Blogs and News Articles

Wi-Fi Alliance Peers into the Future with Ad Hoc Replacement | Wi-Fi Net News

Wi-Fi Gets Even Better | Wi-Fi Planet

Wi-fi to get a whole lot better | BBC News – Technology

Wi-Fi Direct : un sérieux concurrent pour le Bluetooth | DegroupNews (France)

From the horse’s mouth

http://www.wi-fi.org/news_articles.php?f=media_news&news_id=909

My comments

A while ago, I had mentioned in my blog about Intel and Ozmo designing chipsets that support a Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n) personal area network. As well, Microsoft had built support for this kind of activity in to Windows 7 so the operating system can manage these networks if the computer’s chipset has inherent support for this. Now, the Wi-Fi Alliance are defining the “Wi-Fi Direct” standard that allows the establishment of these personal-area networks. They have also said that the “Wi-Fi Direct” personal-area network can be catered for on some existing equipment through the use of a driver or firmware update downloaded from the manufacturer’s site.

Wi-Fi Personal-Area Network concept diagram

A Wi-Fi personal-area network is based around a computer, typically a laptop general-purpose computer, providing a single low-power Wi-Fi service set for a small number of devices while being able to link with an existing Wi-Fi service set using the same Wi-Fi networking chipset. The computer is essentially acting as though it is a wireless router with a Wi-Fi backhaul.

One main near-term benefit of operating a Wi-Fi personal-area network is to use a Wi-Fi-enabled device that doesn’t have the full screen, keyboard and Web browser, like a digital camera or Internet radio at most wireless hotspots which typically require you to establish your session through a Web page. Similarly, you can do network-based activities like transfer files, make your music library available to your DLNA-capable media equipment or engage in multi-player multi-machine gaming while using a public Wi-Fi network like a wireless hotspot.

The main benefit of this method beyond using the classic “Ad-hoc” mode that is part of the 802.11a/b/g/n standards. The “ad-hoc” setup often provided poor security and was very unstable, especially if it was being used to transfer large amounts of data like files between colleagues’ laptop computers.

This technology has also been designed to suit all classes of network deployment, ranging from home and small-business networks to large corporation and government networks. The needs of a large corporation or government department with sensitive intellectual assets have been taken care of including the ability for the access points in these networks to detect Wi-Fi Direct networks and, where policy dictates, to shut down these networks. There is only one security fear that I have in that the technology could be used to create an “evil-twin” rogue access point at a wireless hotspot. The way I would mitigate this problem would be to limit the power of a Wi-Fi Direct network and give hotspots the ability to detect these networks. Further still, I would support the use of SSL-style verification mechanisms being part of the SSID beacons in enterprise and hotspot networks as mentioned in my article on keeping the WiFi public hotspot industry safe.

Some of the computing press see the technology as a competitor to Bluetooth especially when it comes to linking devices with general-purpose computers. This is although Bluetooth have established small-size low-power chipsets for integration into peripheral devices like headsets and mice. It may also be seen as a chance for companies to work on low-power small-size Wi-Fi radio chips for use in these kind of devices, which can also benefit devices that deal with Wi-Fi on a LAN perspective like Internet-enabled consumer electronics.

Also, if the pundits see that this technology is going to work for human-interface devices (keyboards, mice, remote controls, game controllers, etc) and similar applications, they need to have this concept developed and proven across an IP subnet. This is because Wi-Fi is simply being used as one of many physical network media for IP networks; and there haven’t been any device classes and application-layer protocols established for human-interface devices, sensors and similar applications to operate across these networks.

Once this technology is worked out properly, I would see Wi-Fi Direct being an enabler for network activities involving Internet-based consumer electronics or working alongside a colleague rather than being another wireless medium for keyboards and mice.

http://jviptv.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/cisco-rovi-stb-2009/

Previously, if you wanted extra broadcast content for your television experience, you would have to subscribe to a cable or satellite pay-TV service which would provide many channels of content for a monthly fee. This hasn’t pleased many people because, if they wanted particular sports fixtures or good-quality TV content, they had to subscribe to packages filled with a lot of channels they didn’t really want.

Additional content was available through collectable videocassettes or DVDs; or lately through content-provider Websites which you had to view through a computer.

Increasingly, the broadband Internet service with its content-streaming and file-sharing abilities has opened up a new path for independent broadcast or on-demand video content and led towards “over-the-top” video services.

What is an “over-the-top” video service?

An “over-the-top” video service is an IP-based video service provided in a manner primarily independently of established broadcast TV infrastructure. The customer doesn’t have to sign up with a cable or satellite pay-TV service to benefit from the content. The reception arrangement is typically a set-top box, PVR or IP-enabled TV that is connected to the Internet via the home network. In most cases, especially PVRs and IP-enabled TVs, they will have a built-in digital broadcast tuner that is pitched at receiving free-to-air TV channels or, at the most, the equivalent of basic-tier cable TV.

These services had started out with Web-based services like Netflix, Hulu, Blockbuster Video and similar “video-on-demand” platforms being made available to network media adaptors and “personal-TV-service” devices like Tivo. These services typically provided either pay-per-view or “download-to-own” content, usually encompassing cinema feature movies or television serials. Lately, there has been the arrival of Sky Angel who have set up an IP-based streamed-channel collection based around Christian-focused family-friendly entertainment.

What paths could this open up

These services could open up the concept of “boutique television” which is about a supplementary-TV service providing “only what you want” without paying for “what you don’t want”. In the context of broadcast content, the viewer groups that would be touched would include families who want “clean wholesome entertainment”, ethnic groups who want content in their own language and culture, people interested in sports that aren’t covered in the country they reside in like AFL football or cricket, and those of us who like good-quality television content. As far as on-demand content goes, these programs could open an alternative to hiring DVD from the local Video-Ezy, provide a highly-strung catch-up TV service for people who follow TV serials, amongst other things.

Similarly it could allow content providers like established free-to-air TV networks to offer subscription-TV services and content without being limited by the dominant owners of cable and satellite-TV infrastructure. This was more so when, in Australia, Foxtel (the dominant pay-TV provider in Australia) made it very difficult for the Seven Network to establish a subscription-driven premium TV channel. This had led to a long drawn-out legal dispute and even broke down relations between both services with such behaviour as Foxtel not rebroadcasting the Seven Network to subscriber households that receive their service directly off the satellites; and Seven not providing programme data for Foxtel’s on-screen electronic programme guide.

What needs to be done

Most implementations require the use of a set-top box loaded with specific software, including a content directory in the case of broadcast services. There is the likelihood of a worsening problem if a household likes many different “over-the-top” video services, especially boutique-TV services, where there will be multiple set-top boxes in the AV rack.

One way to go about this would be to establish a standard for provisioning of broadcast and on-demand IP-TV services to subscribers. This could be based around DLNA standards and require at the most a common browser plugin or lightweight application to handle provisioning-manifest files that may be sent by email or downloaded from the service’s Website. As well, the industry needs to act upon content protection / conditional access standards like DTCP-IP when protecting premium services; and accept the idea of covering all receiving devices in a household under one subscription. This is in a similar way to how the TV licence is handled in the UK where ONE TV licence covers all TV-receiving devices in the same household.

How could this affect the TV landscape

For production studios, content providers and “boutique” channels, the “over-the-top” video services will provide these groups, especially small operations, with more opportunities to expose their content. This is in contrast to content being judged on whether it will suit the mainstream audience of a particular market, which is becoming more so in a highly-consolidated highly-controlled market like the USA.

For consumers, it will provide an increased choice of television that gives value for money as in “pay only for what you want to watch without paying for what you don’t want to watch”. This is more so in difficult financial times where one needs to factor in such events as the possible loss of their job or business and need to save as much as possible.

There is an increased likelihood of the commercial TV establishment being threatened by the concept of viewers taking back control of their viewing and the content produced “outside of the establishment” becoming available to most people. They, especially the cable-TV companies and similar companies who run pay-TV services on the same bandwidth, may try to block data streams associated with this new form of video content or implement traffic-shaping rules to Internet service. This would have these companies fall foul of “net-neutrality” rules that are established by governments. On the other hand, these services could force the TV establishment to “lift their game” with content production.

Conclusion

Once “over-the-top” video content comes to your home network and your TV set, it could become a watershed moment for TV broadcasting.

Buffalo ships world’s first USB 3.0 hard disk drives this month | Engadget

My comments on this article

What has pleased me about Buffalo releasing the world’s first USB 3.0 external hard disk is that they have taken a “systems” approach to getting the standard off the ground. This is through supplying a USB 3.0 PCI-Express interface card for use with recent-issue desktop computers with a vacant PCI-Express x1 slot on the motherboard as well as, of course, the necessary cables.

It may appeal to those of us who like to take apart and put together desktop computers a lot and are likely to build “homebrew” server systems. But wait for 6 months to a year and the USB 3.0 sockets will appear as part of the next generation of motherboards and be integral to laptop computers and other small-form-factor systems.

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Nobel honours ‘masters of light’

Fibre optic pioneers to share Nobel physics prize – The Local (Sweden)

My comments on these Nobel Prizes

These Nobel Prize awards have become a celebration of two major technologies that are part of our everyday IT and lives

Charge-Coupled Device image sensor

One award went to Willard Boyle and George Smith who had developed the charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor which has become a watershed technology for image and movie capture to electronic media. Previously, video cameras were tube-based, which made them heavy, power-efficient beasts which were out of the financial reach of most of us and were more fragile. The chip-based solid-state image sensor had led initially to lightweight video cameras and camcorders that most of us could afford. This image sensor has also led to a cost-effective version based on a CMOS design allowing for cheaper digital and video cameras. It also led to the digital-camera revolution which allowed us to grab images on a reusable electronic media rather than film and also ushered in the webcam.

Now every video or digital camera that you encounter in your lives is based on that technology, whether it be the digital camera that you can take many snaps with, the closed-circuit camera in the shopping centre or freeway, or the TV cameras that bring us the vision that appear on the TV screens each day and night. This technology has assisted with astronomy in the form of the Hubble Space Telescope yielding the highly-detailed images of space and cameras sent out as part of the space missions to Mars.

Fibre Optics

The other award went to Charles Kao who had developed the concept of fibre optics, which is the transmission of light over a glass fibre. This technology initially was about decorative lighting but had yielded great advances in telecommunications and medicine.

In the medical field, this technology allowed for endoscopy which permitted improved diagnosis, especially of the digestive tract. It also allowed for “keyhole surgery” which allowed operations to be performed without the need to cut large incisions in the patient.

The telecommunications and IT sector benefited from the concept of using these fibres to transmit large data over long distances. This technology even is the backbone of the Internet and is becoming a solution for moving large amounts of data to the end-user’s home or business premises in the form of optical-fibre broadband services.

The technology is also being used in the AV sector to transmit digital audio between devices like DVD players and home-theatre receivers. It is because of the ability to avoid ground loops and other interference traps between the components.

Conclusion

At least the Nobel Prize is being used as a tool for recognizing these technologies that are part of the connected lifestyle.

Introduction

Now that the 802.11n high-bandwidth wireless-network standard has been declared a final standard, the price of 802.11n-compatible wireless-network hardware will come down to more affordable levels. This will lead to you considering upgrading your wireless network to 802.11n whenever the time is right to renew your home-network IT hardware.

The 802.11n access point

This works in a different manner to the 802.11a/b/g access points we are so used to. Basically, these units use a “multiple in, multiple out” methodology with “front-end diversity”. They will typically have two or three aerials with each aerial serving a particular transceiver. Some units may have an aerial serving a receiver as well as the two aerials serving two transceivers. It is totally different from “antenna diversity” which is used on most 802.11b/g routers and access points, where one transceiver works with two aerials, choosing whichever has the best signal strength.

These access points and the network client devices that connect to them also make use of “constructive multipath” to improve their quality of reception.This is different from the “destructive multipath” often experienced with FM radio and analogue television. Here, signals picked up as reflected signals are mixed with signals received by line-of-sight and “worked out” as a data stream.

The premium-priced 802.11n access points will be typically dual-band in which they can work on the existing 2.4GHz band or the newer 5GHz band. Some of this equipment may be able to work on both bands, as though there are two access points in one box.

Access Point Types

Single Band

These access points use a single access point that is set up to work on one band, typically 2.4GHz, but some of them work on 5GHz as an “add-on” access point.

Dual Band, Single Radio

These access points are like a single-band access point but can be set by the user to work on either 2.4GHz or 5GHz, but not both of the bands.

Dual Band, Dual Radio

These access points, sometimes described as “simultaneous dual-band”, are effectively two 802.11n access points in one box with one working on 2.4GHz and the other working on 5GHz.

Access Point Operating Modes

Primary Operating Modes

A typical 802.11n access point can be configured to work in one of two primary operating modes – a “compatibility” mode or an “N-only” mode.

Compatibility Mode

This mode, known as Mixed Mode or G-compatible mode allows 802.11g wireless network hardware to work from the same access point alongside 802.11n equipment. The limitation with this mode is that the wireless network works to a “worst-case” scenario with throughput that doesn’t hit the standards for an 802.11n segment. You will still have the larger coverage and service reliability with the 802.11n equipment and this benefit may pass through to 802.11g equipment

N-only Mode

This mode allows the access point to work only with 802.11n equipment and gives the equipment full wireless throughput as well as the full reliability of the standard.

Wideband vs Standard Channels

802.11n access points can run their channels as either “standard” 20MHz channels or 40MHz wideband channels which can yield higher throughput. The wideband channels also make use of a “standard” channel as a “base” channel for the double-width channel.

The preferred method of operation is that a 2.4GHz access point works on “standard” channels and most such access points will be set to have this kind of behaviour by default. But you can run these access points on the wideband channels with the limitation of poorer compatibility with 802.11g devices. If you are running a 2,4GHz access point in a manner to be compatible with regular 802.11g devices, it would be a good idea to stick to “standard” channels. If you are running 5GHz access points, you can get away with using the wideband channels and I would prefer setting up a 5GHz 802.11n extended-service-set to work this way.

The number of streams a device can handle

An 802.11n wireless device will typically be rated as being a single-stream, dual-stream or multiple-stream device. This relates to how many streams of data the wireless device can handle. All Wireless-N (802.11n) access points and routers will typically be either a dual-stream type or a multiple-stream type in the case of premium devices. Similarly, laptops with integrated Wireless-N capability; and add-on Wireless-N products will typically be dual-stream devices.

The main class of devices that will handle only one stream will be primarily-battery-powered devices like smartphones, WiFi VoIP phones, and WiFi-enabled digital cameras / portable media players because the single-stream ability won’t be intensive on these devices’ internal battery resources. Similarly, the idea of a single-stream Wireless-N network interface will also appeal to applications where size or cost do matter.

Other points to know

Best practice with dual-band equipment

If you are running dual-band equipment, especially dual-band dual-radio equipment, it would be a good idea to use the 5GHz band as N-only mode, while 2.4GHz works as compatibility mode. If you are running dual-band single-radio equipment, you will need to use older 2.4GHz equipment to run an 802.11g service set with the dual-band single-radio equipment on 5GHz N-only mode.

Use of aftermarket antennas

You can use external aftermarket antennas (aerials) with 802.11n equipment as long as all of the antennas are of the same type. This may work well if you replace the omnidirectional whip aerials with stronger omnidirectional ones. Then you may have to space the aerials further apart for the front-end diversity to work properly The main difficulty you will have is using directional aerials, in which case you may need to look for directional aerials optimised for 802.11n setups.

As well, if you are running dual-band dual-radio equipment, you will have to use antennas that can work on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands rather than antennas optimised for the 2.4GHz bands.

Shaping your 802.11n wireless network – the ideal upgrade path for your wireless network

I will be talking of WiFi networks that work on a particular technology and with a unique SSID and security parameter set as an “extended-service-set”. This allows me to cover setups where there are multiple access points working with a particular configuration.

You may be tempted to construct a multiple-access-point extended-service-set with an 802.11g access point and an 802.11n access point working in “compatibility mode” connected by an Ethernet or HomePlug wired backbone. The simple answer is "don’t”. You will end up with your wireless network having reliability problems especially as devices roam between the different access points and switch operating modes.

The simple answer would be to run different extended-service-sets with at least one access point for each WiFi technology. They are set up with different ESSIDs (such as SSID for the G cloud and SSID-N for the N cloud) with the wireless stations choosing between the different ESSIDs. The only thing they can have that is common is the WPA security parameters, and a common wired backbone which can be Gigabit Ethernet or HomePlug AV.

This could be achieved through deploying an existing 802.11g router that is set up as an access point and working on “SSID-G” and one channel while a newer 802.11n router working as the Internet “edge” is set to “N-only: or “compatibility” mode in the case of a single-band 2.4GHz unit, and set to “SSID-N” and a different channel.

As you evolve your wireless network, you may want to work towards establishing a 2.4GHz 802.11n “compatibility-mode” extended-service-set and a 5GHz N-only extended-service-set. You then upgrade your portable computers to work with dual-band 802.11n network interfaces or add dual-band 802.11n network adaptors to your existing equipment. The 5GHz extended-service-set will come in handy for high-throughput activity like video streaming and related applications while the 2.4GHz extended service set can work well with voice applications, smartphones, Internet radio and similar applications where throughput doesn’t matter.

If you are upgrading a wireless hotspot to 802.11n, it would be preferable to make sure your hotspot’s extended-service-set is on the 2.4GHz band and operating in “compatibility” mode so that customers can still use their existing 802.11g hardware on the wireless hotspot.

Some issues may occur with dual-band networks where the 5GHz extended-service-set may not cover the same area as the 2.4GHz extended-service-set. This is because the 5GHz band is of a higher frequency and shorter wavelength than the 2.4GHz band and is best demonstrated by AM radio stations being receivable at a longer distance compared to FM radio stations. It can be rectified by deploying a dual-band single-radio access point working on the 5GHz band in to the 5GHz extended-service-set as an infill access point.

Conclusion

Once you understand the 802.11n wireless standard and what it can and cannot do, you can make sure that you get the best out of the new standard while gaining the maximum mileage out of the existing wireless-network hardware.

This series of short video lessons produced by Telstra gives a very good explanation about social networking sites like Facebook and how to use these sites sensibly. They are mainly pitched at older folk who most likely don’t understand these sites and describe a Facebook profile in a similar way to your home that you had just moved in to.

They talk of the primary concepts such as

• adding online friends such as Facebook Friends to your profile
• uploading pictures to your profile and what pictures you should upload
• use of the social network site’s applications like FunWall, FarmTown, the many Facebook Gifts application and online “love meters”
• joining online groups and “fan pages” within the social network and
• tuning your privacy settings for your needs

If you are viewing the videos from this blog post, there will be a series of video thumbnails at the bottom of the video screen when the videos finish.

This will augment some of the posts that I have put up in my blog about getting the most out of Facebook and other social networks.

Facebook | Fighting the Battle Against Money Scams

My comments and further explanation on this topic

This article in Facebook’s blog touches on a very common risk that can affect any social-networking site and user community. It mainly talks of the “money scam” which is really similar to the common “Nigerian” or “419” scam that many of us have encountered through the spam that comes in our mailboxes.

In the social-network version, a fraudster “sets up shop” on a Facebook or similar site and takes over a user’s account. They will then message the user’s social-network friends claiming that they are in another land and out of money. This will be via a message on the Wall or a direct message via the Inbox or a Chat session. They will typically require the friends to wire a huge amount of money to the scammer.

If you do receive one of these kinds of contacts from your friends via a social-networking Website, make a call by regular telephone to the number that you know the friend (or a person that you are sure knows them well such as their spouse / partner, child or employer) can answer such as their home or mobile number. Here, I would prefer to make a voice call rather than use text messaging. Then you can ascertain whether it is the friend who is in need or simply a scam taking place. As well, confirm the situation with mutual contacts. If the friend’s account is being compromised, tell them to change the account’s password immediately. Sometimes, companies like Facebook can lock down a compromised account and e-mail the account holder about what is going on. Then they advise the account holder to change their password immediately.

As well, know what resources do exist in your social-networking service for reporting compromised user accounts and be ready to identify “out-of-character” messages, links or pictures posted up on these services by your friends. For Facebook users, the link is http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=420 .