Wi-Fi Show To Give Voice to WLANs

Voice over wireless LANs , security, Wi-Max and more are on tap for discussion during the Wi-Fi Planet conference that kicks off today in Toronto.

Kerry Eberwein, General Manage of Bell Canada, is also slated to deliver the keynote address at the Wi-Fi Planet Conference and Expo, which runs through Thursday.

Sponsored by the parent company of this publication, Wi-Fi Planet offers two different tracks to conference goers. One is a Business Perspectives track that looks at business issues and opportunities surrounding Wi-Fi. The second track is focused on current and emerging Wi-Fi technologies as well as best practices.

“One of the key industry trends right now is really voice over WLAN (VoWLAN). Everyone’s getting into this now but it’s still pretty early,” Eric Griffith, managing editor of Jupitermedia’s Wi-FiPlanet.com, told internetnews.com. “And, we’re still on the lookout for someone to spell out how/when public access Wi-Fi hotspots will make money. That’s going to be underlying in the entire Business Perspectives track.”

A VC investment roundtable panel discussion will look at the latest trends in Wi-Fi funding. In addition, a panel of leading technology venture capitalists is slated to discuss new investments in 802.11 and related wireless technologies.

Another hot topic in the industry is mesh architectures and how they can help control networking costs, which is one theme slated to be explored during the conference, organizers said.

“Wi-Fi mesh topologies are supposed to reduce the number of wiring drops in a WLAN deployment,” Griffith said.

The promise of WiMax will also be explored at the conference. But some industry experts question whether the emerging broadband wireless access technology, also known at the IEEE 802.16 Wireless Metropolitan Area Network standard, is more hype than an emerging reality. That’s one theme among a few about WiMax that a panel of experts, led by Chris Kozup, program director of technology research services for META Group, will explore.

Other panels and tracks offer updates in security procedures, as well as tutorials about secure networking.

“People still think wireless is inherently unsecure, but that’s not the case with the latest technology,” Griffith added. “But as far as security being a bigger issue than ever before? It’s not. We just have to make sure people know that.”