354 Int.. Mobile Communications, ol. 2. No 4. 2004 Wireless in the enterprise: requirements, solutions and research directions Department of Computer Information Systems Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA Fax:4046513842 E-mail: uvarshney @ gsu edu Alisha Malloy Department of Management Information Systems University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA E-mail: malloy @cba. ua.edu Punit Ahluwalia Department of Computer Information Systems Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA Radhika jain Department of Computer Information Systems Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA E-mail: rain@ cis. gsu.edu Abstract: In the last few years, wireless networking has seen considerable interest among service providers, users, vendors and content developers Significant advances have been made in devices, applications, middleware and networking infrastructure. With wireless becoming such a mainstream technology, there is a growing interest in increasing its usage in the enterprise environment. Before wireless solutions can be deployed widely, the requirements of the enterprise environment and capabilities and limitations of wireless technologies must be addressed. In this study, we analyse and discuss the enterprise requirements and how such requirements can be met by the current and emerging wireless infrastructure. In particular, the major requirements are dependability, security, coverage, ease-of-use, devices, network interoperability and cost. Some of these requirements are addressed in the paper, and we also present a dependable, secure and scalable solution for the emerging wireless enterprise. Since this is an emerging area, we present approaches to conduct research in wi Keywords: wireless technologies: security; dependability: enterprise opyright o 2004 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd354 Int. J. Mobile Communications, Vol. 2, No. 4, 2004 Copyright © 2004 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Wireless in the enterprise: requirements, solutions and research directions Upkar Varshney* Department of Computer Information Systems, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA Fax: 404 651 3842 E-mail: uvarshney@gsu.edu *Corresponding author Alisha Malloy Department of Management Information Systems, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA E-mail: amalloy@cba.ua.edu Punit Ahluwalia Department of Computer Information Systems, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA E-mail: punit@gsu.edu Radhika Jain Department of Computer Information Systems, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA E-mail: rjain@cis.gsu.edu Abstract: In the last few years, wireless networking has seen considerable interest among service providers, users, vendors and content developers. Significant advances have been made in devices, applications, middleware and networking infrastructure. With wireless becoming such a mainstream technology, there is a growing interest in increasing its usage in the enterprise environment. Before wireless solutions can be deployed widely, the requirements of the enterprise environment and capabilities and limitations of wireless technologies must be addressed. In this study, we analyse and discuss the enterprise requirements and how such requirements can be met by the current and emerging wireless infrastructure. In particular, the major requirements are dependability, security, coverage, ease-of-use, devices, network interoperability and cost. Some of these requirements are addressed in the paper, and we also present a dependable, secure and scalable solution for the emerging wireless enterprise. Since this is an emerging area, we present several possible approaches to conduct research in wireless enterprise. Keywords: wireless technologies; security; dependability; enterprise requirements; wireless solutions