Whither Wireless? Future Directions in Mobility

Wireless technology, including mobile phones, WiFi-enabled laptops, and Bluetooth-connected devices, has become entrenched in today's society, and we can expect this technology and its mobile applications to continue to evolve in the future. But what direction will this evolution take? The purpose of this paper is to look into the future and forecast where wireless is heading, recognizing full well that making such forecasts is fraught with danger. This paper first places the rise of wireless in an historical context relative to other important information technologies of the past. It then reviews mobile issues first presented in 2002 and examines where these issues stand today. The paper next looks at other views about the future of wireless. With this background the paper makes six forecasts about the future of wireless networks, mobile phones, wireless communications standards, wireless security, ultimate commerce, and the wireless market. Drawing on these forecasts, the paper describes several research questions that could yield valuable results in the wireless arena. The paper concludes with one final forecast.