Listening to a debate on the best wireless communication standard for home networks is like combining the World Wrestling Federation with the National Hot Rod Association: Both sides hurl insults at each other while boasting how fast they are.
Plus, it isn't clear who's going to win.
The Federal Communications Commission's recent decision to grant more bandwidth to one side of the ring –- the Home Radio Frequency Working Group, which includes Proxim, Motorola and Siemens –- only made for an uglier matchup that still isn't close to being decided.
Now that Home Radio Frequency Working Group's bandwidth has been quintupled from 1 MHz to 5 MHz, it can deliver home services at the same rate as its opponents who create "Wi-Fi" products that support another standard -- 802.11b.
By increasing the bandwidth, the HomeRF group will be able to increase the delivery of its services from 1.6 megabits per second (Mbs) to over 10 Mbs, matching Wi-Fi's speed.
In other words, the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance, which includes members such as Apple, Lucent Technologies and 3Com, can no longer say HomeRF is inferior because it's slower.
Then again, a WECA spokesman has challenged the HomeRF group to a "drag race."
The arguments leading up to the FCC's ruling two weeks ago were "a pretty nasty battle," said IDC research analyst Schelley Olhava. "I heard people compare it to a religious war.
"We thought some of the issues would clear up with the FCC ruling," Olhava added, "but the picture is really cloudy now."
Both the 802.11b and HomeRF standards allow consumers to link multiple home computers and laptops together with a single wireless Internet connection.
The biggest difference between the standards lies in how data is transmitted. HomeRF relies on a frequency-hopping system where signals "hop" around a channel to send packets of data. The 802.11b system uses direct sequence -- or a fat channel -- to input larger amounts of data.
"(Wi-Fi's) methodology doesn't work well for voice calls," said Ben Manny, chairman of the Home Radio Frequency Working Group. "HomeRF has a different method for voice calls, where there is a circuit set up between two radios."
WECA grudgingly admits HomeRF has the upper hand with the quality of voice calls. But it still isn't convinced a frequency-hopping system can transmit data faster than direct sequence.
"What we'd like to see is a drag race," said WECA spokesman Brian Grimm. "We don't want it to be just us saying ('we're faster'). We'd like to see testing."
The only problem with that is current HomeRF products on the market run on the old bandwidth and speed.
The interesting part of the fight will be when HomeRF's new products, which are expected to include video and audio teleconferencing, hit the stores next year.
Analysts agree the HomeRF standard would have been trampled by Wi-Fi if the FCC hadn't granted it additional bandwidth. But it's a serious contender in this space, which home networking and broadband research firm Parks Associates pegs at $6.4 billion next year.
Not only is the quality of voice calls higher in HomeRF products, but they also are cheaper.
"HomeRF does come in a little cheaper than 802.11b and one reason for that is initially 802.11b networks require control points -– the point where peripherals connect to the network and control traffic," said Brian Kanny, an analyst with Parks Associates.
To use a Wi-Fi certified product, Kanny said consumers would need to buy a "control point." He said that Lucent Technologies' ORiNOCO line, for example, costs $329.99.
"The 802.11 standard was originally considered appropriate only for the enterprise network for one reason -- because it was too expensive for the consumer market," Kanny said.
"Apple Computer, when it released its AirPort system with its iBook, designed the product so it would hit appropriate consumer price points -- $99 for a PC card and $299 for a control point," he said. "Apple drew a line in the sand, in a manner of speaking, showing that this technology could work for the residential market."
Because WECA has a strong foothold in the enterprise space, there is the possibility that customers may want to transfer their same office services to their homes. Products that rely on one standard cannot work within the other standard's infrastructure.
But a few big companies aren't betting on it.
Intel, for example, is a member of the WECA and HomeRF groups because it believes that 802.11b works best in the office and HomeRF works best in the place its name implies –- at home.
"There are people that are advocating one technology as a holistic solution," said Intel spokesman Tom Potts. "We don't think that's the case. Each of these technologies have significant advantages and we are going to market our products in that dynamic."
