As 802.11 security improvements spur broad enterprise deployment, watch for WLAN administration, monitoring, trouble-shooting and quality of service to become bigger hot buttons in 2006.

VoIP over wireless will drive replacement of older, autonomous APs with new centrally-administered QoS-aware wireless switches.

Next generation MIMO gear will continue making a splash in residential WLANs, but enterprises will wait for clear industry convergence on a singular 802.11n technology. Meanwhile, wireless mesh networks will enjoy increased popularity in the great outdoors, serving as the foundation for many metropolitan area Wi-Fi deployments.

Finally, US carriers may dabble with dual mode 802.11-3G phones, but seamless roaming between wireless LAN and WAN will remain a distant vision.

Lisa Phifer owns Core Competence Inc., a consulting firm specializing in network security and management technology, and she also serves as SearchNetworking.com's wireless networking expert.

View Lisa's full bio, read some of her previously answered Q&As or send her your own wireless networking question.

This was first published in January 2006

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