Mobile infrastructure must catch up with user needs and demands. Ubiquitous mobile computing is all around us. Some time in the next six months, the number of smartphones on earth will pass the number of PCs. As the power and capability of many mobile devices increases, the increased demand on networks. We watch more videos, and listen to music on our phones. Mobile Data Traffic To Grow 300% Globally By 2017 Led By Video, Web Use. Mobile network operators would have had an easier life if it wasn’t for smartphones and the flood of data traffic they initiated, and soon there will be also very many Internet of Things devices. Businesses and consumers want more bandwidth for less money.
More and more network bandwidth is being used by video: Netflix And YouTube Account For Over 50% Of Peak Fixed Network Data In North America. Netflix remains the biggest pig in the broadband python, representing 31.6% of all downstream Internet traffic in North America during primetime. In other parts of the world, YouTube is the biggest consumer of bandwidth. In Europe, YouTube represented of 28.7% of downstream traffic.
Gartner: Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends For 2014 expects that Software Defined Anything is a new mega-trend in data centers. Software-defined anything (SDx) is defined by “improved standards for infrastructure programmability and data center interoperability driven by automation inherent to cloud computing, DevOps and fast infrastructure provisioning.” Dominant vendors in a given sector of an infrastructure-type may elect not to follow standards that increase competition and lower margins, but end-customer will benefit from simplicity, cost reduction opportunities, and the possibility for consolidation. More hype around Software-Defined-Everything will keep the marketeers and the marchitecture specialists well employed for the next twelve months but don’t expect anything radical.
Software defined technologies are coming quickly to telecom operator networks with Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV). Intel and rather a lot of telcos want networks to operate like data centres. Today’s networks are mostly based around proprietary boxes designed to do very specific jobs. It used to be that way in the server business too until cheap generic x86 boxes took most of the market. The idea in NFV is that low-cost x86 servers can successfully many of those those pricey proprietary boxes currently attached to base-stations and other parts of the network. This scents a shift in the mood of the telcos themselves. This change is one that they want, and rather a lot of them are working together to make it happen. So the future mobile network will have more and more x86 and ARM based generic computing boxes running on Linux.
With the introduction of Network Functions Virtualisation base stations will have new functions built into them. For example NSN has announced a mobile edge computing platform that enables mobile base stations to host data and run apps. Think of this as an internet cloud server that’s really close to the customer.
Hybrid Cloud and IT as Service Broker are talked about. Telecom companies and cloud service providers are selling together service packages that have both connectivity and cloud storage sold as single service. Gartner suggests that bringing together personal clouds and external private cloud services is essential.
The type of device one has will be less important, as the personal or public cloud takes over some of the role. The push for more personal cloud technologies will lead to a shift toward services and away from devices, but there are also cases where where there is a great incentive to exploit the intelligence and storage of the client device. Gartner suggests that now through 2018, a variety of devices, user contexts, and interaction paradigms will make “everything everywhere” strategies unachievable, although many would like to see this working.
“Internet of Things” gets more push. The Internet is expanding into enterprise assets and consumer items such as cars and televisions. The concept of “Internet of Things” will evolve a step toward The Internet of Everything. Gartner identifies four basic usage models that are emerging: Manage, Monetize, Operate, Extend. The Internet of Things (IoT) will evolve into the Web of Things, increasing the coordination between things in the real world and their counterparts on the Web. The Industrial Internet of Things will be talked about. IoT takes advantage of mobile devices’ and sensors’ ability to observe and monitor their environments
Car of the future is M2M-ready and has Ethernet. Many manufacturers taking an additional step to develop vehicle connectivity. One such example is the European Commission’s emergency eCall system, which is on target for installation in every new car by 2015.
Smart Home Systems Are on the Rise article tells that most automated technology is found in commercial buildings that feature automated lighting that changes in intensity depending on the amount of sunlight present. Some of these buildings have WiFi incorporated into their lighting systems. There will be new and affordable technology on the market, but people today are still reluctant to bring automation to their homes.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Security is top concern for enterprise access networks, finds Infonetics
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/10/infonetics-security-wlan-access-survey.html
Infonetics Research has released highlights from its 2014 Wireless LAN Strategies and Vendor Leadership: North America Enterprise Survey, which takes an in-depth look at how medium and large organizations are evolving their access networks to deliver wireless connectivity to users.
“Our annual study of WLAN deployments shows that enterprise access networks are undergoing a major transformation, driven by an influx of new devices, greater device diversity, and new application models,” says Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research.
“Not only are companies upgrading and expanding coverage to accommodate their growing needs, they’re also rethinking their approach to network operations and are looking to unify network silos and implement more flexible management approaches,” notes Infonetics’ Machowinski.
Significantly, he adds, “But the biggest change of all over the next year is improving the security of access networks. The last year has seen a number of high profile data breaches, and companies can’t afford to become the next victim.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Oh dear, what speed record: the world’s online traffic fit into the same optical fiber
http://www.tivi.fi/uutisia/huh+mika+nopeusennatys+koko+maailman+nettiliikenne+mahtuisi+samaan+valokuituun/a1023529
Eindhoven University of Technology and the University of Central Florida researchers have made a new data transfer rate world record, says Phys.org .
The investigators were able to transfer data 255 terabytes per second new type of optical fiber.
The new speed record is roughly equivalent to the entire world of network traffic data amount, write Extreme Tech.
255Tbps: World’s fastest network could carry all of the internet’s traffic on a single fiber
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/192929-255tbps-worlds-fastest-network-could-carry-all-the-internet-traffic-single-fiber
How did the researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and University of Central Florida (CREOL) do it? Multi-core fiber, of course! As it stands, the entire internet backbone consists of single-mode glass and plastic fiber.
Multi-core fiber — literally a strand of optical fiber that has multiple cores running along it — allows for multi-mode operation. It has historically been hard (and costly) to make high-quality multi-mode fiber, but it seems those barriers are finally starting to fall. In this case, the TU/e and CREOL researchers used a glass fiber with seven individual cores, arranged in a hexagon. They used spatial multiplexing to hit 5.1 terabits per carrier, and then WDM to squeeze 50 carriers down the seven cores — for a total of 255Tbps. This wasn’t just a short-range laboratory demo, either: The multi-mode fiber link was one kilometer (0.62 miles) long. [Research paper: doi:10.1038/nphoton.2014.243]
Eventually, multi-mode fiber will most likely replace the internet’s current single-mode backbone — but considering such an upgrade would require millions of miles of new multi-core cabling, and lots of new routing hardware to handle the multi-mode connections, we’re talking very long-term here.
255 Terabits/s: Researchers demonstrate record data transmission over new type of fiber
http://phys.org/news/2014-10-terabitss-transmission-fiber.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
IT bosses are afraid of rookie big data know-how but are lagging behind in their own projects,
Less than a third of the companies use predictive analytics, a new report shows. Big data recovery shall be considered a high priority in industrial applications, the Internet penetration.
29 percent of surveyed 250 IT managers to use big data predictive analytics and business optimization. 65 percent of the companies use analytics to its equipment and resources monitoring.
Nearly the same proportion (62 per cent) use of online technologies to collect large volumes of scattered data, such as those remote wind farms and oil pipelines. Two-thirds (66 per cent) of the respondents executives believe their company could lose its market position within three years of failure to comply with the introduction of big data.
Up to 93 per cent of directors assessed the market for new entrants already using big data differentiation. 88 per cent stated analytics to be of paramount importance for their business.
“The industrial internet has thousands of billions of revenue potential new services such as business growth in general”
Accenture and GE conducted inventories in China, France, Germany, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. Were involved in the aviation industry, wind power, power generation and distribution, oil and gas, railways, manufacturing, and mining.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/kaikki_uutiset/itpomot+pelkaavat+keltanokkien+big+data+osaamista+mutta+hidastelevat+omissa+hankkeissaan/a1023579
Tomi Engdahl says:
The squirrel and the phone on a flight in two kilometers? Here is the truth Elisa 4g advertising video
Elisa’s new ad campaign “test video” authenticity is suspect online. In the video squirrel launched a spacecraft landing capsule two miles above the operator to measure the 4G network availability.
Two Samsung Galaxy S4 Phone, sent the image to the network until the connection was lost. In these terms the result of belonging to a height of 2175 meters was obtained.
Is the mobile data connection to act up to two km helpful?
Wirtanen, the benefit is not much, since Finland is not very high mountains and planes are not flying so low. But, “we have proven the most comprehensive network.”
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/kaikki_uutiset/orava+ja+puhelin+lennolla+kahdessa+kilometrissa+tassa+totuus+elisan+4gmainosvideosta/a1023413
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFIH8ZYx8PE#t=1711
Tomi Engdahl says:
FCC, Google cast eye over millimetre wireless
The smaller the wave, the bigger 5G’s chances of success
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/20/fcc_google_cast_eye_over_millimetre_wireless/
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is firing up an investigation into millimetre-wave frequency spectrum allocations, and Google has filed an application to fool around with the same band.
The FCC “notice of inquiry” is intended to work out what the US’s regulatory response will be to the use of frequencies beyond 24 GHz, which are being eyed by technologists as important to getting squeezing the kind of performance touted for 5G technologies.
Reuters reports that the investigation would look at what approaches will “help get around the technological and practical obstacles” to mm-wave deployments, as well as the kinds of services the bands will suit.
The Chocolate Factory filed a request with the FCC to run tests in California across a number of bands: 5.8 GHz, 24.2 GHz, 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz.
That has sparked speculation that Mountain View wants something other than (or complementary to) its fibre deployments to get gigabit services to American homes. However, these tests won’t be anything to soak the Google backbone, since its application with the FCC is for narrowband transmissions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wanna hop carriers with your iPad’s Apple SIM? AVOID AT&T
Unless you want your network-swapping tech disabled for good, that is
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/24/looking_forward_to_hopping_carriers_with_your_ipads_apple_sim_dont_hop_to_att/
If you’re pumped about using the new iPads’ multi-carrier Apple SIM in the US, don’t pick AT&T as your first choice – or you’ll lose the ability to switch to another operator altogether.
Cupertino’s marketing claims the new, flashable Apple SIM that comes in the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 allows customers to “choose the plan that works best for you – with no long-term commitments.”
But it seems that’s not always the case.
According to an Apple support FAQ, not only is top-ranked US carrier Verizon not participating in the Apple SIM program, but although AT&T has signed on, it has done so specifically to undermine the tech.
“When you choose AT&T on iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, AT&T dedicates Apple SIM to their network only,” the FAQ explains.
Got that? When you select AT&T for your cellular data account, AT&T disables the Apple SIM’s carrier-switching feature and grabs your iPad for good, and you’ll need to pay Apple money to wriggle out of its clutches.
Tomi Engdahl says:
I’ll cap internet tax, says Hungarian PM as mob attacks his party HQ
Angry demonstrators vow not to rest until entire idea is binned
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/28/hungarian_internet_tax_protesters_threaten_more_action/
Following a protest by tens of thousands of people on Sunday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has promised to cap a proposed new internet tax.
The new tax, which is due to come into effect from the beginning of 2015, sparked widespread outrage after it was presented last Tuesday.
Consisting of a charge of 150 forints (£0.38, €0.50) per gigabyte of traffic, the tax would be charged to internet service providers. However, users fear the cost of the tax will be passed onto them.
“Those who use the internet see more of the world, that’s why the government doesn’t want a free internet,” said lead protest organiser Balazs Gulyas.
As a result of the protest Orban promised to cap the new tax at 700 forints (£1.78, €2.26) per month.
Tomi Engdahl says:
In some parts of the city of Helsinki you can try the double-quick 4G network
Finnish telecom company DNA is testing in Helsinki 4g’s to double the speed of category 6 LTE networks.
The company gathers experience by testing the network before making a decision on the extension.
The technology used in the marketing names 4g + and 4.5 g. It brings the mobile data transmission theoretical maximum speed of 300 megabits per second.
Category 6 LTE connections do not work all the capabilities 4g-equipped mobile phones. The market has so far only few models that support cat6 LTE.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/uutisia/naissa+helsingin+kaupunginosissa+voit+kokeilla+tuplanopeaa+4gverkkoa/a1023881
Tomi Engdahl says:
EMEA: Nokia Networks sees rising demand for VoLTE outside U.S
http://www.rcrwireless.com/20141027/europe/emea-nokia-networks-sees-rising-demand-volte-outside-us-tag7?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rcrwireless%2FsLmV+%28RCR+Wireless+News%29
Nokia Networks recently completed its fastest implementation of voice over LTE technology, completing a roll-out for United Arab Emirates-based Du in under 80 days. If the push for VoLTE continues, the telecom equipment-maker might have to keep moving quickly.
Nokia Networks put some of the recent surge in VoLTE onto the shoulders of Apple’s iPhone 6 smartphones, which, when launched earlier this month, included VoLTE support.
“Ever since the device announcement from Apple, it’s pushed development time even faster,” explained Jane Rygaard, head of CEM, OSS and Core marketing at Nokia Networks.
While VoLTE has been talked about for some time, just six months ago the activity was mostly relegated to the U.S. where Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile US have already launched service. In the summer, Nokia Networks saw some activity in Asia, but most of the company’s clients outside the U.S. were only planning and testing. Apple changed that.
VoLTE, which allows high-definition calls to be sent over an LTE network, has many advantages for carriers as well as users. VoLTE provides a variety of efficiencies for operators, including lower overall data volume consumption and a decreased signaling load on networks.
More importantly, VoLTE offers operators a way to compete with over-the-top players like Skype. One of the main limitations of voice apps like Skype is that both the call initiator and receiver have to be on the app at the same time, and users often have to make appointments to call each other.
With VoLTE, users can connect with anyone, even if the other person isn’t on LTE, just like making a regular phone call. But with LTE, a VoLTE call can combine voice and video in high definition with more clarity and more continuity than a voice app — and the caller can move with the phone without fear of dropping the call.
VoLTE also provides a faster connection, so fast that Nokia said it had a client request to put in a delay because the speed of the connection surprised customers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FTC sues AT&T for limiting speeds on unlimited-data customers
http://www.cnet.com/news/ftc-sues-at-t-for-limiting-speeds-on-unlimited-data-customers/
AT&T says the Federal Trade Commission’s allegations are “baseless” and insists that it’s been transparent about its network management policies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Clouds Gather in Cellular Nets
Servers meet baseband in C-RAN
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324417&
Server farms will play an increasing role in tomorrow’s cellular networks, but the so-called cloud radio access networks (C-RANs) still face big technical challenges, according to one chip architect working in the area.
Cloud RAN systems aim to reduce the need to deploy distributed networks of base stations by relying more on central server farms to handle cellular traffic. The technique will be used in big cities, especially in stadiums and subways, which carriers will not want to pack with base stations to handle traffic peaks.
C-RANs also will help carriers share the cost of network infrastructure, said David Sonnier, a fellow and chief architect of the Axxia communications SoCs at Avago Technologies. In some cases, “even single antennas will be shared by carriers,” he said. “You might have an IPsec session with data from different carriers in it.”
Gilad Garon, chief executive of one of Sonnier’s rivals, ASOCS Ltd., told us in an interview last year that China Mobile could deploy a C-RAN network as early as 2015, and that a carrier in Japan could follow with deployments in 2016. But Sonnier is skeptical. He said carriers in China and Korea have taken the lead testing C-RAN concepts, but base station makers are still sorting out their approaches. Full-blown prototypes probably won’t be up and running for a couple of years.
It’s just the beginning even for proof-of-concepts at this point. The real rollouts are more for 5G networks,” Sonnier said. “We are in the stage of defining architectural requirements in hardware and software. There are a lot of challenges.”
One of the biggest challenges is getting servers to handle the real-time requirements of physical layer baseband processors. “It’s pretty ugly, because the closer to the antenna you get, the more real-time it gets.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Freescale CEO: ‘IoT Isn’t Just Buzz’
Big bet on connected devices, accident-free cars
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324423&
EE Times: You believe IoT is more than just a buzz word. You say Freescale is better positioned to mine the growing IoT market. How so?
Gregg Lowe: When you look at the IoT market, there are three important pieces. First is energy efficiency, second, scalability and third, security.
Energy efficiency is important for every connected device. Whether it is a wearable or handheld device, it needs to consume less power. IoT needs to scale from small to larger devices — like a monitoring device that goes inside the backbone of the Internet.
But most important to IoT is strong security. If 25 billion devices are going to be connected, suggested by some in the next few years, they’re creating that many opportunities for hackers to cause trouble. Security is the key.
EE Times: So, how do those three attributes translate to your product portfolio?
Lowe: We have the industry’s lowest power MCUs, which are a part of our Kinetis family of 32-bit MCUs, addressing energy efficiency.
Our microcontrollers scale from relatively low cost, 50-cent MCUs to multi-core high-end processors.
As for security, although it may not be obvious, Freescale has long experience in developing encryption engines for network processors. It fits nicely into the security piece of the IoT market.
In essence, with our large product portfolio, we’re covering an end-to-end IoT market, starting from the core of the network to the edges.
EE Times: IoT means a lot of things to a lot of people. In which segment are you seeing bigger growth?
Lowe: IoT can be medical devices, or it can be connected cars. At Freescale, in mining the IoT market, we’re not picking end products to win.
If there are connected tennis shoes, we want to be a part of it. It there are monitoring devices for the elderly, we want a piece of that market, too. If someone is building an automatic dog feeder, we want that. We don’t want to choose. We want to be everywhere.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Has the United Nations taken over the Internet yet?
Impress at your next dinner party with this primer on what’s happening at the ITU gabfest
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/30/itu_plenipot_primer/
For the past five days, and the next nine, dozens of government representatives are in Busan, Korea discussing changes to the international telecommunications regime.
It is the Plenipotentiary conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the arm of the United Nations that tries to coordinate telecoms efforts globally to the benefit of all.
And below we will parse out exactly what is going on and what threads of conversation are worth following.
For most of its near-150-year history the ITU has been the preserve of bureaucrats and telecoms execs and has rarely, if ever, entered the broader public’s consciousness.
But then the internet came along and ruined everything by building the most effective and extraordinary communications network the world has ever known. And it did so entirely outside of this cosy world. Parts of the ITU have been trying to get back control every since.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Remember Internet2? It’s now a software-defined metacloud
Boffins can slice network into their own private connections for research and fun
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/30/remember_internet2_its_gone_virtual/
America’s Internet2 research network is embracing the cloud, launching an SDN implementation designed to let academics create their own private clouds.
The SDN rollout uses the FlowSpace Firewall to slice up segments of connected campuses’ 100 Gbps Internet2 connections into discrete slices whose resources are protected from other traffic on the network. That means the 40 attached nodes in America will be able to get their own OpenFlow slices on the network.
Backed by National Science Foundation (NSF) funding of $10 million, the first two projects to use the capability have now been launched: CloudLab and Chameleon.
FSFW: FlowSpace Firewall
http://globalnoc.iu.edu/sdn/fsfw.html
FlowSpace Firewall (FSFW) provides network virtualization of OpenFlow enabled switches. The virtualization happens on a per-vlan tag per-interface basis. Instead of attempting to interpret a rule and make possible modifications (like FlowVisor) to a flow mod, FlowSpace firewall either allows a rule to pass through or rejects it, and sends an error back to the controller.
FlowSpace Firewall also provides the ability to slice flow statistics based on the defined flow space and send each controller only the set of flows that it is able to modify.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Free Broadband for Public Housing in New York Sought as Condition in Comcast Deal
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/nyregion/free-broadband-for-public-housing-in-new-york-sought-as-condition-in-comcast-deal.html?_r=1
A group of New York politicians is lobbying Comcast to provide free broadband to all city public housing residents and expand other low-cost Internet offerings as a condition for the cable operator’s proposed $45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Naked and afraid: that’s how Telstra’s WiFi security makes you feel
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/29/naked_and_afraid_thats_how_telstras_wifi_security_makes_you_feel/
Sit down, open up the laptop, join the advertised SSID, and go online.
How great is free WiFi?
A free WiFi network almost never has a password. That makes it easy to log on – and easy to read the network traffic of everyone using that ‘open’ network. Transmitted in the clear, every packet of data can be read right off the airwaves.
When Telstra recently announced that its soon-to-be-introduced public WiFi hotspots (read: repurposed redundant phone booths) would offer a free trial period to the public, they indicated these WiFi hotspots would be open. No need for a password to log on.
When some pointed out that this meant all the people using these hotspots would be transmitting all of their network traffic in the clear, Telstra indicated they’d put some warnings on the login screen, informing users not to perform sensitive tasks while connected. All well and good, right?
Maybe not so much.
Our smartphones these days are terrifically smart. They do all sorts of things without asking, such as checking the weather forecast, grabbing the latest batch of emails, downloading a podcast, etc.
You can not tell your smartphone to stop anticipating your needs. When it logs onto WiFi it’s going to do all the things it knows it needs to do in order to keep you well fed and watered. It’s going to do that in full view of hundreds of others. Including that script kiddie with Wireshark and root.
Although Telstra makes their money mostly from mobiles, they – and many others – seem to be unaware how these devices work, or why people need secure connections – especially in public.
I am not a security paranoid. I know plenty of folks who are (the world needs more like them), but I am will to assume some risks. Requiring WPA2 authentication to access a public WiFi network isn’t a panacea – if you really need to be secure, you probably shouldn’t be using WiFi at all – but it’s infinitely better than sending all network traffic in the clear.
The urge to create unsecured WiFi networks is entirely understandable. Many people fumble over their own WiFi passwords. Putting a password on a public WiFi hotspot will limit the number who use it. But just as people learned how to lock their cars when they park them in a public lot, we now need to learn how to use shared electronic resources. The people and organizations offering these resources must consider the safety of their users. Open networks represent an unacceptable and unnecessary risk.
Whenever you see an open network, consider ask those providing that service if they honestly meant to make all of their patrons’ data visible to world. Most would have no idea that’s what they’ve done – and might even be horrified by the risky environment they created. Suggest they secure the network with an SSID named something like ‘Cafe password is XXXXXXXXX’, in order to make it as easy as possible for users to chart the safer course.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ARPANET establishes 1st computer-to-computer link, October 29, 1969
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/edn-moments/4399541/ARPANET-establishes-1st-computer-to-computer-link–October-29–1969
The first-ever computer-to-computer link was established on ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), the precursor to the Internet, on October 29, 1969.
Originally funded by ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency), now DARPA, within the United States Department of Defense, ARPANET was to be used for projects at universities and research laboratories in the US. The packet switching of the ARPANET was based on designs by British scientist Donald Davies and Lawrence Roberts of the Lincoln Laboratory.
The first permanent ARPANET link was established weeks later on November 21, 1969, between the IMP at UCLA and the IMP at the Stanford Research Institute. By December 5, 1969, the entire four-node network was established.
By 1975, ARPANET was declared “operational” and the Defense Communications Agency took control of it.
ARPANET was formally decommissioned on February 28, 1990. Well-known computer scientist and a “father of the Internet” Vinton Cerf wrote “Requiem of the ARPANET” in honor of the system.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analog Devices’ integrated transceiver for next-generation software defined radio (SDR)
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/electronic-product-reviews/other/4424048/Analog-Devices–integrated-transceiver-for-next-generation-software-defined-radio–SDR-
Analog Devices, Inc. introduced a next-gen solution for software defined radio (SDR) applications. Designed to enable programmable radio applications that operate over a wide range of modulation schemes and network specifications such as defense electronics, instrumentation equipment and communications infrastructure, the new AD9361 RF Agile Transceiver achieves, what ADI claims is, best-in-class performance, high integration, wideband operation and flexibility. The IC is supported by a wide range of design resources to expedite time to market including a software design kit and FPGA mezzanine card (FMC) to rapidly develop software defined radio solutions.
Analog Devices combined the AD9361, with a Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA, USB 3.0 interface and comprehensive software support, to create one of the industry’s easiest-to-use and most flexible software-defined radio solutions.
The AD-FMCOMMS2-EBZ-FMC board provides designers with a rapid prototyping environment that supports multiple communications protocols, including most licensed and unlicensed bands.
Operating over a frequency range of 70 MHz to 6 GHz, the device is a complete radio design that combines multiple functions in a single chip. The RF agile transceivers integrate an RF front end, flexible mixed-signal baseband section, frequency synthesizers, two analog-to-digital converters and two direct conversion receivers to simplify design and reduce bill of material cost. The device supports channel bandwidth from less than 200 kHz to 56 MHz, and is highly programmable, offering the widest dynamic range available in the market today.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple exec: Don’t expect Apple SIM to show up in iPhones
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/apple-exec-dont-expect-apple-sim-show-iphones/2014-10-28
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) decided to put its Apple SIM card inside its new iPads because it didn’t know which wireless carriers its customers would choose and because the company wanted to give its customers more choice, according to an Apple executive.
Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president iPhone, iPod and iOS product marketing
Joswiak
Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president iPhone, iPod and iOS product marketing, said that the Apple SIM makes more sense for the iPad than for the iPhone because “most iPhones, by far, are sold through carriers.” He said Apple sells more iPads through its own retail channels than it does iPhones.
“It’s about the customer experience,” he said during an appearance here at Re/code’s Code/Mobile conference. “We ultimately don’t know who you are going to use as the carrier, [and] we want to make it as easy as possible.”
The Apple SIM for the company’s new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 lets customers switch between different carriers’ service plans on the tablets. However, there are numerous caveats to that premise.
“Anything that’s new, people want to stop and evaluate it,” Joswiak said. Apple has indicated more carriers will likely support its Apple SIM in the future.
Joswiak said Apple has “no shortage of developers or customers,” that Apple is rapidly approaching 1 billion iOS devices sold, and that customers have downloaded 85 billion apps from the App Store.
the company generated more than $100 billion of revenue from iPhones in its fiscal 2014 year
Tomi Engdahl says:
Frequency-flexible clock generators for Cloud data centers
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4436596/Frequency-flexible-clock-generators-for-Cloud-data-centers?elq=86a5fe3fe668409daa2f1e71b45af093&elqCampaignId=19905
Skyrocketing network bandwidth demands driven by consumer mobile devices and cloud-based streaming services, such as Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Spotify, Pandora, online gaming and others, are pushing Internet Infrastructure suppliers to develop data center systems that support dramatically higher data rates, such as 10G, 40G and 100 Gbps. In addition, the increasing popularity of commercial cloud computing, which offers network-based computing and storage as a service, is further accelerating the demand for application-flexible, high-bandwidth networks in today’s data centers.
Figure 1 illustrates the impact of these popular cloud-based streaming services on the growth of Internet traffic bandwidth. Cisco’s Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast (June 2014) projects the following market trends:
Cloud applications and services such as Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, and Spotify, will account for 90 percent of total mobile data traffic by 2018.
Global network traffic will be three times larger in 2018 than in 2013, equivalent to streaming 33B DVDs/month, or 46M DVDs/hour.
By 2018, consumer online gaming traffic will be four times higher than it was in 2013.
To reliably deliver a Netflix video or a Spotify high-quality audio stream, service providers must be equipped with data center hardware that supports three primary networks, as shown in Figure 2:
LAN/WAN networks commonly comprise 1 Gb, 10 Gb, and/or 100 Gb Ethernet switches connected in a mesh switch fabric for the data center LAN, and OTN (Optical Transport Networking) interconnects to the WAN. These networks deliver the content from the data center to the cloud and, ultimately, to the user.
Compute networks comprise many server and switch “blades” interconnected using copper cables, PCB backplanes or optical links. These interconnects use a combination of 1 Gb, 10 Gb Ethernet, PCIe, and in some cases, InfiniBand. Network interfaces in compute networks must support not only high data rates but also very low latency, which is critical for streaming video and audio service quality.
Storage networks are primarily based on Fiber Channel, Gb or 10Gb Ethernet switches and direct connections to storage subsystems using PCIe. These networks store considerable amounts of content, requiring multi-gigabit capable protocols.
To meet the rapidly expanding Internet bandwidth demands of content providers, compute and storage networks for data centers must become flatter and more horizontally interconnected. Known as the “converged data center,” this flatter architecture is required to improve server-to-server and server-to-storage communication within the data center, which directly impacts latency and the quality of streaming services.
In addition to delivering latency performance advantages, the converged data center architecture is highly scalable and lends itself to software virtualization of compute server and storage hardware resources, supporting rapid changes in service bandwidth demands. Some vendors refer to this architecture as Software Defined Networking (SDN).
A major reason for clock tree complexity is that high-speed communications links fundamentally rely on multi-lane, multi-gigabit serializer/de-serializers (SerDes) and physical layer devices (PHYs) for each network interface type.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coin-sized security solution sends smartphone alerts to protect valuables
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/tech-edge/4436412/Coin-sized-security-solution-sends-smartphone-alerts-to-protect-valuables
Three-year-old connected security and home automation product provider Pilot Labs, based in San Diego, announced the October 7 Kickstarter launch of CoinGuard, an Internet of Things solution for personal home security.
The simple, cloud-based system comprises battery-powered half-dollar-sized sensors that are placed on or in any items the user wants to protect. If a sensor detects movement or vibration, it transmits a notification to the accompanying network hub, which in turn will notify a designated smartphone or other Web-connected device.
Suggested applications for the CoinGuard sensors include placement inside jewelry boxes and camera bags as well as on windows and doors, televisions, gaming consoles, and gun safes–even the cookie jar.
The system has a range of up to 100 meters from the gateway and is able to penetrate furniture, floors, and walls, and can even work outdoors. Each CoinGuard system can consist of up to 256 wireless sensors and works in conjunction with the company’s iHomeWare smartphone app, which is also capable of controlling other home automation devices, including lighting and temperature. The iHomeWare app is currently available only for iOS, but an Android version is planned.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gigabit and 10-Gigabit Ethernet XMC Interface for Embedded Applications
Gigabit and 10-Gigabit Ethernet is the perfect solution if you are working with WAN and LAN applications
Many single board computers today have XMC sites that can be used to plug in an XMC form factored TCP off-load engine (TOE), which can potentially support up to four 10Gb Ethernet ports. Including this auxiliary piece of hardware greatly increases your options for your network design and will not impact the processing power of the single board computer.
Embedded applications typically use networking to replace legacy serial communication, connect subsystems (peer-to-peer), connect the subordinates to the supervisor, deliver captured information to storage, enable timely interrogation of stored information, and create seamless information boundaries between systems.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Huge potential FCC ruling sets the stage for Apple and Amazon to replace your cable company
http://bgr.com/2014/10/28/cable-vs-netflix-fcc/
We’ve known for a while that over-the-top Internet streaming will be the future of television and now a new potential rule change from the Federal Communications Commission could make that future closer than ever before.
FCC chairman Tom Wheeler on Tuesday proposed a new rule-making process in which the FCC would consider revising its rules to ensure that over-the-top Internet streaming services are given the same treatment as cable companies and satellite television companies. This means that broadcasters would be barred from stopping online video providers from carrying their content and that online video providers would be empowered to negotiate fair licensing deals with content providers.
If Wheeler’s proposal is approved, this could pave the way for tech companies that have clear ambitions in television — such as Apple, Amazon and Google — to effectively compete with cable and satellite TV providers by being classified as multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Making an entrance: Remote door-opening tech
Personal portal peace of mind
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/30/breaking_fad_automated_entry_systems/
For a lot of Reg readers, home automation is probably an internal affair – that is, if you’re using technology, it’s probably to control things inside the home, like heating, lighting and so on. And indeed, that also makes up the bulk of what’s available when it comes to the major suppliers.
One area that’s fairly conspicuous by its absence from the mainstream is entry phones, door access and related tech, aside from things like door opening sensors.
It’s true that you can find access control systems from a variety of places, but a lot of stuff is still very much designed to be a stand-alone system.
There’s more than just that level of convenience. With many of us ordering things online, yet going out to work, taking deliveries can be awkward. A remotely accessible entry system can solve some of that. If you have a porch with a door, for instance, or a garden shed, why not fit an electric lock release, and an entry phone? When a delivery comes, the entry system can call your mobile. If you’re in, you open the door, if you’re not you release the lock and the package can be stowed safely off the street.
So how about a VoIP entry phone?
There are SIP entry phones from ProTalk and suchlike – but they cost hundreds of pounds
There are also telephone-based door entry systems available much more cheaply
When the call’s answered, DTMF tones can be used to trigger a relay to operate an electric lock.
However, you do need to be careful. Many of phone-based entry systems will answer calls made to them, for programming via DTMF (Dual Tone Multiple Frequency).
In fact, the DoorLine Pro can do quite a few more things. Some are perhaps fripperies – like the ability to change the colour of the LED lighting on the wavy strip on the front panel – while others are more useful
For a lot of people, that’s probably a bit on the pricey side.
Still, it’s a shame that there aren’t more affordable products in this area: when you can buy a Wi-Fi Skype phone for £50 it should surely be possible.
So, how about rolling your own system? With a suitable RFID shield for Arduino, it’s possible to read the unique ID of many NFC-equipped cards. So, for example, your Oyster card could be used to open the front door.
A Raspberry Pi with a camera module plus a bell button on its GPIO pins could give you the basis of your own video entry system, too.
Tomi Engdahl says:
UK joins world’s fastest mobile internet club with next generation 4G+ rollout
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/30/uk-joins-worlds-fastest-mobile-internet-club-with-next-generation-4g-rollout
EE joins Vodafone with mobile data speeds five times faster than average UK broadband in London, with Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool added in 2015
More people in the UK are going to get mobile internet speeds comparable with South Korea and US with the launch of EE’s next generation 4G+ network.
The new technology, called carrier aggregation or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) allows devices to connect to two different 4G mobile signals at the same time, doubling the capacity in the densest populated areas.
EE had been trialling the technology in London’s Tech City as a replacement for fixed-line broadband for startups in the area. The new network is capable of delivering theoretical data speeds of up to 300Mbps, although real-world speeds will peak at approximately 150Mbps.
Regular speeds will be around 90Mbps, five times faster the average UK broadband speed, which is 17.8Mbps according to data from Ofcom
“While the faster the peak speeds the better the experience on the network, what we’re doing is doubling the capacity of our network so that every customer can watch video streaming at 5Mbps no matter how busy it gets,” Tom Bennett, EE’s director of network services explained to the Guardian. “Only those with compatible devices, including the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Alpha, will be able to use 4G+, but every customer will benefit from the doubling of capacity and will see their average speeds increase.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Hangouts now lets you make free one-minute international calls
http://thenextweb.com/google/2014/10/29/google-hangouts-now-lets-make-free-one-minute-international-calls/
oogle announced yesterday that users in 25 countries will now get the first minute free on international calls to 25 countries they make via its Hangouts app.
Google’s Hangouts app for desktops and mobile has long allowed for instant messaging, video chat and calls to phone numbers (including free calls to US and Canada) using an internet connection. The free minute now lets you say a quick hello or deliver an important message at no charge.
However, you’ll need to have some calling credit in your Google account (that you can add with your credit card) to get your first minute free, as you’ll be charged for the duration of your call beyond that first minute. You can look up the rates for voice calls here.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EE launches 150Mbps ’4G+’ in Central London
LTE-A – Faster phones for Hoxton Hipsters
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/30/ee_launches_150mbps_ltea/
Mobile network EE has announced that higher speed LTE-A is now available in select areas. This will give speeds of up to 150Mbps.
While EE has had “double speed” LTE for some while and Vodafone has recently launched a similar service, the new LTE-A uses a lot more spectrum and so gives much higher speeds. Specifically it is aggregating 20MHz of 1800MHz and 20MHz of 2.6GHz spectrum.
EE is calling the new service 4G+ and validates this name by citing other networks using the same moniker.
“On top of our existing 1800MHz spectrum layer, we’ve added a layer of 2.6GHz spectrum and configured our network to enable downlink carrier aggregation. This is the primary feature of LTE-Advanced – and we’re calling it 4G+. Some of Europe’s other top operators, like Swisscom, SFR and Bouygues, as well as Optus in Australia, are already using the term 4G+ for this first stage of carrier aggregation.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hungary PM ditches internet tax plans after mass protests
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/31/hungarian_internet_tax_plans_abandoned_after_mass_protests/
Following mass protests across the country over the past week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced on Friday that he would scrap a planned internet tax.
The idea of taxing internet service providers for every gigabyte of data flowing across their networks was condemned by everyone from telcos and Hungary’s opposition party to Steelie Neelie of the European Commission. A Facebook group opposing the tax garnered more than 200,000 members and tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets last Sunday and again on Tuesday night.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How many telecoms firms left in Europe? Another mega-billion deal slated in France
Numericable’s acquistion of Vivendi’s SFR approved
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/31/french_telecoms_acquisition_marks_latest_market_move_towards_consolidation/
French cable telecoms operator Numericable has won conditional approval for its multi-billion-euro takeover of Vivendi’s SFR mobile network operator, paving the way for the firm to close the deal by the end of the year.
Reuters reported that France’s competition authority said Numericable would have to divest certain assets and temporarily make its cable network available to competitors “to give them time to develop their own high-speed broadband networks”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook says vendor secrets forced it to homebrew switches
Director of technical ops spills how switch vendors keep diagnostic tricks to themselves
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/31/speed_not_price_drove_facebook_into_networking_biz_says_ahmad/
It’s four months since Facebook first launched its Wedge switch and accompanying FBOSS operating system. Some forms of Wedge are in production and others are in testing, so El Reg decided to talk with Facebook’s director of technical operations, Najam Ahmad, to see where The Social Network is at with its software-defined networking (SDN) efforts.
As readers will remember, Facebook’s decision to put forward its open network and SDN credentials came in June, with a promise that the results would become part of the Open Compute Project.
While it’s attractive to attribute the motivation for the initiatives to raw cost, Ahmad told The Register that elusive quality called “agility” was at least as important in the decision to pursue home-baked SDN.
What hamstrings the “vertical network vendors”, he said, is where a fault touches too closely on the crown jewels of their intellectual property.
“One reason we started driving this was that in our memcache environment, we were seeing small but consistent failure rates across our data centres,” he explained.
“We did troubleshooting for about three weeks, but couldn’t figure it out – and we had a bunch of smart people trying.”
How to design a kludge*
It was only when a developer from the switch vendor was on site that diagnostics started to emerge – because, unlike anyone in Facebook, the vendor engineer was able to log into the ASIC driving the switch to access its diagnostics and discover that the chip was causing packet loss.
“How would we know that?” Ahmad asked rhetorically. “There’s no counter, and the command is hidden.”
The fix wasn’t just slow, he told El Reg, it was an out-and-out kludge: with access to the secret command, a Facebook engineer had to write a script that logged into every individual ASIC in the data centre, run the secret command, gather the data via screen-scrapes, and parse the screen-scrapes so the data could be analysed.
“That took about three weeks, and in the end it was a kludge,” he said.
Getting rid of the proprietary silicon, replacing it with switches built on merchant silicon (since people like Broadcom want their OEMs to make the chips sing and dance), and controlling those switches from a generic x86 server breaks into the world once dominated by the big vertical switch vendors, Ahmad told us.
Make a bot
There’s simply too much infrastructure to manage in anything like real time, Ahmad said. “Our philosophy is that we want robots to manage the networks, and we want people to build the robots.”
The human management model – which has been Network Management 1.01 since the days of SunNet Manager – has people watching alert consoles or getting paged by the system, identifying the device that’s gone dark, logging in, troubleshooting it, mitigating the problem, then returning the device to service.
Facebook’s approach is to send alert to software that analyses it, and analyse the impact of the alert,.
If there’s no immediate impact (for example, if it’s one Ethernet port serving one of a dozen load-balanced servers), the robot will open a ticket without human involvement. Site services will then respond to the ticket in the own time.
Whereas if there is an impact – that’s when the robot will raise a human immediately.
However, those robots can only be written if a vendor exposes enough of its APIs – or if the switch is open from the start. If a new failure mode is discovered, “we want to be able to build that robot immediately and deploy it”, rather than waiting six months for a vendor response.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why the U.S. Has Fallen Behind in Internet Speed and Affordability
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/upshot/why-the-us-has-fallen-behind-in-internet-speed-and-affordability.html?abt=0002&abg=0
America’s slow and expensive Internet is more than just an annoyance for people trying to watch “Happy Gilmore” on Netflix. Largely a consequence of monopoly providers, the sluggish service could have long-term economic consequences for American competitiveness.
The reason the United States lags many countries in both speed and affordability, according to people who study the issue, has nothing to do with technology. Instead, it is an economic policy problem — the lack of competition in the broadband industry.
“It’s just very simple economics,” said Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School who studies antitrust and communications and was an adviser to the Federal Trade Commission. “The average market has one or two serious Internet providers, and they set their prices at monopoly or duopoly pricing.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Cliff and the Slope
https://medium.com/backchannel/jammed-e474fc4925e4
The proof is in: Detailed report shows how U.S. Internet access monopolies punish rivals and catch innocent bystanders in the crossfire—legally.
His team’s research led him to suspect something astonishing and dark: that NEPC, and probably many other businesses and consumers, were caught in the crossfire of an ongoing battle between “eyeball networks” run by Internet access providers, such as Comcast and Verizon; and “transit networks” used by competing video services, such as Netflix. He came to wonder whether, in their attempts to charge Netflix for access to their subscribers, Comcast and some other networks were recklessly affecting Internet connectivity for businesses like NEPC. Could that possibly be true?
The answer is yes. What started out as suspicion is now fully documented, in a study that has just been released by a nonprofit research consortium called M-Lab. M-Lab’s data suggests the logical conclusion that Verizon and Comcast, as well as Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, and AT&T, are intentionally squeezing data coming from some incoming networks — in particular, networks associated with Netflix, which competes with these companies in video entertainment. Customers of these eyeball networks are getting degraded service that cannot be explained by anything other than business decisions.
The revelations of clear service bottlenecks offer rare first-hand evidence of the power of large Internet access monopolies to force companies that require access to their networks into costly service arrangements, or else suffer degraded connectivity. This is the kind of game-playing feared by the millions of Americans who have pushed for rules preventing what faux news comedian John Oliver calls “cable industry fuckery.”
A January 2013 OECD report found that 99.5% of Internet interconnection agreements at Internet Exchange Points happen without any formal contracts; engineers easily make deals to share the very low cost of trading traffic between networks in the same building.
But that was the past. Today, we have communications giants who see no need to adhere to traditional Internet niceties. Comcast, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable are now powerful enough that they can demand that they be paid for connecting with other networks. Their power comes from their huge numbers of subscribers; other networks need Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon more than these eyeball networks need them. If the eyeball networks aren’t paid, they will refuse to upgrade the doors between their eyeballs and the network seeking to connect.
http://www.measurementlab.net/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Real Net Neutrality Problem: ‘Edge Provider’ vs ‘End User’
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/14/11/02/1333232/real-net-neutrality-problem-edge-provider-vs-end-user
At the Washington Post, Brett Frischmann elaborates on the theory that the continuing flaw with the FCC’s Net-Neutrality strategy lies in the perverse distinction between “End User” and “Edge Provider”. Succinctly: “The key to an open Internet is nondiscrimination and in particular, a prohibition on discrimination or prioritization based on the identity of the user (sender/receiver) or use (application/content),” and then, “Who exactly are the end users that are not edge providers?”
Does the FCC really not get it about the Internet?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/10/31/does-the-fcc-really-not-get-it-about-the-internet/
The key to an open Internet is nondiscrimination and in particular, a prohibition on discrimination or prioritization based on the identity of the user (sender/receiver) or use (application/content).
Unfortunately, the rules now being considered by the FCC don’t come close to implementing this simple and important benchmark. There are many reasons for this, but perhaps the most fundamental is a simple misconception, one that persists in the work of the FCC but also of proponents and opponents of network neutrality. It is the false distinction between what they call “edge providers” (YouTube) and “end users” (people who watch videos on YouTube).
The currently proposed FCC rules for an open Internet are based on the following definitions:
Edge Provider. Any individual or entity that provides any content, application, or service over the Internet, and any individual or entity that provides a device used for accessing any content, application, or service over the Internet.
End User. Any individual or entity that uses a broadband Internet access service.
The basic distinction suggested by these definitions is that some distinguishable subset of end users use broadband Internet access to provide content, applications, or services (or devices to access content, applications, or services), and these end users are edge providers.
Who exactly are the end users that are not edge providers? In other words, who uses the Internet but does not provide any content, application, or service? The answer is no one. All end users provide content as they engage in communications with other end users, individually or collectively.
What is the point of the provider/user distinction? It appears to draw a line between (commercial) entities that generate a lot of traffic (and revenue) and those who don’t, but that is confused. In truth, traffic is generated jointly by many actors communicating with each other.
The FCC should cast aside the false distinction between edge providers and end users.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ITU searches frequencies for flight monitoring
The International Telecommunication Union ITU wants to find the frequencies in order to monitor air traffic in real time. Frequencies should be defined next year at the WRC15 radio meeting (World Radio Communication Conference).
ITU has sought a solution that flights could be continuously monitored. New ICT technology should not be impossible to track in real time, as well as the machine’s functions, and events of the cab. The black box has remained almost unchanged for 30 years. The development of the new system is not a cheap project.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2002:itu-hakee-taajuuksia-lentoseurannalle&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Having a Web Summit? Get some decent Wi-Fi!
Embarrassing outage as 22,000 people arrive at tech conference
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/04/web_summit_wifi_outage/
It’s never a good thing for conference organisers when their Wi-Fi goes down – but it’s even worse when you’re positioning yourself as the première European tech conference of the year, Web Summit.
Attendees were pretty miffed as Dublin’s massive 22,000-strong event kicked off today and the Wi-Fi at the RDS venue promptly blacked out.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Study: There’s a Wi-Fi Hotspot For Every 150 People In the World
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/14/11/04/0047213/study-theres-a-wi-fi-hotspot-for-every-150-people-in-the-world
a study that found there are, on average, 150 people per Wi-Fi hotspot, worldwide. In the U.K. alone, there is one hotspot for every 11 people. The study estimates there will be roughly 47.7 million hotspots worldwide by the end of the year.
One wi-fi hotspot for every 150 people, says study
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29726632
The UK has one wi-fi hotspot for every 11 people and worldwide there is one for every 150, new research from wi-fi provider iPass indicates.
It suggests there will be 47.7 million public hotspots worldwide by the end of 2014.
France currently has the most hotspots, followed by the US and UK.
Hotspots are designed to fill the gaps in coverage left by mobile networks and are often offered free of charge.
Over the next four years, global hotspot numbers will grow to more than 340 million, the equivalent of one wi-fi hotspot for every 20 people on earth, the research finds.
But this growth will not be evenly distributed. While in North America there will be one hotspot for every four people by 2018, in Africa it will be one for every 408.
While Europe currently has the most dense wi-fi coverage, Asia will overtake it by 2018, according to the report.
The research suggests that the vast majority of hotspots – nearly 34 million – are in homes. These hotspots are part of a growing trend to extend home wi-fi to the local community.
US provider Comcast caused controversy when it introduced its public home wi-fi service in the summer because customers were not given the option to opt out before receiving it.
Such “homespot” public wi-fi will see explosive growth rising to more than 325 million in 2018 and taking wi-fi “from the cities to the suburbs”, according to the research.
According to the research, more than 50% of all commercial hotspots are controlled by brands whose core business is not telecommunications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NBase-T Alliance forms to forge multi-gig over Cat 5e, Cat 6 cabling
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/10/nbaset-cat5-cat6.html
On the heels of the introduction of AQrate technology that can deliver 2.5- and 5-Gbit/sec data rates over Category 5e and Category 6 cabling, four founding members announced the formation of the NBase-T Alliance on October 27. Cisco, Aquantia, Freescale and Xilinx are the alliance’s founders with a stated mission “to promote the development of 2.5- and 5-Gigabit Ethernet technology for enterprise infrastructure.
“The founding of the alliance aligns with market demand for a unified approach to the deployment of faster data rates on twisted-pair copper cables matching the bandwidth increase driven by 802.11ac Wave 2 wireless access points and other applications,”
in the current announcement of the NBase-T Alliance, the bandwidth requirements of 802.11ac “wave 2” devices were heavily referenced.
“Category 5e and Category 6 twisted-pair copper cables are by far the most common in local area networks. Cat 5e or Cat 6 cables do not support 10-Gigabit Ethernet up to 100 meters, hence the need for intermediate rates. Foreseeing the enormous potential for faster-than-1-GbE rates on legacy cabling infrastructure”
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Data Must Be Prioritized
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324471&
Big data is already putting pressure on IT infrastructures as digital information streams in from social networking sites, e-commerce, and a plethora of mobile devices. But as the Internet of Things evolves and wearables begin to flourish, what are the pressures for memory and Flash storage?
It’s already clear these new devices will have unique requirements for memory and data storage vis-à-vis power, performance, and form factor, but at the same time many IoT devices and wearables will simply be harvesting and transmitting data to the cloud and datacenters to be processed.
When it comes to IoT, memory is pretty broad, since it can be found in devices such as sensors, computers, or smartphones, says Cliff Leimbach, analyst at IHS. What’s happening is there are more yet smaller ways to connect to the Internet to share data. What will dictate memory requirements is how much processing devices will have to do. “If something just has to transmit stuff back, it doesn’t need a lot of memory.”
Leimbach says the DRAM market is continuing to grow steadily at 30% per year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Radiometrix Launches Dynamically Reprogrammable RF Module
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1324455&
Have you considered how programmable RF devices might enhance the products that you design?
The NTX2B is a transmitter module supplied by Radiometrix, a well-established UK supplier of RF modules. It features user-programmable custom frequencies on the unlicensed 433MHz and 458MHz bands used in Europe, and has factory-set channel spacing of 12.5kHz, 20kHz, and 25kHz.
Configuration of the transmit frequency is achieved over an SPI serial bus by an on-board microcontroller that, in turn, programs a fractional N synthesizer. The data rate that is transmitted is 9. kbps, and is suitable for applications such as EPOS equipment, industrial telemetry and telecommand, high-end security, and vehicle data up/download, among others. The 10mW transmit output power should provide a useful range of up to 0.6 miles (1km) for line of sight for these applications when it is paired with the NRX2B receiver. The modular architecture greatly simplifies the design-in process for the products as there are only three signal pins and four supply pins to connect.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LTE speed nearly 50 megabits cities in Finland
Omnitele has measured the speed of mobile broadband in ten major cities in Finland. At best, the data rate of the network to the user for almost 50 megabits per second. According to the results of DNA was measured by the largest network average download speed, when the readout 49.7 megabits per second. Elisa’s network reached 42.9 megabits per second and Sonera’s network of 36.4 megabits per second.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2026:lte-nopeus-jo-lahes-50-megabittia-suomen-kaupungeissa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Data center virtualization driving next-generation firewall adoption, finds study
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/10/abi-datacenter-virtualization-firewalls.html
Next-generation firewalls (NGFW) have emerged as the security solution of choice for many virtualized data centers, as they provide a security architecture that can protect, scale, and evolve with virtualization needs. ABI Research believes that there is a niche market for NGFW for virtualized data centers, valued at US$375,000 in 2014.
“NGFWs deliver much more granular control than traditional firewalls by being application and user aware, which in turn ensures better security without impacting user productivity,”
According to ABI’s latest study, data centers have evolved significantly to keep pace with growing business demands. Operators in these centers are under immense pressure to roll out new applications and services faster than ever before. As a result, organizations are consolidating data centers and adopting technologies like virtualization, software-defined networking (SDN), and cloud computing. Virtualization enables organizations to utilize their data center hardware infrastructure effectively, leading to reduction in costs, and improvements in operational efficiencies. As traditional data centers evolve to virtualized and cloud computing environments, they pose significant new security challenges that need to be addressed.
ABI says that its latest research indicates that a majority of organizations are still using the same tools for their virtualized environments — such as antivirus and firewalls — as they did for their in-house physical machine set-ups. However, existing security solutions in the data center fail to address the dynamic nature of the virtualized environment, and cannot track policies to virtual machine creation or movement.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Z-Wave Wireless Communications for Smart Devices and IoT
http://www.techonline.com/electrical-engineers/education-training/tech-papers/4436809/Z-Wave-Wireless-Communications-for-Smart-Devices-and-IoT
Z-Wave is a low-power wireless mesh network standard that is widely used for M2M and smart devices in the Internet of Things (IoT), home automation and security markets. Z-Wave is a complete communications solution, encompassing everything from the physical or hardware layer all the way up to the applications layer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
6LoWPAN demystified
http://www.techonline.com/electrical-engineers/education-training/tech-papers/4436693/6LoWPAN-demystified
6LoWPAN is connecting more things to the cloud. Low-power, IP-driven nodes and large mesh network support make this technology a great option for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. A powerful feature of 6LoWPAN is that while originally conceived to support IEEE 802.15.4 low-power wireless networks in the 2.4-GHz band, it is now being adapted and used over a variety of other networking media including Sub-1 GHz low-power RF, Bluetooth Smart, power line control (PLC) and low-power Wi-Fi.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cogent Now Admits They Slowed Down Netflix’s Traffic, Creating A Fast Lane & Slow Lane
http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2014/11/cogent-now-admits-slowed-netflixs-traffic-creating-fast-lane-slow-lane.html
Last week when M-Lab published the results of their study on traffic congestion on the Internet, many used it as another example of how the ISPs were the one’s responsible for slowing down or blocking Netflix traffic coming into the ISPs network. But something odd stood out about some of the data M-Lab’s collected, which policy makers and lawyers missed. The M-Lab’s data documented the introduction of a higher level of prioritization somewhere on the network. Prioritization rules that would impact how content is delivered to the ISPs, and would greatly impact the quality of video and other content consumers would receive.
This morning, Cogent admitted that in February and March of this year the company put in place a procedure that favored traffic on their network, putting a QoS structure in place, based on the type of content being delivered. Without telling anyone, Cogent created at least two priority levels (a ‘fast lane’ and ‘slow lane’), and possibly more, and implemented them at scale in February of this year. What Cogent did is considered a form of network management and was done without them disclosing it, even though it was the direct cause of many of the earlier published congestion charts and all the current debates.
Cogent said they prioritized data based on user type “putting its retail customers in one group and wholesale in another.” Cogent said “retail customers were favored because they tend to use applications, such as VoIP, that are most sensitive to congestion” and that they “implemented a QoS structure that impacts interconnections during the time they are congested.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mozilla and GSMA partner to bring the mobile Web and content creation tools to the next 4 billion
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/11/05/mozilla-partners-gsma-bring-web-next-4-billion-people/
Mozilla has announced today that it is entering a partnership with the GSMA to help enable internet access and local content creation and delivery in geographies with poor Web connectivity.
In a recent white paper, Mozilla described the challenge involved in getting the remaining four billion people of the world online: Web-enabled smartphones and mobile networks need to become easily available and affordable, and locally relevant content needs to become easier to create and access. The organization believes allowing for such content in local languages, is ‘the key to unlocking the value of the Web’ for users worldwide.
About 40 percent of the world’s population currently have access to the Web via desktops and mobile devices, and over half of all online sites and content are in English. That’s odd, because only 5 percent of the global population speak English as a first language and 21 percent are estimated to have a basic grasp of the language.
Unlocking relevant Web content for the next 4 billion people
https://wiki.gsmaintelligence.com/gsma_kb/images/5/5f/Mozilla_GSMA_LocalContentSmartphones.pdf
Towards the end of 2013, mobile broadband connections in the
developing world passed 1 billion.
By 2017, this will have crossed 3 billion, half of which will be smartphone
connections
. Mobile technology will enable billions to join the Web in the near future.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Net Neutrality Alone Won’t Solve ISP Throttling Abuse, Here’s Why
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/11/05/1927217/net-neutrality-alone-wont-solve-isp-throttling-abuse-heres-why
Net neutrality is an attractive concept, particularly if you’ve followed the ways the cable and telco companies have gouged customers in recent years, but only to a limited extent. There are two problems with net neutrality as its commonly proposed. First, there’s the fact that not all traffic prioritization is bad all of the time. Video streams and gaming are two examples of activities that require low-latency packet delivery to function smoothly. Email and web traffic can tolerate significantly higher latencies, for example. Similarly, almost everyone agrees that ISPs have some responsibility to control network performance in a manner that guarantees the best service for the most number of people, or that prioritizes certain traffic over others in the event of an emergency.
Net Neutrality Won’t Fix ISP Throttling, Here’s Why
Read more: http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Net-Neutrality-Wont-Fix-Our-Problems-Heres-Why/
Net neutrality isn’t just one thing. Functionally, it’s many different types of things
Tomi Engdahl says:
Welcoming water metering into the 21st century
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4436748/Welcoming-water-metering-into-the-21st-century?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20141106&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20141106&elq=c709950993f34ee98f6b9230e47519eb&elqCampaignId=20013
Drip. Drip. Drip. You may not realize it, but that sound is probably coming from somewhere in your house right now.
Managing water resources is a serious challenge today. Water is expensive to clean and difficult to get to where it is needed. In fact, connecting people to clean water is one of the great challenges of the 21st century.
With so much at stake, the Internet of Things (IoT)1 and smart utility grids have an opportunity to improve the world by deploying accurate, reliable water flow-measurement technology. Utilities need to understand and monitor how water is consumed2 so they can estimate water requirements, but their water meters today do not do a good job of helping us find waste. Given the increasingly scarcity of water resources, we all need to know where every drop of clean water is going. In short, we need a network of ubiquitous, smart water meters.
To date smart water metering technology has focused on communication networks—getting usage data to utilities, meanwhile, the accuracy of those water meters has been highly suspect. In fact, reliable solid-state water flow-measurement technology has not been able to cross from niche, super-high-accuracy markets to mainstream…until very recently. Consequently, water metering today is an inaccurate, expensive affair, nowhere near ready for the emerging IoT to provide any benefit to water management.
There is new technology for a solid-state water flow meter that is more accurate and more reliable than traditional mechanical meters. This new ultrasonic, solid-state design is ready for the age of the IoT.
There is no conspiracy. Measuring water flow is actually hard. The most obvious way of measuring water flow is just how it has been done for decades—with a mechanical meter.
The traditional mechanical water meters in wide use today suffer from two critical flaws. The first is pure physics. A minimum liquid flow is required to turn the rotor on the meter. The rotor has some fundamental resistance that must be overcome to ensure that it turns in the presence of a flow. This is the driving force behind today’s water meter flow-measurement standards that effectively limit the bottom end of accuracy to ¼ gallon per minute (i.e., 360 gallons per day).
The second critical flaw for mechanical metering is contamination.
So if mechanical meters have such flaws, what alternative solutions exist? Clearly a solid-state solution would assist with the contamination issue. There are two typical solid-state solutions used in water flow metering today.
The first solid-state solution is magnetic. Fundamentally, a magnetic field is generated and detected through a conductive liquid; the field is proportional to the flow of the liquid. In practice, magnetic flow meters can be highly accurate, but require highly accurate ADCs
The second solid-state solution uses ultrasonic pulses to measure the flow of water. The general principle here is that two piezo elements in a water pipe will send and receive ultrasonic pulses though the water. The water flowing through the meter will enhance, or impede, the speed of the ultrasonic pulse.
With solid-state water meters so power hungry and expensive, it is not surprising that the measurement of water flow is stuck in the 20th century, and incapable of joining the IoT.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Morse code for IoT
Configuration of wireless network is always a headache. Texas instruments has solved the problem by introducing Morse code…
http://embeddedexperience.blogspot.fi/2014/06/morse-code-for-iot.html
Recently TI released a new single-chip IoT solution CC3200 with integrated WiFi and Cortex-M4 application processor. The chip is intended for all kinds of Internet-of-Things applications, including home appliances, smart metering, security systems, and more. Many of the target products do not provide any kind of user interface for entering configuration parameters of WiFi network access.
For simplicity of setting up network connectivity, the network processor of CC3200 supports WPS and SmartConfig methods. WPS is considered unsecure, due to the mandatory PIN access mode, considered vulnerable to brute force attacks. Many prefer to disable WPS from Wifi router.
SmartConfig is a method introduced by TI for initial configuration of network access. The idea is simply to use a specific app in mobile or PC to transmit configuration parameters to the embedded device over wireless network. But how to do that if no initial network configuration exists?
When no configuration exists, the embedded device can not join any network, secured or unsecured, but it can listen to all traffic in a silent monitor mode
The length of a packet is the coding key, a modern day Morse code. An application transmits dummy UDP packets with certain length. Device listens to the traffic and recognizes certain fixed pattern of packet lengths. After the pre-ample the actual network configuration including SSID and WPA key is transmitted as coded into packet length of following messages. Once network configuration is received, the device can start operating normally using the available network infrastructure.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fatty Brit 4G networks SLOW DOWN. Too much Bacon, perhaps?
Leap in demand puts pressure on service, love handles blamed
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/05/uk_fatty_4g_networks_slow_down_too_much_bacon_perhaps/
Brits clamouring to sign new mobile contracts to get their hands on speedier networks might want to pause for thought: 4G speeds have halved in the past year just as demand rose.
This is according to a new market report from Which? — working in collaboration with OpenSignal. The mag said it used real data and real people to come up with its findings, unlike industry reports touting coverage maps based on computer modelling.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Forget 5G, UK.gov is making 2G fit for the 21st century!
Ministry of Fun gets tough on everything … except NIMBYs
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/06/forget_5g_uk_govt_is_making_2g_fit_for_the_21st_century/
The government flagged up the biggest shake-up in mobile regulation for 25 years yesterday. Tories who ridiculed Ed Miliband’s intervention in the energy market might need to remove the large wooden beam from their field of vision first.
Four major policy options are suggested in the Ministry of Fun’s rural mobile consultation paper (PDF) – which comes with two surprises. The first of these is that the remit of the exercise is broader than anyone thought. It isn’t just about curing the odd mobile phone “dead zone” in remote rural areas, like, say, Chipping Norton. DCMS has set about tackling “partial not-spots”. And what’s a “partial not-spot”? It’s anywhere where you don’t get coverage from all four MNOs (mobile network operators).
The second surprise is that the government wants to shake up the wholesale mobile market. The UK today has a lively MVNO market – with 40 virtual operators.
The debt-encrusted operators found MVNOs a useful additional income stream after paying billions for their 3G licences, and millions of punters are happy to pay less for their phone service even if it means being (slightly) a second class mobile citizen. But that might change.
Currently, an MNO signs an exclusivity agreement with the MVNO, so they can manage usage and costs. The Ministry of Fun wants virtual MNOs (MVNOs) to be able to pick and choose from their wholesaler in real time – scavenging the big four for the best signal they can find.
But there are existing long-term contracts consider. One MNO told us that the proposal was too risky to be justifiable,