Evolution of the Wireless PAN and LAN standards

In the forthcoming fourth-generation (4G) all-IP mobile communications era, apart from the cellular/mobile networks, Wireless Personal Area Networks (PANs) and Local Area Network (LAN) are expected to fulfil the "anywhere and anytime" ubiquitous services' requirement. Users will request forming "ad hoc" personal area networks to enable personal devices to autonomously inter-communicate, while Wireless LANs will enable communication with colleagues at work, at conferences, at "hot spots", at home, or on the move. In parallel, advanced sensor devices of the surrounding environment will recognize the user and provide for added value services. In order to achieve this, open standard interfaces and interoperability between devices and manufacturers are mandatory. In this paper, we describe the most important, mature Wireless PAN and LAN standards, and introduce some evolving new standards.