Recently an IEEE discussion about a new business model for using WiFi to off-load cellular data traffic was posted. The idea that the cellular operators want to substantially off-load such traffic to WiFi speaks to their powerful need to find more capacity for the explosion of cell traffic which now is mostly data and video.

Using WiFi in yet another context gave us the idea that given the enormous shipped volume of WiFi chips and the resulting cost reduction, and the huge knowledge base for embedding WiFi, it may well become much more of a generally applicable wireless system, like Ethernet has become for wired systems. Just as Ethernet continually increased its speed to 10Gbps and beyond, used for both wired and optical systems over increasing distances, so is WiFi providing wireless broadband access well beyond its original context of short range (home and office) networks. Long distance rural systems and meshes come to mind.

Even more interesting is the reality that in the off-load application, WiFi is also a “disruptive” technology to the backhaul business. Through off-load, WiFi will reduce traffic demand on backhaul capacity just as new, high density 60GHz and E-Band backhaul systems start deploying. This will emerge because even though WiFi has lower performance (bandwidth), it has very much lower costs. Thus, it is disruptive in the sense defined by Harvard Prof. Clayton Christiansen who first analyzed the disruptive phenomenon. Disruptive technologies provide good-enough quality at really low prices. MP3 immediately exemplifies this idea.