-bit-rate wireless WAN, (LPWAN), intended to carry small packets of information between things, often in the form of battery operated sensors.

Since radio communications systems do not provide a physically secure connection path, WWANs typically incorporate encryption and authentication methods to make them more secure. Some of the early GSM encryption techniques were flawed, and security experts have issued warnings that cellular communication, including WWAN, is no longer secure.[1] UMTS (3G) encryption was developed later and has yet to be broken.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Digital Cell Phone Crypto Cracked". Wired. March 20, 1997. Retrieved August 29, 2011.
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