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To access the contents, click the chapter and section titles.
Wireless Networking Handbook
According to several sources, the mobile wireless LAN market is projected to hit $200 million in sales by the year 1998. Wireless MAN and WAN sales are expected to generate much more. What will motivate people to invest money in wireless networking? This section answers that question by showing the ways in which wireless networks apply to various vertical markets.
RetailRetail organizations need to order, price, sell, and keep inventories of merchandise. A wireless network in a retail environment enables clerks and storeroom personnel to perform their functions directly from the sales floor. Salespeople are equipped with a pen-based computer or small computing device with bar code reading capability and a wireless link to the stores database. They are then able to complete transactionssuch as price checks, special orders, and inventoryfrom anywhere within the store. WarehousingWarehouse staff must manage the receiving, shipping, and inventory of stored goods. These responsibilities keep the staff mobile. Warehouse operations have traditionally been a paper-intensive and time-consuming environment. An organization, however, can eliminate paper, reduce errors, and decrease the time necessary to move items in and out by giving each warehouse employee a handheld computing device with a bar code scanner interfaced via a wireless network to a warehouse inventory system. Upon receiving an item for storage within the warehouse, a clerk can enter the items nomenclature and part number by keying the information into the database via the handheld device. A forklift operator can then move the item to a storage place and enter the location via a similar handheld device. Thus, the inventory system identifies which items the warehouse contains and where the items are located. As shipping orders enter the warehouse, the inventory system produces a list of the items and their locations. A clerk can view this list from the database via the handheld device and locate the items needed to assemble a shipment. As the clerk removes the items from the storage bins, the database can be updated via the handheld device. HealthcareHealthcare centers, such as hospitals and doctors offices, must maintain accurate records to ensure effective patient care. A simple mistake can cost someones life. As a result, doctors and nurses must record test results, physical data, pharmaceutical orders, and surgical procedures. This paperwork often overwhelms healthier staff, taking up 5070 percent of their time. Doctors and nurses are also extremely mobile, going from room to room caring for patients. The use of electronic patient records, with the ability to input, view, and update patient data from anywhere in the hospital, increases the accuracy and speed of healthcare. This improvement is possible by providing each nurse and doctor with a wireless pen-based computer, coupled with a wireless network to databases that store critical medical information about the patients. A doctor caring for someone in the hospital, for example, can place an order for a blood test by keying the request into her handheld computer. The laboratory will receive the order electronically and dispatch a lab technician to draw blood from the patient. The laboratory will run the tests requested by the doctor and enter the results into the patients electronic medical record. The doctor can then check the results via her handheld appliance from anywhere in the hospital. Real EstateReal estate salespeople perform a great deal of their work away from the office, usually talking with customers at the property being sold or rented. Before leaving the office, salespeople normally identify a few sites to show a customer, print the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) information that describes the property, and then drive to each location with the potential buyer. If the customer is unhappy with that round of sites, the real estate agent must drive back to the office and run more listings. Even if the customer decides to purchase the property, they must both go back to the real estate office to finish paperwork that completes the sale. Wireless networking makes the sale of real estate much more efficient. The real estate agent can use a computer away from the office to access a wireless MLS record. IBMs Mobile Networking Group and Software Cooperation of America, for example, have wireless MLS information available that enables real estate agents to access information about properties, such as descriptions, showing instructions, outstanding loans, and pricing. An agent can also use a portable computer and printer to produce contracts and loan applications for signing at the point of sale. HospitalityHospitality establishments check customers in and out and keep track of needs, such as room service orders and laundry requests. Restaurants need to keep track of the names and numbers of people waiting for entry, table status, and drink and food orders. Restaurant staff must perform these activities quickly and accurately to avoid making patrons unhappy. Wireless networking satisfies these needs very well. Someone can greet patrons at the door and enter their name, size of the party, and smoking preference into a common database via a wireless device. The greeter can then query the database and determine the availability of an appropriate table. Those who oversee the tables also would have a wireless device used to update the database to show whether the table is occupied, being cleaned, or available. After obtaining a table, the waiter will transmit the order to the kitchen via the wireless device, eliminating the need for paper order tickets.
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