Wireless data: Systems, standards, services

Wireless data products and services being proposed today include exotic mixes of services and technologies: packet transport over cellular circuits, facsimile service over Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), voice and video over wireless LANs, and everything in between. Data networking terms that seem to have a clear meaning - data-link, network and transport layers; circuit-mode and datagram; connection-less and connection- oriented - in fact have meaning only in context. Thus TCP, a reliable packet transport protocol, is being used in CDMA circuit-mode data to provide a reliable data-link layer for the error-prone wireless link. IP datagrams will be transported over cellular links using dedicated channels with call establishment, possibly per packet. Market demands for timely solutions, competition between alternative technologies and the plethora of alternative fora for standards development are driving wireless data into fragmented directions. The primary constraints come from the limited spectrum, the need for security in the presence of mobility and the size and weight of mobile terminals and devices. Often the optimization for the latter constraints is sacrificed at the altar of the former drivers. Based upon our experience and work with standards and systems we attempt to put wireless data into perspective. We compare and contrast major services and products and identify the choices that were made and why.