Survey of wireless network interfaces for mobile computing devices

Abstract

The goal of mobile computing is to provide seamless connectivity to resources in a backbone wired network. It should make computing facilities at wireless end points, such as laptops, PDAs, and other hand held devices, comparable to their wire-line counterparts. The limited bandwidth and error prone nature of the wireless channel present many challenges to achieving this goal. Properly architected network interfaces can overcome some of the challenges. This paper examines system architectures of network interfaces used in several research test beds and commercial mobile computing systems. In particular, the paper examines the interface architectures of systems including Bell Labs's SWAN system, Xerox PARCTAB, Berkeley's Infopad, and Lucent's WaveLAN.