Indoor Wireless Technologies

This chapter aims at providing a brief overview of wireless technologies that are frequently encountered inside buildings. These are cellular network, Wi‐Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, radio frequency identification (RFID), private mobile radio (PMR), and digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (DECT). Special emphasis is given to cellular and Wi‐Fi, two of the most important wireless technologies deployed inside buildings for which coexistence and design issues need to be carefully considered. The three main Wi‐Fi industry bodies related to wireless local area network (WLAN) technology are: the Wi‐Fi Alliance, the IEEE 802.11 working group, and the Wireless Broadband Alliance. The chapter describes all these types. The technology defined by the ZigBee specification is intended to be simpler and less expensive than other wireless personal area networks (WPANs), such as Bluetooth or Wi‐Fi. One key characteristic of ZigBee is its robust security.