Author: simonmackay

A-DATA launches XPG Dual SSD RAID enclosure – Engadget

My Comments

This enclosure could be useful for two applications where size is important.

One would be to create an SSD + hard disk hybrid disk array for a computer’s main secondary storage. This could allow for an SSD that is small enough for the operating environment (operating system, main applications, etc) and any so-called “work files”  (virtual memory, print queue, hibernate image, system registry, etc)while a 2.5” hard disk can work as a data store.

Another application for this cage would be to set up a 2.5” dual-hard-disk RAID array that can fit inside a 3.5” drive bay. This unit would also please anyone who is building a custom Windows Home Server or Linux network storage system.

The main issue with these enclosures, like MiniITX motherboards, is that they need to be available to the computer hobbyist market. This means having them for general sale through electronics and computer retailers and for sale at computer fairs. This is more so in Melbourne, Australia where the Sunday computer fair is becoming part of the hobbyist computer scene.

Over this coming year, there will be product launches for MoCA-based home-network devices that are to be sold through mass-market retail. But this article explains what the new MoCA coaxial home networking technology is about.

What is this MoCA thing all about

MoCA has one thing common to the old coaxial-based local area networks – 10Base2 ThinNet and 10Base5 ThickNet, in that they all use RF-style coaxial cable. But the similarity stops there.

Unlike the old coaxial-cable networks, this network uses the 75-ohm TV-antenna cable commonly used in our homes and offices and can work with an ad-hoc cable layout. This means that you can use splitters and have sockets not having anything plugged in to them which is common with TV-antenna and cable-TV setups.

The reason it is designed to work like this is because the MoCA system is meant to use an existing cable-TV or TV-antenna wiring installation for transporting data. It is also meant to share the cable’s bandwidth with regular analogue and digital TV signals from the cable-TV service or the property’s TV aerial (antenna).

This system will come in to its own with such setups where there are multiple antenna or cable-TV sockets installed around a house to suit the installation of many TVs or an easily-relocatable TV set in different rooms.

Difficult installations

RF amplifier setups, including “active amplifiers” driven by digital-TV set-top boxes will need to have a bypass filter working between 875-1500 MHz. This may be more important with inline booster or hub (distribution) amplifiers rather than headend amplifier setups like TV-aerial masthead amplifiers.

In some cases, you may need to install a 850MHz low-pass filter at the entry point of your TV signal infrastructure such as your TV antenna (aerial) or cable-TV entry cable. This may be to comply with government RF-interference laws or to improve signal quality in a cable-TV setup.

A cable-TV provider or a competent TV-antenna technician can perform any of these modifications listed above if your system needed them.

A MoCA installation won’t work properly on a satellite-TV setup because of the sophisticated nature of these setups. These installations are typically on their own coaxial path which is separate from the broadcast TV-aerial path that is common with satellite as a pay-TV medium. This issue may be more of concern where all of the TV service is being received via satellite such as in rural or remote areas.

As well, most of the MoCA-Ethernet bridge devices come with software which determines the operating frequency and network password, which can come in to use when handling difficult installations. As well, you could set another group of units to work on a different frequency and network password if you want to create a separate MoCA network segment on the same coaxial wiring.

If you are installing MoCA hardware, especially Ethernet-to-coax bridges, on TV-antenna systems in countries which are based on the PAL system like Europe, Australia or New Zealand, you will run in to a problem with the coaxial connectors typically used in these areas for such installations. These countries typically use a “push-in” connector, commonly known as a “PAL connector” or “Belling-Lee connector” for the TV-antenna installation, rather than the screw-on “F-connector” used in North America and other countries based on the NTSC system. This problem can be rectified with the use of connector adaptors that either may be supplied with the hardware if it is sold in any of those countries or can be obtained from a local electronics store. It can also be rectified through the use of cables that have an F-connector on one end and a PAL connector on the other end.

Link Speed Comparison

Where is MoCA suitable for and relevant to

The prime application for MoCA would be multi-room “personal TV” service where there is a set-top box for each TV set in the house. In this setup, the MoCA network is used as a data network and a digital streaming network between the main high-capacity “personal TV” device and other “view-only” set-top boxes or low-capacity “personal TV” devices. This can permit functions like setting up recordings from any TV in the house, viewing recorded content anywhere and moving between TV sets without losing the spot in the content.

It is also relevant to households who have cable Internet and one or more cable-TV points (with or without cable-TV service) in other parts of the house. They can then use the cable-TV infrastructure as a network link to that area of the house.

As a network medium, it works well if there is a significant amount of coaxial-cable infrastructure in place, typically at least 1 socket in at least 2-3 rooms. This reduces the “reach” ability of this “no-new-wires” wired-network medium compared to the power-line-based HomePlug medium.

ASUS and Skype launch dedicated AiGuru SV1 videophone – Engadget

My Comments

Previously, I had talked about the concept of Skype / Windows Live Messenger video conferencing as a tool for communicating with distant relatives. I was even citing a television newscast that was broadcast on the night when I published the article where there was an elderly relative in a care home communicating with their family that was a long distance away with this technology. Think of things like presenting the new baby to Grandma who is living a long way away or simply celebrating Christmas with distant relatives.

This device is one step in delivering Skype’s videophone functionality in a reliable, easy-to-use box that can appeal to technology-shy users who may find using a computer a very daunting task.  Similarly, the Skype or Windows Live Messenger video-conferencing functionality could be ported to a set-top box platform so that it can be implemented in to a set-top box or PVR (“personal TV” device) sold or leased out as part of an advanced TV service. The user then connects a good-quality webcam compliant to the USB Video Device Class so they can use the regular TV set for this kind of video-conferencing.

This kind of setup would definitely appeal to families who want to use it along with the large-screen TV set to celebrate the family occasions over longer distances.

Another form factor that would appeal to this device class would include electronic picture frames that are VoIP-based Skype-compatible speakerphones. The device could be able to work alongside an existing VoIP handset such as a WiFi phone; have a DECT cordless-telephony base so it can work with a digital cordless handset or have an RJ-11 FXS phone socket so it can use a regular telephone as part of a VoIP / videoconferencing system. This form factor would come in handy in the kitchen or on the desktop as an alternative to the orthodox videophone form factor which is based on the desktop telephone.

Broadcom’s New 802.11n Chip Includes Bluetooth and FM

My Comments

I see this design as being increasingly relevant because of the way major electronics manufacturers are building “best of class” personal-electronics devices in all of the device classes (mobile phone, personal digital assistant, personal media player, etc) that they offer such devices in. The main issue that has plagued people who use these devices is the increased likelihood of the device’s battery dying on them when they want to get the best out of the device.

I see this design as a step in the right direction regarding long battery run-time for these devices because, as the article has said,  of integrating the WiFi N, Bluetooth and FM radio circuitry in to the one circuit with improved power consumption. This is certainly important if the device is to be used in a wireless network and with a Bluetooth headset for example.

It also encourages device builders to consider not just Internet-hosted services but network-based services like DLNA-based media server / control / play functionality. Now that this version of the chip integrates low-power FM transmission, this could appeal to the idea of a “music phone” or personal media player with DLNA media play functionality playing music from its own collection or a DLNA network media server through an ordinary FM radio.

At least this chipset will be a step in the right direction for “raising the bar” in personal-electronics design.

A new networking trend that is approaching the small network user is VoIP (Voice Ovr IP). It will typically include IP-based videoconferencing and offer such benefits as free or very low-cost calls, “local number anywhere” and wideband (FM-grade) telephony. Businesses of all scales are moving away from the classic PABX or key system which has its own wiring infrastructure and moving towards an IP-based business telephony system which uses existing local-area-network infrastructure. For them it also reduces the need to rent extra telephone lines for such requirements as inter-location “tie lines”.

The main problem with current VoIP setups is that they are hard to configure. Typically, you have to determine the network configuration for your VoIP service provider and work out particular “dialling plans” such as whether to use VoIP or standard telephone to make a particular call. The other factor you have to work out is which number your VoIP handset rings to. Most of these setups involve awkward interfaces and terms, including remembering certain parameters to be set across multiple devices. In some situations, this kind of work still needs one who has technical knowledge of all things to do with business telephony.

A lot of VoIP service providers have responded to this issue by selling pre-configured VoIP hardware that is locked down to their services. This situation ends up with the hardware being useless if you decide to move to a better deal offered by a competing service provider or decide to expand and evolve the system.

One way of improving the setup is to provide service-plan data packages that can be uploaded to VoIP hardware. This can be useful when it comes to signing up to a new service provider or upscaling the existing VoIP service. Another improvement that can exist could be preset outbound dial plans such as “VoIP for calls other than local & emergency / service”, “VoIP for calls other than emergency / service” or pre-defined “VoIP tie-lines”. These can be selected through a wizard-style interface.

The inbound call plan would be set up through a service-extension map for “direct inward dial” or simple “one-click” options for basic “all-call” setups.

As far as the provisioning of new VoIP telephone extensions goes, VoIP systems should consider use of UPnP and similar IP-based technologies for this purpose. The other issue that also needs to be considered is a standard data package for supplying the extensions (VoIP handsets or analogue telephone adaptors) with the necessary data. This avoids the requiement to have a system that can only work with telephones from a few vendors and can allow innovation in this field. It is more of concern as far as WiFi-based VoIP handsets, including “fixed-mobile convergent” mobile phones, are concerned.

The data packages would be an XML-based configuration file that contains information about SIP / STUN provider details, handset identity details and outbound / inbound dial plans.

Once measures are taken to make VoIP telephony easier to deploy, this can lead to system owners being able to have home and business telephony their way.

ThinkBroadband article on European Commission plan to establish a broadband-Internet universal service obligation in the European Union.

News Links (French-language news sites)

http://www.pcinpact.com/actu/news/41764-neuf-cegetel-opac-triple-play-social.htm PC Impact

http://www.vnunet.fr/news/neuf_cegetel_introduit_sa_fibre_optique_dans_les_hlm_de_paris-2026564 VNUNet 

My comments

)In February 2008, Neuf Cegetel (a French telecommunications provider) along with Office HLM de Paris (the public housing authority in Paris, similar to the Ministry of Housing in Victoria, Australia) have established a universal-access “single-pipe triple-play” service for deployment in areas of Paris that have fibre-optic telecommunications.

This service, which is offered for EUR1 / month tax-exclusive has the provision of:

• 18 channels of regular “free-to-air” digital television programming including high-definition broadcasts provided by the “free-to-air” broadcasters
• 512kbps broadband which is effectively the same standard as most mid-tier ADSL plans currently available in Australia and;
•  a landline telephony service of similar standard to Telstra’s InContact service — can receive incoming calls but cannot make outgoing calls except to emergency and special numbers

delivered over the fibre-optic pipe.

Comments on this service in relevance to the Australian market

From what I see, the 512kbps ADSL service is being considered the bare minimum standard of Internet access in Europe where people in Australia have to call this standard of service a luxury and have to consider 256kbps “fraud-band” Internet service as the “way in” when thinking of broadband. Often this has meant that sole parents and others on very limited income are having to stick to this speed if they want to think of broadband at all; or just simply work with a dial-up Internet connection.

As well, Australian pay-TV providers don’t offer a “FTA-only” deal where you only receive the free-to-air digital TV channels. This may be because of the prevalence of cheap standard-definition DVB-T boxes flooding the market and the DTV service comprising primarily of the FTA channels receivable on regular TV and a handful of supplementary channels that are “spin-offs” of the regular broadcast output. The only areas where such a service may take hold would be customers who live in areas with marginal TV reception and / or customers who rent premises where there is an underperforming TV aerial or simply no TV aerial and may find it hard to get proper digital TV reception.

The kind of landline telephony service that is offered may appeal not just to people on a low income but to share houses where a common telephone may be required just for receiving calls and “emergency fallback”. Typically, the tenants would then maintain prepaid mobile phones for their outgoing calls and for receiving personal calls.

This kind of service provisioning may catch on in Continental Europe where most of the culture is centred around being “for the people” but won’t easily be accepted in cultures like the USA where corporate profits are more important than the needs of the people.