Most wireless data sessions occur with fixed users. As many as 50 wireless terminals can work off any access point. Some users report that raw materials in a manufacturing area, for example, can actually absorb the radio signals and limit their reach more than in an installation where an outdoor access point connects users in two or three adjacent buildings. The Medical Center at Ohio State University in Columbus isn't what anyone would call a timid early adopter. The hospital complex, spread out over eight buildings, is using wireless LANs for a host of business applications, such as collecting clinical orders, ordering X-rays, and writing prescriptions.
Nurses use the wireless network to keep track of discharge instructions.
Respiratory-therapy technicians collect and enter orders wirelessly. And the wireless LAN is just starting to be used for registering incoming patients, said Phil Skinner, the medical center's director of telecommunications. The center also walks the wireless walk. Skinner counts about 400 notebook computers outfitted with PC Cards for wireless connectivity. Each of the access points works as a switched Ethernet node, and in turn is wired into the hospital's asynchronous transfer mode backbone.