Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
 

What is i-Mode?

I-Mode was the world's first "smart phone" for Web browsing, first introduced in Japan in 1999

What is a hotspot?
A “hotspot” is an 802.11b wireless local area network that enables laptop and handheld users to connect to high speed Internet in public places such as cafes, hotels, waiting rooms, public parks, hotels etc.

What is SDR?
Software defined radio enables a wide range of devices to scan the airwaves for the best possible and most cost-effective method of connectivity

Can I create a wireless connection between two computers?
You can create an ad hoc wireless network between just two computers, each equipped with a Wi-Fi card, (peer to peer networking) This bypasses a central server (extra care has to be taken to prevent virus infection).

What is the difference between circuit and packet switching?
Circuit switching is used by public land line networks and 1G and 2G mobile phones. It provides a limited-duration, continuous point-to-point connection, using a dedicated data channel to transmit and receive data. During the duration of the connection, no one else can use the channel.
Packet switching is used by 2.5G and 3G networks and essentially provides an extension of the Internet. It uses short bursts of information that use a channel only for a short period of time. Wireless devices are assigned an IP-type address and are always on. The path that each packet takes is determined by routers and upon arrival at its destination, individual packets are put back into order by a packet assembler.

Packet switching allows higher call volumes and support for multimedia data applications such as video and photography.

How does packet switching work?
It uses spread-spectrum techniques to spread information over a much greater bandwidth than the original signal. ‘Frequency hopping’ was patented by Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil during World War 2 to steer torpedoes by sending signals over multiple radio frequencies to avoid detection by the enemy. It was rejected by war officials at the time, but taken up in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. 20 years later it was declassified and adopted by the Telecommunications Industry Association.

What is WAP?
The Wireless Application Protocol is a set of communication protocols to standardize the way that wireless devices can be used for internet access.

What is the advantage of using IR wireless?
IR wireless is the use of wireless technology in devices or systems that convey data through infrared (IR) radiation. Unlike radio-frequency (RF) wireless links, IR wireless cannot pass through walls. This seeming disadvantage however does have the advantage of being more private and secure than RF wireless. It is difficult to eavesdrop on a well-engineered, line-of-sight, IR laser communications link.

Used for example in home-entertainment control units, robot control systems etc.

What is the difference between a MNO and a MVNO?
A MNO (Mobile Network Operator) owns a mobile network

A MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) uses a network to rebrand and resell network minutes. Developing innovative services, often appealing to niche markets.
May operate as:
• Classic.. working independently with own switching center and HLR (Home location register)
• Enhanced service provider.. eg. working independently without switching center and HLR
• Enhanced reseller: acting as distribution channel for MNO
• Reseller: reselling subscriptions to customers





What’s coming next?

Automatic Identification (autoID) includes bar codes, smart cards, voice recognition, biomentric technologies (such as retinal scans) optical character recognition and
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

RDID Uses radio waves to automatically identify individual items. It doesn’t require line-of-sight (unlike bar codes) and can identify individual items (unlike bar codes which can only identify only the manufacturer and the product)

(RDIF has been in existence since the Second World War, but up to now has been too expensive and limited for general practical use).

Radio waves travel through most nom-metallic materials so products that are packaged could still be identified.

If tags can be made cheaply enough, it will be possible for every product manufactured throughout the entire world to have its own unique serial number. Mass production has started.

Intelligent software agents: (applications that read the data coming from RDIF tags to automate routine decisions) could then be used, for example, to track every item moving through a supply chain to raise an alert if, for instance, they are not stored at the right temperature or if the item has been tampered with or moved.

Clearly, this has enormous significance. Products which can communicate with reader devices and other products will produce a ‘physically linked world’. Items could report when they are stolen, and signal their exact location.

Shopping carts could automatically bill consumers accounts, interactive televisions could select commercials based on the contents of a home’s refrigerator. Doctors could remotely monitor patients use of prescriptions. Marketing organizations could monitor consumer’s use of products within their home.

Euro banknotes are expected to contain RFID tags by 2005. It seems that the anonymity of cash transactions will soon disappear.

Order and Balance or Invasive Big Brother?
Will there be a public backlash?

What do you think… post your comments in the forum!
 

 







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