With WiMAX and Wi-Fi and fixed and mobile and 3G and 4G and LTE and LMDS, just defining “wireless” is a headache- inducing chore. The need to clarify is important enough, however, that the IEEE Communications Society (IEEE ComSoc) has launched a Web site to provide detailed information, ongoing updates and free online resources for those seeking Wireless Communications Engineering Technologies (WCET) certification.
“It’s current generation (wireless),” said Celia Desmond, IEEE WCET program director. “Wi-Fi and WiMAX are all part of it and it could be mobile but it doesn’t have to be mobile because satellite is also a part of it. Satellite could be an access technology but it could be a backbone technology; WiMAX is generally an access technology (and) Wi-Fi is an access technology. All of those are part of the picture that we’re looking at.”
Even for professionals accustomed to the rigors and convolutions of a certification program, wireless is a beast. The Web site will hopefully tame that beast a bit, Desmond said, by providing information that even includes, for a price, a practice certification exam.
“Some of the information, like a handbook, has been available since May,” she said. “The first exam is not until September (so) this allows the communications to get out to a broader audience.”
Just including the 380,000 IEEE members around the world, that audience is plenty broad. The program, though, is “targeted to anybody who is interested in having certification. They don’t have to be a member or know anything about IEEE at all other than there is a certification there and that’s of some value.”
The value, she said, is mainly in keeping professionals focused not only on their areas of expertise but how those areas might impact others that may even seem unrelated.
“The certification is to get people to have a level of knowledge across the board for all the different areas,” she said.