Which standard is better for teleworkers: Wi-Fi or HomeRF?

Competing wireless groups battle for control of the small office/home office.

The Wireless Fidelity standard is the only logical choice for today's teleworkers. Wi-Fi is the seal of approval for interoperable IEEE 802.11b-based products and has long been the industry standard for high-speed wireless LANs in the enterprise environment. Its appeal lies in its true Ethernet speeds, robust performance and scalability to large numbers of users.

Millions of Wi-Fi PC cards and access points have been deployed throughout work environments ranging from small businesses to large companies. Wi-Fi is also being deployed in public places such as airports, hotels and restaurants. As its popularity has exploded, the price of Wi-Fi-based equipment has significantly come down, and Wi-Fi is now set to become the dominant wireless LAN technology in the home.

Wireless networking is ideal for today's workers on the go. It provides untethered access to all the utility and convenience that a high-speed network offers as you move to different locations. For teleworkers using Wi-Fi technology, movement between the office, airport and home is effortless because the same technology is used everywhere. Just bring the computer home, turn it on and connect to the wireless LAN. There's no messing around with a second PC card or Universal Serial Bus adapter, and all the software and hardware on the computer is the same. With laptop manufacturers such as Acer, Apple, Dell, IBM and Toshiba embedding Wi-Fi technology in their machines, using HomeRF at home makes even less sense. Currently no laptop makers embed HomeRF in their products.

So what would be the motivation for using HomeRF? It can't be performance. HomeRF's data rate is limited to 1.6M bit/sec, compared with 11M bit/sec for Wi-Fi. At these speeds Wi-Fi's range is more than 30% greater than HomeRF's. It can't be cost, either. You can buy a Wi-Fi PC card for less than $100 and a Wi-Fi access point suitable for home or small-office use for less than $200. Both cost less than their HomeRF counterparts. Perhaps this is why Wi-Fi is outselling HomeRF by more than 3-to-1 in the retail channel based on a recent PC Data study.

More than 90 Wi-Fi products have been certified (see www.wi-fi.org/certified_products.asp) and several more are added each week. The Wi-Fi product portfolio covers a range of products with features tailored to the needs of different customers. There is a Wi-Fi product suited for every application, from the firm to the home user. Of the five available HomeRF products, most support Internet connection sharing between a maximum of 10 computers.

There is no reason for teleworkers to use any wireless LAN technology other than Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi provides greater performance at a lower cost and is the only wireless LAN technology that will let you seamlessly roam from work to home and to public places.

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Eaton is strategic marketing manager for Intersil and a board member for the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance. He can be reached at deaton@intersil.com.

The opposing view by Wayne Caswell, communications chairman for the HomeRF Working Group.

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