The story of Wi-Fi

The story of Wi-Fi

Presentation of the paper by

W. Lemstra and V. Hayes (2008) Unexpectedinnovation: The case of Wi-Fi, DelftUniversity of Technology

Forthcoming in Lemstra, W, Hayes, V. et.al. “Network modernisation inthe telecom sector – The case of Wi-Fi”, in The Governance of networkindustries: redefining rules and responsibilities, Kunneke, R.W. (ed)Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.

•The paper stems from a research project executedwithin the Faculty of Technology, Policy andManagement at the Delft University ofTechnology (TUDelft) documenting the genesis ofWi-Fi.

•The authors argue that the success of Wi-Fi wastriggered by policy, developed by industry andshaped by users

•Wi-Fi success emerged under a license-exemptregime as compared to other major radiofrequency technologies (radio and televisionbroadcasting) which emerged under a licenseregime.

Triggered by policy

•Spectrum as a natural and limited resource managed by State Agencies

•Political climate of Carter Administration to extent deregulation to theradio frequency spectrum.

•Dr Steve Lukasik, chief scientist at the FCC was requested toinvestigate new communication technologies being blocked byanachronistic regulation. Spread spectrum was brought forward asbeing one such a technology.

•Point of departure: FCC Report and Order of May 9, 1985 to“authorise spread spectrum and other wideband emissions notpresently provided for in the FCC Rules and Regulations”.

•After the release of spread spectrum authorisation, the whole topleadership of FCC Office of Science and Technology was exiled,possibly as a result of actions by the industry being concerned thatderegulation would make FCC less responsive to major manufacturerswho wanted new technology only made available when it wasconvenient to them

Developed by industry

•The authorisation opened the way for innovation because with theregulation in place companies were more willing to allocate investmentcapital to R&D.

•NCR Corporation played the leading role in the development ofWLANs. Following FCC Report and Order, NCR initiated a feasibilitystudy into the use of wireless technology in local area networking

•A Dutch-based systems engineering centre was commissioned to starta feasibility study for NCR to assess whether a wireless device couldbe developed for case registers sold in the USA

•After completion of the feasibility study, the same team also undertookthe development of the product.

•Summer of 1987: a project for the creation of a Wireless NetworkInterface Card to build a WLAN started with an over-the-air data rateof 1-2 Mbits/s

•The focus of product development effort was the creation of a newMedium Access Control (MAC) protocol. To limit costs anddevelopment time the team intended to use existing protocol standardswhere possible

•It soon became clear that the standards body tofocus on was IEEE and in particular the ‘802’committee.

•NCR approached the 802.41 Task Group

•Several alternatives were examined but eitherbecause of unsuitable solutions or because of theinterest being shifted to the evolution of Ethernetstandard, the ‘political stage’ within IEEE was setto start from scratch

•The 802.11 working group was born: the MACTask Group