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WLAN adoption in large enterprises, campus-wide deployments in educational institutions, and small and mid-size businesses are witnessing increased traction. And the key verticals driving growth include the IT and telecom sectors. Also, the adoption of mobility solutions based on the wireless platform by various industry segments like hospitality, manufacturing, retail, real estate, etc is leading to more adoption of the WLAN platform.

The WLAN market has shown a 40% growth this fiscal.The market stood at Rs 210 crore in FY 2007-08 as compared to Rs 150 crore in FY 2006-07. Cisco's revenue registered a growth of 39% to touch Rs 91.8 crore this fiscal as compared to Rs 66 crore during the last fiscal, and it retained its number one position with nearly 44% market share.

D-Link holds the second position with revenues of Rs 38.5 crore this fiscal as compared to Rs 31 crore. Netgear holds the third position with the revenue of Rs 30.6 crore as compared to Rs 17 crore during the last fiscal, registering a growth of 80%. DAX reported negative growth of 76.7% and registered revenues of Rs 1 crore as compared to the Rs 4.3 crore last fiscal. Companies like 3Com, Proxim, Multitech, and Allied Telesyn contributed to the growth of this segment.

Increasing Adoption
Aggressive growth can be seen in wireless broadband-an area in which India is sorely lagging behind. We see more public-private partnerships for unwired city projects leading to “broadband for all”, increase in number of hotspots, more industry-based applications on mobility solutions, with a number of mesh players now increasingly focused on providing vertical specific solutions on wireless, and adoption of WiMax as a backhaul and back-end connectivity.

Some of the key trends include: increase in broadband wireless access penetration; Wi-Fi will be the major method of access; and enterprise will adopt innovative wireless applications. Besides, government policies are expected to encourage city-wide Wi-Fi deployment and technological advances like IEEE 802.11n will improve performance.

Contributing Sectors
Starting from the consumer and the retail segment, Cisco has a whole range of product portfolio on the wireless side for both indoor WLAN and outdoor wireless mesh deployment, and they have recently moved into the WiMax space as well. Cisco is also focusing on the applications and solutions segment. They are working with third-party vendors to develop mobility solutions, specifically for manufacturing, retail, healthcare, real estate, and hospitality sectors.

On the other hand, Proxim products are sold to enterprises and service providers. Their products have been deployed in almost all verticles including education, healthcare, manufacturing, SMB, utilities and transportation.

Most companies announced significant customer wins during FY 2007-08. India continues to be a key market focus for Proxim. Tata Communications has selected Proxim as a supplier for Wi-Fi mesh and point-to-point and multipoint solutions.

Tata Communications and Proxim wireless have collaborated on a number of projects including Manipal Academy of Higher Education, properties of the Taj Group, and Mahindra Resorts. Proxim's point-to-multipoint mesh and Wi-Fi products were deployed in these projects to deliver voice, video, and data over Wi-Fi to the edge of the network.

Major Concerns
There are concerns over the issue of spectrum allocation by the government. The government has allocated the entire 2.4 GHz frequency and only a part of the 5.8 GHz frequency as free spectrum for Wi-Fi deployment, whereas WiMax is still to be allocated as a free spectrum.

Security is also a major concern for certain quarters of Indian consumers who are still under the impression that wireless LAN is less secured than wired.

Market Trends
Wireless networking is the oxygen for today's business. It not only enables mobility but also ensures rapid scalability of the existing network capacity. The new trends based on respective segments are as follows:

SOHO: This segment sees major emphasis on wireless G, wireless routers, and access point for wireless networking.

SMB/SME: This market is shifting toward rapid network expansion, comprehensive wireless security, hassel-free installation, scalable solutions for their wireless needs.

Enterprise market: The clear trend in this segment is the unified wireless solution.

Last mile connectivity for home users: 3G will soon be available as an alternative high-speed broadband Internet access in India.

Last mile connectivity for corporates: Wimax will emerge as the top choice for corporates seeking last mile and remote wireless connectivity with ISP for networking.

New Offerings
This year saw the arrival of a lot of new and exciting technologies. Cisco added VoIP to wireless networks, VoWLAN. The collaboration between RFID and wireless with Cisco's location tracking device and solutions is also leading to new mobility applications and solutions for various industry segments.

More features have been added in Wi-Fi or 802.11a/b/g technology for both indoor and outdoor AP's with reduction in prices. The other significant and latest arrivals have been the launch of 802.11n, 2.0 Draft, fixed WiMax or 802.16e.

Vendors like Proxim have launched solutions that integrate Wi-Fi, mesh and WiMax. These solutions offer significant benefits to the customer. IPhone will also revolutionize the consumer market. If we look at DAX networks, the three primary innovations are: multiple input multiple output technology, packet aggregation, and channel bonding.

For D-Link, Xtreme N Wireless product consisting of wireless a,b,g and draft n standards are the latest entrants in the wireless domain.Wireless N series with speeds upto 450 Mbps are currently being developed for commercial use. Whereas 3Com Air protect Wireless Intrusion Prevention Systems is the latest technology addition for 3Com in fiscal 2007-08.

Steady Growth Ahead
A worldwide revolution is occurring in business. FY 2008-09 is posted for a strong growth in the wireless domain. With surge in SMB segment, retail, BFSI, hospitality etc the industry is poised for a 25% growth.

Technologies that drive Wi-Fi-enabled business applications and devices for a variety of uses, including mobile healthcare, inventory management, retail point of sale, and network visibility, will have an edge. The recent introduction of new technologies and trends will change the way the world perceives the wireless world in the near future.

Arpita Prem
arpitap@cybermedia.co.in