ge of devices. It is a good idea to stay away from permanent equipment that will become obsolete soon. You should try not to choose products that limit your ability to change or upgrade in the future, and you should try to ensure that the infrastructure stays invisible. You should consider a number of other points going forward, as more and more intelligence surrounds you and becomes self-aware in an attempt to serve you even better: Who is in control in the smart house? Does the house's behavior act consistently with the image you would like to project? Does the house now have a personality of its own? What happens when the power goes off? More importantly, what happens when the house crashes? Do you get locked in forever? These are issues we will resolve in time. Security is going to be quite important to all of this, and although security solutions do not abound, there has been signifi- cant progress in the areas of encryption, authentication, and key exchange. Much additional development is being done in this area, including the use of biometrics. This page intentionally left blank Wireless Communications This page intentionally left blank Chapter Wireless Communications Basics Most people consider mobility to be one of their most cherished abilities and rights. In fact, what do we take away from those who have been deemed injurious to their fellow humans? Mobility. The freedom afforded by mobility is very precious. One area in which we like to exercise our freedom of mobility is at work, and the mobile workforce is growing all the time. Market researchers and industry ana- lysts expect the number of mobile workers to continue to grow worldwide. Given this trend, a company's performance and productivity will increasingly depend on understanding, managing, controlling, and securing technologies and tools that enable its mobile workers. Included in this mix of solutions are both remote and mobile network access, enabling connectivity to enterprise networks, applications, and data while away from the office, usi