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	TABLE OF CONTENTS Home WiNet Is WiMedia ready?

WiNet
WiNet is the WiMedia defined way to carry IEEE 802.3 frames and therefore internet protocols over the wireless link. WiNet introduces the concept of a WiNet Service Set or WSS which is a named group of devices that share a security relationship. WSS was designed to make it easy to form secure ad hoc networks where devices can discover each other and form securely encrypted links.

WiNet includes the concept of a bridge which is similar to a Wi-Fi access point. Bridges can easily link to Ethernet, Wi-Fi or any IEEE 802.3 networking technology. There can be several bridges in a WSS, but the usage case for WiNet is expected to be primarily for ad hoc networking.

To date there has been very little ad hoc networking. Ad hoc networking is where devices come together and assign themselves 'ad hoc' network addresses rather than rely on a managed server to keep track of internet addresses.

Conventional wisdom has been that WiFi will be included in mobile phones, but as WiMax and other high speed digital services allow mobile phones to access the internet, there will be less need for a phone to connect with WiFi for internet access. More likely the mobile phone will become the internet access point for devices such as digital cameras and media players that come into close range of the phone. This is called a Personal Area Network or PAN.

WiFi could operate as the basis for a PAN, but WiFi makes some assumptions about power management that make it difficult for a mobile phone to act as an internet access point. With WiFi the access point is assumed to be powered, and it constantly beacons. This allows client devices to sleep until the access point announces that the client either has data ready or a transmit opportunity.

WiNet is a true peer to peer network. All active devices are required to beacon, that is announce their presence in a beacon group. Sleeping devices can miss the beacon period for several seconds before they are considered disconnected from the WSS. Obviously all devices can't go to sleep at once. Somebody has to stick around and beacon so that everyone can keep their clocks synchronized. This node is called the anchor. WiNet devices advertise in their beacon whether they have limited power on not. If a mains-powered device is available, it will become the anchor. If not responsibility to be anchor will be shared among peers and transferred every few minutes to another node.

WiNet was designed from first principles to run in a battery powered environment. It is premature to speculate about what sorts of applications will develop for WiNet based PANs, but it is clear that WiNet provides a firm foundation for extending internet connectivity to battery powered devices that can 'play well' with mobile phones.

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