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:
IoT in the enterprise up three-fold, study finds
300%+ increase in deployments in two years, study finds.
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2851717/internet-of-things/iot-in-the-enterprise-up-three-fold-study-finds.html
nternet of Things deployment in the enterprise has increased 333% since 2012, according to research from an Internet of Things company.
Zebra Technologies, a maker of marking and printing products using RFID and real-time location services, says a study it commissioned and conducted by Forrester Research found that IoT deployment in businesses increased over threefold since 2012. Nearly 65% of its survey respondents have deployed IoT technologies in the enterprise in 2014, compared to only 15% in 2012.
At that time, Zebra found that 36% of IT managers and CIOs were still unfamiliar with the term “Internet of Things.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
10 Hot Internet of Things Startups
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2602474/internet-of-things/10-hot-internet-of-things-startups.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
The ABCs of the Internet of Things7
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2176643/smb/the-abcs-of-the-internet-of-things7.html
How the ‘Internet of Thing’ will become the Internet of Things
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2365080/opensource-subnet/how-the-internet-of-thing-will-become-the-internet-of-things.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
University of Texas at Austin, researchers have developed without operating the radio waves magnets of the rotary member. Body of rotator can be implemented in integrated circuit materials and integrated into the size of a few microns. Even the current prototype is 75 times smaller than the operating wavelength. The system is based on three symmetrical resonator coupled parametric modulation. Their resonant frequencies are modulated by external signals having the same amplitude and 120 degree relative phase difference, which provides an efficient electrical angular torque system.
The radio wave circulator utilized in wireless communications to double the bandwidth by enabling full-duplex operation, ie, devices can send and receive signals in the same frequency band simultaneously.
Current circulators are usually based on magnetic materials and are therefore bulky and expensive. Thus, it is not used, for example, the current cellular network systems.
Researchers envision even micro-sized rotary element into the mobile phone technology.
Source: http://www.nanobitteja.fi/uutiset.html?537
Simple Circuit Could Double Cell-Phone Data Speeds
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/532616/simple-circuit-could-double-cell-phone-data-speeds/
A circuit that lets a radio send and receive data simultaneously over the same frequency could supercharge wireless data transfer.
The new circuit, known as a circulator, can isolate signals coming into a device from those it is sending out, acting as a kind of selective filter in between a device’s antenna and its radio circuitry. Circulators are already a crucial part of radar systems, but until now they have always been built using strong magnets made from rare earth metals, making them bulky and unsuited to the circuit boards inside devices such as laptops and smartphones.
The new circuit design avoids magnets, and uses only conventional circuit components. “It’s very cheap, compact, and light,” says Andrea Alù, the associate professor who led the work. “It’s ideal for a cell phone.”
The two-centimeter-wide device could easily be miniaturized and added to existing devices with little modification to the design. “This is just a standalone piece of hardware you put behind your antenna.”
When a wireless device’s antenna is connected to one of the wires leading into the circle, it isolates signals that have just been received from those the device has generated for transmission itself. The new design is described by Alù and colleagues in a paper in the journal Nature Physics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bluevision
http://bluvision.com/
BluZone Cloud Ecosystem.
Beacons + (SDK+ API + Cloud) = Complete Platform
BluZone provides complete cloud control and access to your entire worldwide beacon deployment, using only your Web Panel account. As always, the cloud plays a critical role in connecting and facilitating new technologies. This is especially true for Bluetooth beacon solutions. BluZone provides a secure network infrastructure that can support billions of context-aware beacons, processes, and real-time data from beacons in a single, secure control interface. The BluZone cloud-based portal connects your beacons for full console management and reporting, including triggering alerts or message notifications, and the ability to deliver new applications that can run on mobile apps or integrate together with virtually any iOS or Android third party customer mobile app solution.
BluVision offers its cloud based Beacon Management platform so you can build micro location enabled apps around BEEKS beacons. When you purchase beacons from us, you can manage all of them through our BluZone Beacon Management platform and easily add a great user experience and full real-time control to your apps and share your beacon locations with your own or other third party analytic solutions or apps.
Mobile devices will allow us to sense, control and understand the physical world by making objects smarter. Our vision is simple: making sense of the world around us. Many predict the ‘Internet Of Things’ will become a tremendous market and the BluVision framework brings it into a single platform for connecting the unconnected through intelligent beacon networks.
Video at http://www.tivi.fi/kaikki_uutiset/video+pikkulaite+ratkaisee+suuryritysten+esineiden+internet+ongelmia/a1031179
Tomi Engdahl says:
NXP to Pick Up Its Missing IoT Link – Bluetooth Low Energy
NXP to buy Quintic’s assets and IP
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324767&
In pursuing the growing Internet of Things market, NXP Semiconductors has picked up a key technology piece that was conspicuously absent from the company’s portfolio — Bluetooth Low Energy.
The Dutch company announced this week that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Quintic to acquire its assets and intellectual property (IP) related to the wearable and Bluetooth Low Energy IC business.
The company’s Bluetooth Low Energy products range from standalone Bluetooth Low Energy chips to those integrated with a sensor fusion hub based on ARM M4 cores — designed for wearable and fitness devices.
By adding security, NFC and MCUs — NXP’s strengths — to the combination of Bluetooth Low Energy and sensor hubs, NXP believes it will have a winning formula for IoT solutions.
Noting that NXP already has NFC and Zigbee, Mark Hamersma, general manager and senior vice president for emerging businesses at NXP, told EE Times, “With the acquisition of Bluetooth Low Energy technology, we now have all three connectivity standards” critical to IoT. “Our customers are delighted about this.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
GDTs on GR-1089 PSTN
http://www.eeweb.com/company-news/te_circuit_protection/gdts-on-gr-1089-pstn/
TE Circuit Protection has designed a Gas Discharge Tubes (GDT) that has a DC sparkover voltage 420 V. This device has capacitance at 1 MHz of =10000 MΩ. It is commonly used in GR-1089 : Public Switched Telephone Network Equipment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Embedded Modern Module
http://www.eeweb.com/company-news/ixys/embedded-modern-module/
The CPC2400E is an embedded modern module designed for applications to be used in remote diagnosis, telemetry and monitoring
The CPC2400E is a 2400 baud embedded modem module intended for applications that require a data communications link to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). The CPC2400E is a complete module on a small 1.0” x 2.5” printed circuit board that can be socketed or soldered into the host system motherboard. The module is FCC Part 68 approved and includes a user transferrable registration number. It also is a UL recognized component. The CPC2400E can be used in a variety of applications including set top box back channel communications, vending machines, remote utility metering, remote data acquisition, plus a host of other applications. The CPC2400E supports a standard serial V.24 TTL interface to the DTE equipment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
UK will miss the Internet of Things boat without a major boost in development
Digital Catapult CEO says UK needs IoT test beds so investors don’t go overseas
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2383666/uk-will-miss-the-internet-of-things-boat-without-a-major-boost-in-development
THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE of the London Digital Catapult centre has warned that the UK needs to ramp up development for the “huge revolution” that is the Internet of Things (IoT) or risk “losing out in the global race”.
“There is a huge amount of innovation coming [and] the IoT is a revolution that the UK should be a leader in. We have all the assets and all the strengths to do it,” he said.
Test beds are particularly important for the UK because it is only when people “get out and test ideas in what will be a legacy environment” that interoperability problems come to light.
“If we don’t take this opportunity we will once again create the ideas that everyone else commercialises.”
The idea is to advance the UK’s best digital ideas by bringing data to the forefront of the digital industry with a focus on four major challenges: trust and personal data; the IoT; building diverse datasets; and reducing licensing friction.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Software firms are over-valued, says Huawei
It’s only code, you greedy chunters
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/27/huawei_software_companies_are_overvalued/
Inflated valuations for software companies are discouraging possible acquirers, says Chinese giant Huawei.
The Chinese giant’s global IT chief Yelai Zheng told us the high prices software companies asked made them less attractive to Huawei.
“Communications companies are not expensive but IT and software companies are,” said Zheng, who built up Huawei’s $16bn wireless business from scratch. He is now president of IT products, which means network and storage gear sold into enterprises, rather than into carriers.
Zheng explained that software companies under-estimate the cost of integration into a larger company. Motivation can also be an issue once a company has been absorbed.
“If we acquire a not-so-strong company we won’t be able to develop as well,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
ESA and Airbus test LASER data networks IN SPAAACE
Satellite-to-satellite link at 0.6 gigabits per second
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/12/01/esa_and_airbus_test_laser_data_networks_in_spaaace/
The European Space Agency (ESA) and Airbus Defence say they has successfully sent data between satellites, using lasers, in a proof-of-concept demonstration of what both call the “SpaceDataHighway”.
A canned statement from Airbus Defence says two satellites – Sentinel-1A and Alphasat – were connected over a laser that beamed data between the two at “0.6 Gigabits per second of a possible 1.8 Gigabits per second over 45,000km”.
That’s handy if you’re monitoring a disaster, or if you have, as Airbus Defence puts it, “commercial and military applications that require such unparalleled near-real-time, high bandwidth communication services.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
EE says national roaming would delay 4G rollout by up to two years
Mongrel network claims the industry has a better idea
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2384118/ee-says-national-roaming-would-delay-4g-rollout-by-up-to-two-years
IMPLEMENTATION OF NATIONAL ROAMING could set the country’s 4G rollout back by “years”, according to a new report commissioned by EE.
The company, formed from a merger of the UK operations of Orange and T-Mobile, is reporting the findings of the Capital Economics Report.
The EE-funded research serves as a response to a consultation on national roaming recently undertaken by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
The idea of national roaming is that, in the event that a device cannot get a satisfactory mobile signal from its home network, it should be able to roam onto a rival’s infrastructure. At present this is possible in the UK only for 999 emergency calls.
The idea is more prevalent in India because of the large land mass and number of regional operators.
Similarly, national roaming agreements in the US are in place between smaller networks and the larger ones on a commercial basis, but the UK would be the first country in the world which would subject the idea to legislation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Global net neutrality pact hopes to silence European malcontents
The EU is making the wrong noises. Time to gang up
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2383954/global-net-neutrality-pact-hopes-to-silence-european-malcontents
THE ELECTRONIC FREEDOM FOUNDATION has announced a worldwide coalition of organisations dedicated to the fight for net neutrality.
The Global Net Neutrality Coalition defines the term thus: “Net neutrality requires that the internet be maintained as an open platform, on which network providers treat all content, applications and services equally, without discrimination.”
Comprising 25 organisations from 19 countries, the coalition will use its site as a repository for information regarding net neutrality laws and legislation in given territories, along with advice on petitioning the relevant authorities to preserve an equal internet for all.
Net neutrality is most recognised as a hot button topic in the US, where the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is currently deliberating on whether to deregulate the internet to allow ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ lanes.
The issue is relevant around the world, however. Only Brazil and The Netherlands have so far ratified legislation to ensure net neutrality, but the European Union came out squarely in favour of preserving an open internet earlier this year.
EU digital commissioner Günther Oettinger said last week that it was more important to ensure rural broadband availability than to preserve net neutrality
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internet of Things search engine wants the world to sell and exchange sensor data
Thingful working on ways to monetise IoT
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2383911/internet-of-things-search-engine-wants-the-world-to-sell-and-exchange-sensor-data
THE INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT) is perhaps perfectly named. It sounds vague, dense and complex and that’s because it is.
It’s a convoluted and intricate network of ideas, data and devices. It’s almost as though the name is aware of its own ambiguity, parodying itself and saying: ‘An internet of, erm, ‘things’ because there’s so much going on here we can’t even begin to sum it up in one word.’
Perhaps that’s what prompted the guys at Thingful to try to make sense of it all, putting as much information generated by the things it’s connected to – and that are connected to it – in one place, indexing it, and making it searchable for anyone.
“IoT today is basically a bunch of silos of data generated by sensors and devices including people wearing those things or driving cars or anything that is sensorised in any form,” Thingful chief marketing officer Andrew Caleya Chetty told The INQUIRER.
“There’s a lot of data but it goes through some kind of private back-end and, even though it’s in the public domain, it’s not easily accessible or searchable.”
However, Thingful is not only going to be an IoT search engine. “The search engine is the public face of Thingful. We are actually building a platform behind this that will allow enterprises to share private IoT data,” said Chetty.
Thingful said that discussions with the Met Office led the firm to suggest opening up the data in cars which already have climate control sensors.
EU law states that from 2015 all cars must have an embedded module for collision communications, so in the next five years all these cars will be connected to the IoT because of these sensors.
“We help search for this data and make it available in a way where the person that owns the data can entitle it for others to see and get something in exchange.
“In a bottom line statement, we are trying to create an IoT data monetisation possibility through the service and rules we are developing for Thingful.”
Thingful
https://thingful.net/site/about
Thingful® is a search engine for the Internet of Things, providing a unique geographical index of connected objects around the world, including energy, radiation, weather, and air quality devices as well as seismographs, iBeacons, ships, aircraft and even animal trackers. Thingful’s powerful search capabilities enable people to find devices, datasets and realtime data sources by geolocation across many popular Internet of Things networks, and presents them using a proprietary patent-pending geospatial device data search ranking methodology, ThingRank®.
Thingful also enables people and companies to claim and verify ownership of their things using a provenance mechanism, thereby giving them a single web page that aggregates information from all their connected devices no matter what network they’re on, in categories that include health, environment, home, transport, energy and flora & fauna. Users can also add objects to a Watchlist in order to keep track of them, monitor their realtime status and get notifications when they change.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chip Market for Wireless Sensor Networks on 23% CAGR
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324800&
he number of Internet connections will grow from 9 billion devices in 2014 to 100 billion by 2020, according to market research firm Radiant Insights of San Francisco.
That’s twice as many as the estimate from Cisco Systems Inc., which has been widely used by proponents of the Internet of Things (IoT). Radiant’s figure represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the period of about 50 percent. It is also four times higher than the 26 billion figure estimated by Gartner.
As a result of this explosion of connectivity, the worldwide market for chips supplying wireless sensor networks is set to grow from $2.7 billion in 2013 and reach $12 billion by 2020. This is a CAGR over the period of 23 percent.
Radiant predicts that wireless sensor networks will be used to monitor and control very many domestic, urban, and industrial systems. This promises to produce an explosion of data, much of which will be discarded as users are overwhelmed by the volume. As a result, analysis of the data within the wireless sensor network will become necessary so that alerts and meaningful information are generated at the leaf nodes.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Micron Expands IoT & Auto Memory Products
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324786&
Internet of Things
Gattani noted that Micron expects machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity to grow 6X over the next five years, with applications such as surveillance, smart metering, vendor machines, factory automation, and health monitoring. Baxter pointed out that the growth of M2M will require more cellular modules, which will drive the requirement for industrial applications with extended temperature ranges and product longevity with the right form factors. “We are actively engaged in developing solutions with key module makers, including ublox, ZTE, and Sierra Wireless,” he said.
What makes this challenging is the solutions must support 2G, 3G, and 4G technologies. For memory, this means that in addition to the NOR and DSRAM solutions that execute code out of DRAM for 2G, M2M memory modules must also support the newer store and download type architectures associated with 3G and 4G, where code is stored in NAND and executed out of the DRAM.
The form factor challenges of M2M designs are supporting a trend in multichip memory packages, where non-volatile memory (such as NAND or parallel NOR flash) is combined with a RAM (such as low-power DRAM or pseudo-SRAM/PSRAM) in a single package.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ethernet/IP Communications Development Platform
http://www.eeweb.com/design-library/ethernet-ip-communications-development-platform/
Targeted for Ethernet/IP slave communications, this development platform allows designers to mplement Ethernet/IP communications standards in a broad range of industrial automation equipment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vendors coalesce around ‘MGBase-T’ 2.5/5 Gbps Ethernet
It’s hard to keep up with 802.11 ac without wires nobody wants to buy
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/12/02/vendors_coalesce_around_255_gbps_ethernet/
The move beyond gigabit Ethernet is gathering pace, with a cluster of vendors gathering around the IEEE standards effort to help bring 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps speeds to the ubiquitous Cat 5e cable.
Members of the MGBase-Talliance include Aruba Networks, Broadcom, Brocade, Delta Electronics, Freescale Semiconductor, Pulse Electronics and Ruijie Networks.
With the IEEE standardisation process under way, the MGBase-T alliance represents industry’s effort to accelerate product availability and ensure interoperability.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wi-Fi HYPEGASM: Huawei demos 10Gbps in lab test
Chinese networks firm says it could see a standard … by 2018
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/30/huawei_claims_successful_10g_wifi_test/
Huawei has planted another flag in 802.11ax standardisation, claiming a demonstration of 10.53 Gbps Wi-Fi throughput in the 5 GHz band.
The lab trial took place on the company’s Shenzhen research campus.
The 802.11ax standard is at the very beginning of the long march towards the market. The IEEE board approved the standard effort in March after a year of groundwork.
Huawei says the key technologies that give it a ten-fold speed boost over 802.11ac’s current gigabit capability are “MIMO-OFDA, intelligent spectrum allocation, interference coordination, and hybrid access”.
The company is chairing the 802.11ax task group, and says it hopes the standard will be ratified in 2018.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Firefox 34 Arrives With Video Chat, Yahoo Search As Default
http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/12/01/2326225/firefox-34-arrives-with-video-chat-yahoo-search-as-default
Mozilla today launched Firefox 34 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Major additions to the browser include a built-in video chat feature, a revamped search bar, and tab mirroring from Android to Chromecast.
Firefox 34 arrives with Firefox Hello video chat, revamped search, and Chromecast tab mirroring from Android
http://venturebeat.com/2014/12/01/firefox-34-arrives-with-firefox-hello-video-chat-revamped-search-and-chromecast-tab-mirroring-from-android/
The biggest addition for the desktop platforms is Firefox Hello, a new Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) calling feature powered by Spanish carrier Telefonica. In Firefox 33 beta, Mozilla first introduced an experimental WebRTC feature that let users make free voice and video calls without needing to download additional software or plugins, or even to create an account.
Now the company is going further by partnering with Telefonica to providing users with what it calls “the first global communications system built directly into a browser.” Firefox Hello is powered by the OpenTok real-time communications platform from TokBox, a Telefonica company.
Mozilla wants to ensure users don’t need to hand over personal information in exchange for using its free communication service. Not only do you not have to sign up for a service, but you also don’t need the same software or hardware as the person you want to call, since WebRTC is compatible with Chrome and Opera browsers as well.
To use it, open Firefox, click on the chat bubble icon inside the customize menu, and connect with anyone who has a WebRTC-enabled browser by sharing the generated callback link. To call you, they’ll naturally need Firefox 34.
While an account isn’t required, Firefox Hello does let you sign in with your Firefox Account so you can initiate or receive direct calls with other Firefox Account users who are online, without having to share a callback link first. You can be reached on every computer that you’re signed into.
Firefox Hello also offers contact management.
For context, WebRTC is an open project that lets Internet users communicate in real-time via voice and video by simply using a WebRTC-compatible browser. It enables Web app developers to include real-time video calling and data sharing capabilities in their products, which can range from games to video conferencing tools.
Firefox has supported WebRTC support for months, and Mozilla has been showing it off in various forms.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ethernet surge protector works outdoors
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4437771/Ethernet-surge-protector-works-outdoors?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20141201&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20141201&elq=fc2940b702dc43cb92d871e3ef1439fc&elqCampaignId=20418
Furnished in a metal weatherproof enclosure, the PD-OUT/SP11 from Microsemi protects indoor Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) and non-PoE enterprise installations from lightning that may come from the outdoor environment through the Ethernet cable. The single-port device protects all eight lines of the Ethernet cable, while enabling data streams of up to 10/100/1000 Mbps and PoE levels of up to 95 W.
The PD-OUT/SP11 withstands lightning surges up to 10 kV in accordance with GR-1089, IEC 61643-21, and ITU-T K.45 standards.
Microsemi, http://www.microsemi.com
Tomi Engdahl says:
RF considerations in wireless sensor networks
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-iot-/4437791/RF-considerations-in-wireless-sensor-networks?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20141202&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20141202&elq=070a8b286c914368ae4bb2cd95690776&elqCampaignId=20440
In the Internet of Things there are many applications for wireless sensor networks (WSN), including industrial and healthcare monitoring, landslide and forest fire detection, and building automation. Which wireless technology is best for a given application, however, depends on many design considerations. Here are a few to think about.
The typical sensor node in a wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of a sensor, a micro-control unit (MCU), and a radio frequency (RF) circuit. The sensor node is usually powered by battery (although a new class of sensors may be powered by harvested energy). It could be hard to replace the battery for sensor nodes in WSN, thus power consumption is a critical constraint for sensor node design.
Experimental measurements have shown, however, that in general, data transmission consumes much more energy than data processing. As a result, RF power consumption considerations are very important in the design of a WSN node, perhaps even more than CPU power, and choosing the right RF system is critical.
There are, however, many tradeoffs to consider. WiFi, for example, has a typical data rate of 54 Mbps and power consumption of up to more than 100 mW in receive and 200 mW in transmit. ZigBee, on the other hand, has lower power consumption but also a lower data rate. Still, there are some general guidelines that can be followed.
Calculation shows that a 900 MHz radio can last 2.6 times longer than a 2.4 GHz does. That is to say, for the same link budget, a 2.4 GHz radio consumes more than twice the power a 900 MHz uses.
The 2.4 GHz band is crowd and has a higher chance of interference. So it’s easy to say that sub-GHz radio is a better choice for WSN application.
Modulation technique helps set the data rate achievable.
In order to consume the least energy, then, RF circuit should be shut down when they are not working, and be woken up when transmission is needed. That means a sensor node needs to be able to tell when to shut down or wake up the RF circuit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New York Public Library will rent Wi-Fi hotspots to people who need it most
Sprint Wi-Fi hotspots will be funded partly by a $1 million donation from Google.
http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/12/new-york-public-library-will-rent-wi-fi-hotspots-to-people-who-need-it-most/
The New York Public Library, as well as the Queens Library and the Brooklyn Public Library, will begin renting out 10,000 Wi-Fi hotspots to residents later this month, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. A press release provided to Ars by the New York Public library noted that the New York and Brooklyn Public Libraries will rent out the hotspots for six months to a year to residents who don’t have broadband and who are enrolled in library programs and adult learning programs. The Queens Library will lend the mobile hotspots from five of its libraries to anyone with a library card.
The hotspots will be provided by Sprint.
A New York Public Library spokesperson told Ars via e-mail that people who borrow the hotspots will need “to sign an ‘acceptable use agreement’” as required by Sprint.
The announcement is yet another front in New York City’s efforts to bring Internet access to all of its residents. Earlier this month, the city announced that it will roll out a new communications network called LinkNYC, which will turn old payphones into kiosks that offer “up to gigabit speeds.” Those 10,000 kiosks will be funded by advertisements surrounding them and will offer free domestic calls as well.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix accused of creating fast lanes “at the expense of competitors”
FCC commissioner revives claims made by Internet service providers.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/12/netflix-accused-of-creating-fast-lanes-at-the-expense-of-competitors/
Ajit Pai of the Federal Communications Commission today accused Netflix of “secur[ing] ‘fast lanes’ for its own content” at the expense of competitors and deploying proprietary caching systems in order to force Internet service providers to use nonstandard equipment.
The letter describes Netflix’s support for regulating ISPs as utilities in order to prevent them from charging content providers for “fast lanes” and then accuses Netflix of creating fast lanes for itself.
Netflix declined to comment when contacted by Ars.
The Netflix fast lanes Pai referred to seem to be the “Open Connect” video storage and caching boxes that Netflix provides to ISPs. Although Netflix doesn’t charge ISPs for this equipment, Netflix gets to reduce its costs if the ISPs host it within their own facilities. Despite the name “Open Connect,” the systems are proprietary, Pai noted.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Comcast became a powerful—and controversial—part of the Internet backbone
Comcast tells Ars why it’s not to blame in Netflix fight—it was only business.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/07/how-comcast-became-a-powerful-and-controversial-part-of-the-internet-backbone/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mellanox unveils new 100Gb/s direct attach copper and active optical cables
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/11/mellanox-100g-aoc-directattach.html
Mellanox Technologies (NASDAQ: MLNX) has announced sample availability for its LinkX brand 100Gb/s direct attach copper (DAC) and active optical cable (AOC) products for both EDR 100Gb/s InfiniBand and 100 Gigabit Ethernet data center networks. Mellanox will demonstrate its 100Gb/s DAC cables of 2, 4, 6 and 8 meter lengths, and 100 and 200 meter active optical cables at this week’s Supercomputing 2014 conference (SC14) in New Orleans (Nov. 16-20).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Allied Telesis awarded for SDN-based IT infrastructure management system
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/11/allied-telesis-icmg-award.html
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Allied Telesis, a specialist in IP/Ethernet network delivery systems, announced that it has been awarded the 2014 iCMG Architecture Award of Excellence, in the judging’s IT Infrastructure category (including data centers, network, and security products), for its Allied Telesis Management Framework (AMF) technology for network management.
According to Allied Telesis, AMF is a framework/architecture that provides a simplified approach to network management; using AMF, common tasks are automated or made so simple that the everyday management of a network can be automated, freeing up valuable IT resources to focus on more complicated tasks that they are best suited to, leading to an overall reduced total cost of ownership (TCO). AMF is also a key component of Allied Telesis’ emerging SDN platform. The technology integrates natively with the OpenFlow protocol, both by auto-provisioning a communication channel to OpenFlow controllers, and by using OpenFlow as a management mechanism for OpenFlow-enabled devices.
As explained by the company, the AMF framework embeds management intelligence into the network nodes, and enables the network itself to manage tasks such as device backup, software upgrades, zero-touch configuration of newly-connected nodes, and updating multiple nodes’ configurations simultaneously. Moreover, AMF enables an entire network to be managed as a single entity from any device within the network, providing flexibility and resilience should the management device become unavailable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Data center cabling standards summarized
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/11/data-center-cabling-standards.html
“The future of your data center network is a moving target, but one thing is certain: It will be faster.”
The four developments are: 40GBase-T, Category 8, 32G and 128G Fibre Channel, and 400GbE.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scalable and Secure Device Management for Telecom, Network, SDN/NFV and IoT Devices
Whether you are building a high end router or deploying an IoT sensor network, a Device Management Framework including support for new standards such as NETCONF/YANG and Web Technologies such as Representational State Transfer (ReST) are fast becoming standard requirements.
Next generation Device Management Frameworks can provide substantial advantages over legacy SNMP and proprietary frameworks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What is NETCONF?
http://www.tail-f.com/education/what-is-netconf/
NETCONF is a protocol defined by the IETF to “install, manipulate, and delete the configuration of network devices”. NETCONF operations are realized on top of a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) layer using an XML encoding and provides a basic set of operations to edit and query configuration on a network device.
NETCONF
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NETCONF
The Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF) is a network management protocol developed and standardized by the IETF. It was developed in the NETCONF working group and published in December 2006 as RFC 4741 and later revised in June 2011 and published as RFC 6241
NETCONF provides mechanisms to install, manipulate, and delete the configuration of network devices. Its operations are realized on top of a simple remote procedure call (RPC) layer. The NETCONF protocol uses an Extensible Markup Language (XML) based data encoding for the configuration data as well as the protocol messages. The protocol messages are exchanged on top of a secure transport protocol.
The NETCONF protocol can be conceptually partitioned into four layers:
The Content layer consists of configuration data and notification data.
The Operations layer defines a set of base protocol operations to retrieve and edit the configuration data.
The Messages layer provides a mechanism for encoding remote procedure calls (RPCs) and notifications.
The Secure Transport layer provides a secure and reliable transport of messages between a client and a server.
The NETCONF protocol has been implemented in network devices such as routers and switches by some major equipment vendors. One particular strength of NETCONF is its support for robust configuration change transactions involving a number of devices.
The IETF developed the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) in the late 1980s and it proved to be a very popular network management protocol. In the early part of the 21st century it became apparent that in spite of what was originally intended, SNMP was not being used to configure network equipment, but was mainly being used for network monitoring.
It turned out that operators were primarily using proprietary Command Line Interfaces (CLI) to configure their devices. This had a number of features that the operators liked, including the fact that it was text-based, as opposed to the BER-encoded SNMP. In addition, many equipment vendors did not provide the option to completely configure their devices via SNMP. As operators generally liked to write scripts to help manage their boxes, they did find the CLI lacking in a number of ways.
Around this same time, Juniper Networks had been using an XML-based network management approach. This was brought to the IETF and shared with the broader community. Collectively, these two events led the IETF in May 2003 to the creation of the NETCONF working group.
The content of NETCONF operations is well-formed XML. Most content is related to network management.
The NETMOD working group has completed work to define a “human-friendly” modeling language for defining the semantics of operational data, configuration data, notifications, and operations, called YANG. YANG is defined in RFC 6020, and is accompanied by the “Common YANG Data Types” found in RFC 6021.
During the summer of 2010, the NETMOD working group was re-chartered to work on core configuration models (system, interface, and routing) as well as work on compatibility with the SNMP modeling language.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NETCONF YANG tutorial
http://www.slideshare.net/tailfsystems/netconf-yang-tutorial
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tail-f Webinar OpenFlow Switch Management Using NETCONF and YANG
http://www.slideshare.net/tailfsystems/tail-f-webinar-openflow-switch-management-using-netconf-and-yang?related=1
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internet of Things is working days, not a bunch of visions
Pöyry’s CEO Pasi Tolppanen looks at the technology industry CEO blog, industrial Internet and downloaded to the expectations of Finnish savior.
He wants to bring out the engineering point of view: industrial internet has long been the norm, and it develops step by step in all sectors.
“Engineers may be painful to see the industry in innovation to be treated as public figures: first, the Exalted from earth to heaven, and then pulled down the pedestals. Industrial activity is long-term and everyday. At times insights, most of the time they are carried out, “he writes on the blog.
Tolppanen raises two key issues that govern success in the future:
1. Solve real problems
We need to be very open to different ideas, to be able to test them as quickly as possible and to start implementing the best.
2. Keeping in mind the safety
No one knows how to secure all connected equipment. This requires the active preparation and anticipation of problems.
Although the speech on the Internet related to the industrial Tolppa- according to the hype, in his opinion, Finland can really rise if we can break through the limits of industrial sectors and security described in, for example, allows connections to more resource efficiency, energy, forestry, chemistry, software, and technology industry cooperation.
“We already have the technology and talent to new large entities”
Source: http://summa.talentum.fi/article/tv/uutiset/115276
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google brings better, faster TV and internet hardware to Austin for Fiber launch
http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/3/7326933/google-brings-improved-fiber-hardware-to-austin
Google Fiber signups in Austin are now underway, and when installations begin, Austinites will be the first to try Google’s new, improved hardware for its gigabit internet service.
The Network+ Box is the centerpiece of Google Fiber in the home, offering four gigabit ethernet ports and full support for 802.11ac Wi-Fi. It also includes 2TB of storage for your DVR recordings. Some Fiber customers in Kansas City and other existing Fiber markets have had to deal with a separate box for that disk space (which should store about 500 hours of HD content), but Google says the updated hardware will find its way to those cities in the coming weeks and months.
The TV Box also continues to double as a Wi-Fi extender if it detects a weak Wi-Fi signal.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Bluetooth 4.2 spec brings IPv6, better privacy, and increased speed [Updated]
Some, but not all, features will require new hardware.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/12/new-bluetooth-4-2-spec-brings-ipv6-better-privacy-and-increased-speed/
Almost exactly a year ago, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) announced Bluetooth 4.1, an update that improved speed for bulk data transfers, reduced the likelihood of LTE interference, and made it easier for various “smart” devices to talk directly to one another without using a hub like a phone or computer as an intermediary. The final update to the spec laid the groundwork for the introduction of IPv6 to the Bluetooth specification—the newly announced Bluetooth 4.2 completes that work, and devices that support it will be able to access the Internet directly over IPv6 and 6LoWPAN.
Other improvements to the specification concern themselves with privacy and speed. With Bluetooth 4.2, Bluetooth beacons attempting to connect to and track your device can’t do so unless you’ve given them permission. Transfer speeds between two Bluetooth devices have also improved by “up to 2.5 times” thanks to increased capacity for Bluetooth Smart data packets, which can now contain about ten times as much data as before.
It was possible for existing Bluetooth 4.0 adapters to support Bluetooth 4.1 with a software update, and we’ve contacted the Bluetooth SIG to confirm that this is also the case for Bluetooth 4.2.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Do You Feel IoT Device Fatigue Yet?
You can wear app, but advertisers can wear you
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1324824&
After the novelty of the wearable device wears off, will consumers settle into device fatigue or out-and-out revolt? Who wants the whole neighborhood knowing you forgot to brush your teeth?
Morgan Stanley’s wearable forecast is bullish. Its analysts expect shipments to grow at a 154% compounded annual rate from 6 million in 2013 to 248 million in 2017. That projection is “more than double industry estimates and is arguably still conservative,” the report said.
But how do consumers benefit, I wonder. What incentivizes non-corporate people to go whole hog for IoT devices?
Current-generation IoT/wearable devices are often paired with smartphones and tablets. They usually have apps to decipher sensor data collected by a personal IoT end node. Alternately, the mobile device sends IoT data to the cloud for further analysis.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bluetooth 4.2 Unveiled: No Mesh Yet, But Big on IoT
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324835&
With new Bluetooth 4.2 specs published today, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) promises to deliver several incremental but solid performance increases. They include such features as lower power consumption, much faster data transfer, a set of the government-approved security measures, and a new mechanism for privacy.
However, the biggest news about Bluetooth 4.2, especially for IoT device developers, is a newly created profile known as IPSP. It is designed to enable IPv6 for Bluetooth; wearable or IoT devices (based on Bluetooth Low Energy) no longer need to be paired with a smartphone or a tablet to connect to the cloud. “IoT devices can directly go to the Internet, as long as there is a Bluetooth/WiFi-enabled routers or a set-top box installed in a home,” Mark Powell, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG, told EE Times. “Through this IP-supported profile, we are opening new doors for IoT developers, allowing them to design devices targeting specific applications.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The pace of change has never been greater in enterprise communications and collaboration. A new set of capabilities, empowered by the combination of Mobility, the Cloud, Video, software architectures and Unified Communications, is changing expectations for what IT can deliver. The phrase “Communications Transforming Business” is becoming the new normal.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Verizon starts killing off 3G networks to make room for LTE
https://gigaom.com/2014/12/03/verizon-starts-killing-off-3g-networks-to-make-room-for-lte/
Verizon has already launched two distinct LTE networks since it first turned on 4G in 2010, but now it’s started paving the way for the third. Unlike the first two, however, this new network won’t tap virgin airwaves. Instead Verizon has started cannibalizing its old CDMA EV-DO systems for PCS spectrum, marking the beginning of what will likely be a very slow death for 3G.
The 1980MHz/1990MHz chunk of frequencies has traditionally been part Verizon’s 3G EV-DO network, or it was until last month when Milanovic noticed it was turned off
This week, though, Milanovic noticed that those empty airwaves had once again jumped back to life, but with LTE instead of CDMA signals. Milanovic said that he’s found Verizon LTE in the PCS band at cell sites all over Manhattan, but so far nothing in Brooklyn and Queens. The transmit power of the network is still very low and the internet speeds he’s getting are still very slow, he said, indicating that Verizon is still in the early stages of testing. There have also been reports on network-tracking site SG4U of LTE popping up on Verizon’s PCS band in Cleveland.
I pinged Verizon, and spokeswoman Debra Lewis confirmed that Verizon is indeed testing LTE on the PCS band, though she said Verizon wouldn’t go into any specifics on locations or timing for a commercial launch.
Verizon has said it would begin repurposing a portion of its 3G bandwidth for LTE in 2015.
That day is still a long time coming, though. About 80 percent of Verizon’s mobile data traffic now rides over LTE, but some 40 million (41 percent) of the total devices on Verizon’s networks only have 2G and 3G radios.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Can We Get Business to Care about Freedom, Openness and Interoperability?
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/how-can-we-get-business-care-about-freedom-openness-and-interoperability
They use our stuff. Why not our values too?
At this point in history, arguments for using Linux, FOSS (free and open-source software) and the Internet make themselves. Yet the virtues behind those things—freedom, openness, compatibility, interoperability, substitutability—still tend to be ignored by commercial builders of new stuff.
For example, US health care, like pretty much every business category, is full of Linux and FOSS, and is to some degree connected on the Net. Yet, it remains a vast feudal system of suppliers that nearly all work to lock doctors, hospitals and labs into dependency on closed, proprietary, incompatible, non-interoperable and non-substitutable systems.
We are seeing the same thing start to happen already with the Internet of Things (IoT), about which Bruce Sterling has written a brilliant essay titled The Epic Struggle of The Internet of Things. “The first thing to understand about the ‘Internet of Things’”, he says, “is that it’s not about Things on the Internet. It’s a code term that powerful stakeholders have settled on for their own purposes. They like the slogan ‘Internet of Things’ because it sounds peaceable and progressive. It disguises the epic struggle over power, money and influence that is about to ensue. There is genuine Internet technology involved in the ‘Internet of Things’. However, the legacy Internet of yesterday is a shrinking part of what is at stake now.”
One dividing line is between standards and platforms built on them. This is also the line between infrastructure and commerce in the “layers of time”
FOSS building materials are all at the Infrastructure layer. So are the standards that create the Net and the Web: TCP/IP, HTTP and the rest. These and countless thousands (millions?) of standards and code bases support boundless freedom and generativity for everything that’s built on them and with them, up at the Commerce and Fashion-Art levels.
Tomi Engdahl says:
1st text message is sent, December 3, 1992
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/edn-moments/4402146/1st-text-message-is-sent–December-3–1992?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20141203&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20141203&elq=5e332611780f470abe43ff83860ddb14&elqCampaignId=20454
Neil Papworth, a 22-year-old test engineer for Sema Group (now Airwide Solutions), sent the first text message on December 3, 1992, from his personal computer to the Vodafone network to the phone of Richard Jarvis.
Omnipoint Communications, the first GSM carrier in America, set up the first text messaging service in the United States. Omnipoint soon after offered the first texting between the US and the rest of the world, starting a 160 character micro-blog trend that Twitter would make even more popular. (Twitter reserves 20 characters for non-message content and maintains a 140 character limit.)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tips for home automation IoT design
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-iot-/4437824/Tips-for-home-automation-IoT-design
Home automation using the Internet of Things has seen considerable activity in the last year, and the enthusiasm shows no signs of stopping. But for the home automation IoT to become a mainstream market, devices need to keep the consumer’s experience both easy and consistent. Recently published guidelines provide insights into how the home automation IoT should operate in order to provide that experience.
HGI (formerly the Home Gateway Initiative) is a trade organization working in support of broadband service providers empowering the digital home. In May, as part of that effort, HGI released its document RD039, Requirements for Wireless Home Area Networks (WHANs) Supporting Smart Home Services. The document contains many valuable tips on how a home automation IoT product offering should behave.
Though HGI-RD039 specifically targets the operation of home automation equipment and a linked home gateway or similar device (called a “coordinator” in the document), its recommendations and requirements serve as an excellent template for the operation of any type of home automation IoT. Take its stance on device installation and configuration. The specifications provide a balance among ease-of-use for consumers, low cost and power for device designs, and highly secure operation. Among other requirements, the document says that devices:
Must offer a step-by-step installation guide for consumers, and these guides must be as similar as possible for all device types
Must be able to be installed and configured in the WHAN without the use of any other network, and should be able to be configured remotely
Must provide push-button pairing between the device and the coordinator (for secure authentication during setup)
Must automatically reconfigure when the coordinator or devices are rebooted and should be able to be reconfigured via a secure restore feature should the coordinator be replaced — without requiring manual repairing.
The specifications also provide guidelines on the maximum tolerable delay between command and response in such things as light switches (300 msec) and sudden-event sensors like motion detectors (1,000 msec).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lev Grossman / TIME:
Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to wire the world and put every single human being online
http://time.com/facebook-world-plan/
The story of Facebook’s first decade was one of relentless, rapacious growth, from a dorm-room side project to a global service with 8,000 employees and 1.35 billion users, on whose unprotesting backs Zuckerberg has built an advertising engine that generated $7.87 billion last year, a billion and a half of it profit. Lately, Zuckerberg has been thinking about what the story of Facebook’s second decade should be and what most becomes the leader of a social entity that, if it were a country, would be the second most populous in the world, only slightly smaller than China.
At 30, Zuckerberg still comes off as young for his age. He says “like” and “awesome” a lot.
But he’s not the angry, lonely introvert of The Social Network. That character may have been useful for dramatic purposes, but he never actually existed.
Zuckerberg can be extremely awkward in conversation, but that’s not because he’s nervous or insecure; nervous, insecure people rarely become the 14th richest person in the world. Zuckerberg is in fact supremely confident, almost to the point of being aggressive.
Zuckerberg has been thinking about Facebook’s long-term future at least since the site exceeded a billion users in 2012.
Fulfilling the actual mission, connecting the entire world, wouldn’t actually, literally be possible unless everybody in the world were on the Internet. So Zuckerberg has decided to make sure everybody is. This sounds like the kind of thing you say you’re going to do but never actually do, but Zuckerberg is doing it. He is in Chandauli today on a campaign to make sure that actually, literally every single human being on earth has an Internet connection. As Sandberg puts it (she’s better at sound bites than Zuckerberg): “If the first decade was starting the process of connecting the world, the next decade is helping connect the people who are not yet connected and watching what happens.”
Part of Zuckerberg’s problem-solving methodology appears to be to start from the position that all problems are solvable, and moreover solvable by him.
The population of the earth is currently about 7.2 billion. There are about 2.9 billion people on the Internet, give or take a hundred million. That leaves roughly 4.3 billion people who are offline and need to be put online. “What we figured out was that in order to get everyone in the world to have basic access to the Internet, that’s a problem that’s probably billions of dollars,” he says. “Or maybe low tens of billions. With the right innovation, that’s actually within the range of affordability.”
Zuckerberg made some calls, and the result was the formation last year of a coalition of technology companies that includes Ericsson, Qualcomm, Nokia and Samsung. The name of this group is Internet.org, and it describes itself as “a global partnership between technology leaders, nonprofits, local communities and experts who are working together to bring the Internet to the two-thirds of the world’s population that doesn’t have it.”
You’d think Zuckerberg the arch-hacker wouldn’t sully his hands with this kind of soft-science stuff, but in fact he doesn’t blink at it. He attacks social/economic/cultural problems the same way he attacks technical ones; in fact it’s not clear that he makes much of a distinction between them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
4.2 is the answer to life, the universe and the Internet of Everything
Bluetooth 4.2 will add direct IPv6 connections to sensors ‘n’ stuff
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/12/05/42_is_the_answer_to_life_the_universe_and_the_internet_of_everything/
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has signed off on version 4.2 of the Bluetooth core specification, and Internet of Stuff proponents will enjoy the fine print.
The headline item for punters in the enhanced spec is speed, but the detailed spec for protocol seems not to detail increased bitrates. What has been increased is packet size, apparently by a factor of ten. More data arriving at the same rate looks will certainly look and feel like faster transmission, even if the average user doesn’t know how the trick’s been achieved.
The other item of interest is that Bluetooth Smart-equipped devices will be able to access the Internet directly using Ipv6/6LoWPAN. This enhancement means Bluetooth devices on a network’s edge will be able to communicate with other existing Ipv6 devices, instead of bouncing through an intermediary.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Soon, almost every network has IoT-hacking
In 2020, the world of 20 billion networked device so-called Internet of Things. Or 50 billion depends on the teller. IDC predicts that in two years from 90 per cent of the global IT networks have been IoT data theft.
The figure is strikingly high. At the same time, it shows how important element of security is the future IoT networks.
IDC also predicts that after five years 90 percent of all IoT devices from collecting the data is located in the cloud services.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2166:pian-lahes-joka-verkossa-iot-tietomurto&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
AT&T still throttles “unlimited data”—even when network not congested
Half-megabit speeds force customers to abandon unlimited data.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/12/att-still-throttles-unlimited-data-even-when-network-not-congested/
A while back, we reported that AT&T had stopped throttling unlimited data users except in cases when the network is congested.
We were wrong. AT&T did change its policy to stop the automatic throttling of many unlimited data plans, but the company’s older, more draconian throttling policy still applies to customers with unlimited LTE data. AT&T told Ars the policy will be changed for all customers sometime in 2015, but it did not say whether that will happen closer to the beginning of the year or the end of the year.
Here’s how it works: Customers who have 3G or non-LTE 4G phones and “legacy unlimited data plans” are throttled for the remainder of the billing period after they exceed 3GB of data in a month, but only “at times and in areas that are experiencing network congestion.” 4G and LTE are practically synonymous these days, but AT&T also applies the 4G label to its HSPA+ network technology.
4G LTE customers with unlimited plans aren’t throttled until they reach 5GB of data.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fueling the Oil and Gas industry with IoT
http://blogs.microsoft.com/iot/2014/12/04/fueling-the-oil-and-gas-industry-with-iot/
To serve the constant demand for fuel and oil all over the globe, the petroleum supply chain hums 24 hours a day, from some of world’s most remote areas to its most accessible. The equipment involved in mining, moving, refining and selling it is expensive, and rugged, and comes from hundreds of manufacturers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT at sea: oceans of data aboard floating hotels
http://blogs.microsoft.com/iot/2014/11/24/iot-at-sea-oceans-of-data-aboard-floating-hotels/
Cities becoming smarter, more efficient with IoT and CityNext
http://blogs.microsoft.com/iot/2014/11/19/cities-becoming-smarter-more-efficient-with-iot-and-citynext/
Tomi Engdahl says:
New IoT Quick Start program: Start building the Internet of Your Things today
http://blogs.microsoft.com/iot/2014/12/04/new-iot-quick-start-program-start-building-the-internet-of-your-things-today/
If your company has been pondering the right time to begin building the Internet of Your Things, the answer is: Right now. The Internet of Things (IoT) is already helping companies all over the world innovate, become more efficient, and transform with new insights, business models and revenue streams.
The goal of an IoT Quick Start is to help you:
Identify specific business issues, along with cost and revenue benchmarks;
Set up, execute and review a proof-of-concept that blends existing in-house capability and cloud technologies with off-the-shelf IoT solutions;
Learn about Microsoft’s Azure IoT services and apply them to your own business goals;
Discover how other customers have benefited from Microsoft’s approach to IoT.
Tomi Engdahl says:
JUNIPER COMBINES OWN OS WITH OPEN COMPUTE HARDWARE
http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/focus/archive/2014/12/juniper-combines-own-os-open-compute-hardware
Networking vendor Juniper Networks has announced a switch that runs proprietary Junos software on top of hardware developed by the Open Compute Project (OCP).
The OCX1100 is a 72-port disaggregated switch with a throughput of 1.44 Tbps, and the first to marry open source hardware designs with a carrier-class network operating system. And yet, it will also offer the option of deleting Junos, and running any third-party network OS instead.
The new switch is intended for large scale data centers that host public cloud services, able to SUPPORT networks of hundreds of thousands of servers. It will appear on sale in the first quarter of 2015, and Juniper will offer discounts for buying in bulk.