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:
Users and data volume growth means that in the future mobile networks need to have much more smaller cells. Qualcomm gave indication of the future of their test, which took place Phoexin the Nascar races.
Qualcomm carried out in conjunction with the Sprint carrier with the Phoenix oval track test where the track pit area built in the 31 cell LTE base station network. This corresponds to the fact that one square kilometer would be as many as a thousand separate base stations and cells.
A dense network was built Airspan LTE-Advanced technology in support of AirSynergy 2000 pico-basestations, which are based on Qualcomm chipsets.
Nascar race is well suited to small cells Test Site, as the radio environment is technically challenging.
Source: Elektroniikkalehti
http://www.elektroniikkalehti.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1047:tuhat-solua-neliokilometrilla&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Embedded World – First impressions
Thursday, February 27, 2014
http://embeddedexperience.blogspot.fi/2014/02/embedded-world-first-impressions.html
Once again, it’s the time of the Embedded World in Nuremberg Germany, the biggest and most important event of it’s kind in Europe
Internet of Things (IoT) is the big theme of the event this year, and in the embedded industry in general. Wireless connectivity is very important part of the IoT scheme. There are some clear changes ongoing. Rising technologies are Wifi, Bluetooth Smart (the new official name of Bluetooth Low Energy), and Sub-GHz RF solutions. Other 2.4GHz radios, including Zigbee and classic Bluetooth are loosing market share.
ARM, Linux and Qt seems to be the winning combo.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Imp – perfect?
http://embeddedexperience.blogspot.fi/2014/02/imp-perfect.html
When I first heard of Imp, it was almost too good to be true; MCU module with Wifi in small form factor of SD card, readily available cloud connectivity and easy mean for configuration of wireless interface.
The concept is great especially for products were IoT connectivity is intended as an add-on option. The BOM price of the base product can be kept as low as possible. Only SD-card holder and an identification chip from Atmel is needed, which increases costs by ~1€.
The company has invented a clever way to configure Wifi network with help of mobile phone
Hardware specifications of the module are impressive.In the tiny form factor there are both ARM Cortex-M3 MCU and Wifi embedded. The SoC controller is STM32F205RG6 from ST Microelectronics with 128KB RAM and 1024 KB Flash, running at 120 MHz. The Wifi chip is Broadcom BCM43362 SiP, supporting 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n.
Among the 6 I/O lines available, one can have up to 3x UART, 2x I2C, 2xSPI, 6x ADC, 6x PWM, and of course 6x GPIO. Each pin can source up to 4mA current.
Only supported mean of programming is the Imp Cloud IDE, with somewhat unfamiliar scripting language called Squirrel.
Due to the Cloud-only approach, the module is risky choice for any commercial use. It’s hard to rely on third party service on which you have no control over at all.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cameron pitches UK-Germany 5G collaboration to Cebit
It looks like a pixie-dust-led recovery is upon us
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/10/cameron_pitches_ukgermany_5g_collaboration_to_cebit/
UK prime minister David Cameron has used a speech at the CeBit trade show to announce a UK-Germany collaboration to try and win the race to develop so-called 5G wireless technology.
Presumably stung by the way Asian giants like Samsung are stealing the 5G pixie-dust-and-unicorn-wind headline race, Cameron told Cebit that 5G is a technology “researchers all over the world are going for” that will cut the download time for a movie “to one second”.
Absent the hype, El Reg is at least confident that the research work will be of value in future mobile technologies, even if the single user of a mobile handset never gets the 10 Gbps Huwawei keynoted at 5G@Europe.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wireless Bills Go Up, and Stay Up
Phone Costs Tick Higher Even as Competition Increases Among Carriers
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304704504579429592281584078
Competition in the U.S. wireless market has increased over the past year, but so have Americans’ overall phone bills.
While carriers have trimmed the price of their plans here and there in recent months, billings per user continue to grow amid a shift to smartphones and a surge in wireless Internet use.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Euro cops on free Wi-Fi not-so-hotspots: For pity’s sake, don’t use them for email
… or banking. Or Facebook. What were you THINKING?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/10/wifi_insecurity_reminder/
Using free Wi-Fi hotspots poses a data risk to users, the boss of European police agency Europol warns.
Troels Oerting, head of Europol’s cybercrime centre, told BBC Click that growing number of attacks are being carried out via public Wi-Fi and that people should send personal data only across trusted networks.
“We have seen an increase in the misuse of Wi-Fi, in order to steal information, identity or passwords and money from the users who use public or insecure Wi-Fi connections,” he said.
“This has been a concern for years – that’s why sensible companies force employees to use VPN connections. A Firefox plugin called ‘Firesheep’ definitively demonstrated just how utterly insecure Wi-Fi hotspots can be back in 2010.”
“If you want to use an open Wi-Fi hotspot to search for the latest sports scores – go for it. But if you want to check your bank balance, read your email, have a private chat with your friends – get yourself a VPN service,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Free wi-fi hotspots pose data risk, Europol warns
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-26469598
Sensitive information should not be sent over public wi-fi hotspots, to avoid hackers stealing it, Europe’s top cybercrime police officer has warned.
The attackers were not using novel techniques, he said, but relied on well-known approaches that attempt to trick people into connecting to a hotspot that, superficially, resembles those seen in cafes, pubs and restaurants and other public spaces.
“Everything that you send through the wi-fi is potentially at risk, and this is something that we need to be very concerned about both as individual users but also as police,”
“There is the need for raising awareness of what the vulnerabilities are and what you should be doing to protect yourself whether you’re on the move or in a physical location,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel’s 800Gbps cables headed to cloud data centers and supercomputers
64 fibers pushing 25Gbps apiece stuffed into one cable connector.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/03/intels-800gbps-cables-headed-to-cloud-data-centers-and-supercomputers/
Intel and several of its partners said they will make 800Gbps cables available in the second half of this year, bringing big speed increases to supercomputers and data centers.
The new cables are based on Intel’s Silicon Photonics technology that pushes 25Gbps across each fiber. Last year, Intel demonstrated speeds of 100Gbps in each direction, using eight fibers. A new connector that goes by the name “MXC” holds up to 64 fibers (32 for transmitting and 32 for receiving), enabling a jump to 800Gbps in one direction and 800Gbps in the other, or an aggregate of “1.6Tbps” as Intel prefers to call it. (In case you’re wondering, MXC is not an acronym for anything.)
That’s a huge increase over the 10Gbps cables commonly used to connect switches and other equipment in data centers today.
“MXC cable assemblies have been sampled by Corning to customers and will be in production in Q3 2014,” an Intel presentation said. “US Conec announced that it will sell MXC connector parts to Corning and other connector companies.”
Microsoft and the Facebook-led Open Compute Project are among the organizations already testing out the MXC-based cables.
Providing faster connections between top-of-rack switches and core switches, and connecting servers to extra storage or GPUs are among the expected use cases.
Longer-term, Intel wants Silicon Photonics inside racks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researcher: CommScope is the top DAS vendor
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/03/abi-das-rankings.html
ABI Research has updated its DAS Vendor Competitive Assessment, and puts CommScope at the top of the heap.
“TE Connectivity was our second choice in the implementation category, again driven by market share and geographic penetration. Our third choice in the implementation category is Axell, which is the largest DAS vendor in Europe and a global leader in public-safety and transportation systems, and a growing presence in North America. With financial and technical backing from its parent Cobham, we expect Axell to continue to challenge for the top spot.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: Unforeseen challenges stymie outdoor small cell deployments
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/03/small-cell-challenges.html
“2013 was supposed to be the year for greater deployments of outdoor small cells, but installations haven’t proceeded as quickly as operators expected,”
According to the survey data, operators are finding that outdoor small cell deployments are more expensive than anticipated: more respondents now expect the 5-year TCO ratio of a small cell deployment to be 25% of a typical macrocell deployment, up from 10% in Infonetics’ 2012 survey.
The small cell and LTE backhaul survey finds that downstream bandwidth capacity is a top service-level agreement (SLA) metric for backhaul services supporting LTE and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A).
Further, 1/4 of operators surveyed indicated they will use software-defined networking (SDN) in outdoor small cell backhaul networks by 2016 or later.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TIA developing standard addendum for industrial connector
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/03/tia-1005a1.html
“The industry is adopting higher data rates that require new connectors that are small-form-factor and sealed,” the TIA said when announcing the call for interest. “The M12-8 X coding connector has been adopted by many international standards organizations and national consortia for use in industrial areas. This addendum is being developed to provide necessary information regarding the use of this connector.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Indonesia plans 10 Gbps FTTP as part of 20-million-premises broadband project
World’s fourth-largest nation about to come online, bigtime
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/11/indonesia_plans_10_gbps_broadband_sprint/
Indonesia is the latest country to announce a mass deployment of fibre-to-the-home, and has tapped Alcatel-Lucent for the rollout.
During February, Telkom Akses (the infrastructure arm of incumbent Telkom) declared 2014 the year it will “build greatness”, and on March 7, it stated (Google translation) a target of passing 20 million homes on Indonesia’s roughly 900 inhabited islands. Currently, Telkom passes just 8.2 million homes with broadband services, using a mix of FTTH, FTTC and ADSL.
The ambitious rollout aims to deliver 10Gbps down/2.5 Gbps up broadband services using XGPON technologies.
Indonesia is home to 250 million people, making it the world’s fourth-most-populous nation. It’s also the world’s fifteenth-largest national economy
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel and pals whip out 1.6Tbit/s cable: Come on baby, light my fibre
Something for your data center’s bright sparks to think about
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/10/intel_mxc_optical_cable/
Intel is touting an optical cable capable of carrying 1.6Tbps through data centers: it’ll give network builders blistering fast transfer speeds in the short term, and allow the chip giant to re-think how servers are built in the long-term.
New details on the MXC cables were announced on Monday. They are made with the help of Corning and US Conec, the three companies working as one to shake up how servers are chained together.
Each cable can cram in up to 64 fibers each running at 25Gbps, leading to a total aggregate bandwidth of 1.6Tbps – that’s 800Gbps flowing in each direction. Each cable can be used reliably over a length of 300 metres.
Tomi Engdahl says:
So, What is the Difference Between Smart Energy and the Smart Home?
http://rtcmagazine.com/articles/view/103444
There are at least three different networks that will be used inside the home. Not all of them have the same purpose. Indeed, not all of them serve the direct interests of the home owner.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Providing a Built-in Foundation for Internet Security
http://rtcmagazine.com/articles/view/103491
Protecting the Internet of Things from attacks on critical data and designs requires that modern embedded systems be effortlessly and inexpensively secured with a combination of flexible, intelligent and reactive countermeasures all built on a hardware root-of-trust.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NBN backbone passes TERABIT test
Transiting Toowoomba to the max
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/11/nbn_backbone_passes_terabit_test/
US systems vendor Coriant has announced a successful test of a backbone fibre “superchannel” running at 1 Terabit per second over a 1,066-km NBN fibre ring in the south-east Queensland city of Towoomba.
The kit used in the test should provide a maximum theoretical capacity of 13 Tbps, Coriant adds.
The super-channel created a 369 GHz DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) grid
Tomi Engdahl says:
ITU given keys to autonomous car standards process
Trials expected on public roads in six years
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/12/itu_given_keys_to_autonomous_car_standards_development_process/
The International Telecommunications Union has communed with the auto industry and agreed “to host a dialogue of senior executives of vehicle manufacturers to identify the activities needed to consider future steps to realize the potential of fully autonomous driving.”
That statement, part of a communiqué issued in the wake of the ITU’s Future Networked Car symposium, puts the ITU in the driving seat to define the standards necessary to allow use of autonomous cars, and then lead development of those standards.
If the ITU succeeds it could mean an interoperability standard that all auto-makers can use, which should help to speed autonomous car adoption.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here’s The Technology That’s Going To Make Your Phone’s Internet 1,000 Times Faster Than 4G
http://www.businessinsider.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-pcell-2014-3
Founded in 2011, Artemis is a startup working on pCell, a new wireless standard that it thinks could leapfrog 4G altogether.
Like any new, potentially disruptive technology, pCell has a ton of hype and uncertainty around it.
Rather than carefully spacing out a relatively small number of towers, Artemis wants to deploy a massive number of boxes the size of routers — called “pWaves” — that will provide much better service to a much smaller area.
Rather than working against interference, pCell embraces the collision of radio waves.
pWave radios use a 1-milliwatt transmitter to deliver data, compared with the 250 milliwatts used by most Wi-Fi radios and even larger amounts of power used by cellular towers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
An online Magna Carta: Berners-Lee calls for bill of rights for web
Exclusive: web’s inventor warns neutrality under sustained attack from governments and corporations
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/12/online-magna-carta-berners-lee-web
The inventor of the world wide web believes an online “Magna Carta” is needed to protect and enshrine the independence of the medium he created and the rights of its users worldwide.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee told the Guardian the web had come under increasing attack from governments and corporate influence and that new rules were needed to protect the “open, neutral” system.
Barners-Lee’s Magna Carta plan is to be taken up as part of an initiative called “the web we want”, which calls on people to generate a digital bill of rights in each country – a statement of principles he hopes will be supported by public institutions, government officials and corporations.
Principles of privacy, free speech and responsible anonymity would be explored in the Magna Carta scheme. “These issues have crept up on us,” Berners-Lee said
The web constitution proposal should also examine the impact of copyright laws and the cultural-societal issues around the ethics of technology.
“But we need our lawyers and our politicians to understand programming, to understand what can be done with a computer. We also need to revisit a lot of legal structure, copyright law – the laws that put people in jail which have been largely set up to protect the movie producers … “
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s BANKS v TELCOs: Mobe payments systems go head-to-head
Two industry bodies, both fighting for your cash – and your identity
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/12/payments_council_and_gsma_identity_schemes/
The GSMA’s Mobile Connect mobile payments project is going head-to-head with the Payments council’s rival Paym system after both systems launched this week.
The mobile operator creates a token which is then shared with vendors to verify who you are. Customers do not necessarily have to tie their actual mobile phone to the token – although that is the obvious choice – as they can elect to use their email address.
GSMA wants to make your mobile phone account your ultimate measure of identification
The project is an umbrella for a number of existing schemes
The association sees the mobile phone number as a unique identifier for a person which can replace multiple usernames and passwords. The scheme is based on the OpenID protocol which is used for the Google+ sign-in among other applications and there are existing Android APIs.
Historically, mobile payments hasn’t been used anything like as much as the banks would like
Of course what is really needed is a system where the connection, presence and billing information the mobile networks have is combined with the services the banks are offering – but that doesn’t look like happening any time soon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The $100,000 Device That Could Have Solved Missing Plane Mystery
How can an airliner simply disappear? That’s a good question, because the technology to transmit “black box” flight data in real time is already available
https://medium.com/evidence-base/47c7e89600ba
Only once the wreckage is found, and the black box flight recorders are recovered, will we know what happened to Flight MH370. But there’s no good reason why this information has to be locked into boxes that go down with the plane. Indeed, the technology needed to stream crucial flight data to the ground is already on the market. It’s made by a Canadian company called FLYHT, and can be fitted to an airliner for less than $100,000.
Commercial airliners do transmit some information: radio transponders identify them when scanned by radar, and many are fitted with an Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS, which periodically relays text-message like snippets of information about the aircraft’s status.
But black boxes record much richer flight data, including pilot voice communications. So why can’t this be sent to the ground? It’s not a new idea
The main objection has been the bottom line. Transmitting data through satellites isn’t cheap, and if such a system were operating continuously, the cost would be prohibitive.
Wired claimed it would cost “billions of dollars” to implement flight data streaming across the airline industry.
Instead, systems could be designed to be triggered by unusual flight events, and only then start streaming flight data.
This isn’t just a theoretical possibility: such devices are already on the market, fitted to around 350 planes run by about 40 operators. They just haven’t been configured to be a “virtual black box,” and are instead transmitting data that help airlines plan maintenance, or work out how to minimize fuel consumption.
Tomi Engdahl says:
GSA confirms North America closes 2013 with 101 million of global 200 million LTE subs total, Europe growing share
http://www.gsacom.com/news/gsa_402.php
March 10th, 2014: GSA – the Global mobile Suppliers Association, confirms that the number of LTE subscriptions reached 101 million in North America in Q4 2013 (i.e. by 31st December 2013), and represented 50.5% of the global total of 200.1 million.
The total for the Asia Pacific region reached 77.8 million, equivalent to 39% share of global LTE subscriptions.
Europe ended 2013 with almost 8.2% share of the global LTE subscriptions total, compared to 5.7% six months earlier.
GSA confirmed in its latest Evolution to LTE report that 274 operators had commercially launched LTE service in 101 countries, and forecast there would be over 350 LTE networks in service by end 2014.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ClariPHY 28nm SoC Brings Telecoms Into the Datacenter
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1321406&
ClariPhy Communications has launched a CMOS-system-on-chip that can bring coherent 100 Gbit/s optical links used for telecoms systems into the datacenter.
The 28nm CL10010‐Z SoC was announced at OFC on March 10 and integrates a 100G Ethernet to OTN (Optical Transport Network) mapper that enables industry standard C Format Plugs(CFPs) to plug directly into existing CFP ports on Ethernet switch or router line cards, eliminating the need for external transport gear.
The 28nm chip contains a high-speed analog‐to‐digital and digital‐to‐analog converter, a coherent DSP supporting 40G QPSK, 100G QPSK, and 100G 16QAM modulation
The 100G coherent technology is being rapidly adopted by carriers for long‐haul dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) networks because of its spectral efficiency and reach compared to the previous generation of 10G (non‐coherent) systems.
Tomi Engdahl says:
UCSB Laser Research Paves Path for Next-Gen Silicon Photonics
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1321422&
Researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) have developed a novel quantum dot laser design that not only is grown on silicon but that performs as well as similar lasers grown on their native substrates. This opens up a new generation of low-cost, multi-channel laser devices combined with CMOS driver circuits.
This is a step on from Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) wafers that have been used to produce communications lasers that achieved error-free operation at speeds up to 40 Gb/s with record low energy dissipation (below 100 fJ/bit). The 980nm VCSELs
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT, Embedded Tech Increases Internet Pervasiveness: Pew
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1321418&
The next generation of users — those who will be interacting with the world in 2025 — will likely face pervasive connectivity that we can only begin to understand. Much of this new world is being created through developments in the Internet of Things, embedded technologies, and wearables, according to the Pew Research Center
Gartner Research puts the IoT’s market size at 26 billion units installed by 2020, and that’s not even counting PCs, tablets, and smartphones.
Globalization will be taken to an entirely new level as relationships and collaboration spread across the globe. People will have a better understanding of the world and their place in it and impact on it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Virgin Media gives customers 5GB of free cloud storage, launches packages for additional space
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/127866-virgin-media-gives-customers-5gb-of-free-cloud-storage-launches-packages-for-additional-space
Virgin Media has launched Virgin Media Cloud, its own cloud storage solution for its broadband customers.
The company has teamed with F-Secure, a third-party firm that specialises in digital security, to provide the service, which can be used to back up and store content from multiple devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s a mobile data world: In 2013 voice stopped being U.S. carriers’ main revenue driver
http://gigaom.com/2014/03/13/its-a-mobile-data-world-in-2013-voice-stopped-being-carriers-main-revenue-driver/
The fourth quarter was the turning point in which the U.S. mobile industry started making more money off of data than from voice
Tomi Engdahl says:
Time Warner Cable Admits Few Have Shown Interest In Usage Caps
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Time-Warner-Cable-Admits-Few-Have-Shown-Interest-In-Usage-Caps-128127
Early last year their metered billing option returned to a few tiny markets as a voluntary (for now) option named “Essentials.”
Under Essentials, the company originally promised users a $5 discount off their bill if they sign up for the plan, which features a 5 GB cap and $1 per gigabyte overages. Granted if you actually use your connection for anything more than checking the weather a few times a week, that very slight “discount” evaporates immediately and you potentially pay more than you did previously.
In fact, the number of subscribers taking the use-based service tier is running only “in the thousands” — a very tiny slice of the MSO’s roughly 11 million US broadband customers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
U.S. Plans to Give Up Oversight of Web Domain Manager
Move Seen in Response to International Concern About Country’s Control Over Internet Structure
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702303546204579439653103639452-lMyQjAxMTA0MDEwNDExNDQyWj
The U.S. government plans to give up control over the body that manages Internet names and addresses, a move that could bring more international cooperation over management of the Web, but will make some U.S. businesses nervous.
The Commerce Department said Friday it plans to relinquish its oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, which manages a number of technical functions that serve as signposts to help computers locate the correct servers and websites.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Future of Internet Freedom
By ERIC E. SCHMIDT and JARED COHENMARCH 11, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/opinion/the-future-of-internet-freedom.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
OVER the next decade, approximately five billion people will become connected to the Internet. The biggest increases will be in societies that, according to the human rights group Freedom House, are severely censored: places where clicking on an objectionable article can get your entire extended family thrown in prison, or worse.
The details aren’t pretty. In Russia, the government has blocked tens of thousands of dissident sites
In Vietnam, a new law called Decree 72 makes it illegal to digitally distribute content that opposes the government
The mechanisms of repression are diverse. One is “deep packet inspection” hardware, which allows authorities to track every unencrypted email sent, website visited and blog post published. When objectionable activities are detected, access to specific sites or services is blocked or redirected. And if all else fails, the entire Internet can be slowed for target users or communities.
In other cases, like in Ukraine, sites are taken offline with distributed-denial-of-service attacks
Entire categories of content can be blocked or degraded en masse;
How common is each tactic? Reliable data can be scarce. Measuring patterns of censorship brings its own risks
the technologies of repression are a multibillion-dollar industry
Of course, detection is just the first step in a counterattack against censorship. The next step is providing tools to undermine sensors, filters and throttles.
Given the energies and opportunities out there, it’s possible to end repressive Internet censorship within a decade. If we want the next generation of users to be free, we don’t see any other option.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NTIA Announces Intent to Transition Key Internet Domain Name Functions
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/press-release/2014/ntia-announces-intent-transition-key-internet-domain-name-functions
March 14, 2014
To support and enhance the multistakeholder model of Internet policymaking and governance, the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) today announces its intent to transition key Internet domain name functions to the global multistakeholder community.
As the first step, NTIA is asking the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to convene global stakeholders to develop a proposal to transition the current role played by NTIA in the coordination of the Internet’s domain name system (DNS).
While stakeholders work through the ICANN-convened process to develop a transition proposal, NTIA’s current role will remain unchanged. The current IANA functions contract expires September 30, 2015.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Harsh wireless conditions? Send in the drone hot spot
DARPA program looks to develop hot spot pods for small unmanned aircraft
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/harsh-wireless-conditions-send-drone-hot-spot
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has moved along a project it says would use hot-spot enabled drones to bring bring wireless communications to even the most distant and harsh environment.
The project known as Fixed Wireless at a Distance is designed specifically to overcome the challenge inherent with cell communication in remote areas
“Mobile Hotspots will require the development of steerable antennas, efficient millimeter-wave power amplifiers, and dynamic networking to establish and maintain the mobile data backhaul network. We anticipate using commercial radio protocols, such as WiFi, WiMax or LTE [Long Term Evolution], as a cost-effective demonstration of the high-capacity backbone.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
100G multimode active optical cable developed
March 7, 2014
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/03/fujitsu-100g-multimode.html
Fujitsu Components Ltd. will exhibit its newly developed, quad small form-factor pluggable (QSFP28) active optical cable (AOC) for high-speed data transmission
According to the company, the QSFP28 AOC leverages a cost-efficient, four-channel optical transceiver that conforms to the QSFP28 multi-source agreement. The cable is capable of delivering 100-Gbps data rates over four lanes of 25 Gbps with a reach of up to 100 meters maximum.
The company claims the product is the world’s first 100-Gbps AOC based on 4×25-Gbps channels over multimode fiber.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fluke Networks introduces cloud-enabled Ethernet tester
March 13, 2014
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/03/fluke-linksprinter.html
Fluke Networks today introduced LinkSprinter, which it describes as “an affordably priced pocket-sized network tester that identifies Ethernet problems in less than nine seconds.” The one-button tester integrates with a user’s mobile device and automatically stores test data in the cloud.
Two versions of the tester exist. Both conduct one-button autotests on power (PoE), link, switch, DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), and gateway connections.
Fluke Networks says that thanks to its LinkSprinter cloud service, users can “Throw away your hand-scribbled notes,” explaining that the service “automatically captures every test result. Once captured you can manage, analyze, email and annotate test results, then generate custom reports.” The service includes 10 tests per month at no cost. For users conducting more-frequent testing, “pay-as-you-go” packages are available.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tester set for voice, data, video
March 6, 2014
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/03/klein-commander.html
The Commander Series testers—available from Klein Tools in two different kit options—is “a high-end product” that has “extensive cable-testing capabilities, TDR technology for distance-to-a-fault measurement, Power over Ethernet detection and testing, link status and capabilities, as well as report management functionality,” the company said when announcing its introduction.
made specifically for testing coaxial, network (RJ45-based) and telephone (RJ11-based) cabling circuits
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mass Sensor Deployment Will Boost Long-Term Valu
http://www.iotworld.com/author.asp?doc_id=562534&_mc=sem_otb_iotworld
The 2014 Consumer Electronics Show introduced us to many products connected to the Internet and controlled from an app on a mobile device. Smart devices will provide a high level of automation and efficiency for users, but that data provided by a massive deployment of sensors will give firms the ability to deliver long-term value.
Large companies are developing a keen interest in the IoT and its ability to help them to understand how their products are being used.
More sensors will certainly be deployed in the future. The SaaS model, advances in sensory technology, and the infrastructure supporting data understanding are three driving forces making mass sensor deployments a reality.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A look inside Globalstar’s plan to build an exclusive nationwide Wi-Fi network
http://gigaom.com/2014/03/17/a-look-inside-globalstars-plan-to-build-an-exclusive-nationwide-wi-fi-network/
Globalstar maybe known for satellite phones today, but if it gets its way it could be supplying private Wi-Fi connections to consumers all over the country using its own boutique broadband spectrum.
“This would be a Globalstar managed service, but otherwise it will look and feel just like any other global Wi-Fi network,”
Globalstar is calling this proposed Terrestrial Low Power Service, and the element it wants you to focus on is “low power.” Other satellite providers like LightSquared have tried to build ground-based networks with their extraterrestrial frequencies, but faced plenty of resistance. The problem is they’ve proposed building high-power LTE networks, the signals from which cause interference with networks in neighboring bands.
Globalstar is trying to avoid that problem by working within Wi-Fi’s short-range and low-power limitations instead of trying to build a big intrusive 4G system
First off, Globalstar can’t do TLPS with its spectrum alone: it only has access to 11.5 MHz in its satellite band. To get to a full 22 MHz Wi-Fi channel, it’s asking the FCC to let it tap a 10.5 MHz hunk of frequencies in the neighboring unlicensed band.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Legislation abolishing roaming charges goes through European parliament
Mobile phone operators say that domestic charges may increase as a result of ban, which will come into force in December 2015
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/mar/16/legislation-abolish-roaming-charges-european-parliament
Roaming charges for using a mobile phone abroad will be abolished from December 2015 in proposals expected to be voted through the European parliament on Tuesday, but operators have warned that bills could rise domestically to pay for the change.
Operators will no longer be able to charge travellers to the European Union’s 28 member states extra for calls, texts and internet use, a practice that telecoms commissioner Neelie Kroes has described as a “cash cow” for the industry.
These charges are already set to fall from €450 (£376) per gigabit to roam on the internet to €200 in July as a result of recent European legislation. But abolishing roaming charges completely will make a big difference for consumers – meaning they will pay the same rate as at home, currently around £10 per gigabit in Britain.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What kid uses wires? FCC supremo angry that US classrooms are filled with unused RJ45 ports
Even if they get on Wi-Fi, the broadband is crap, we’re told
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/18/fcc_school_broadband_wifi/
The head of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is calling on US lawmakers to change the way IT is funded and deployed in schools.
finding walls lined with unused Ethernet ports as teachers and students rely on portable devices and Wi-Fi networks far more than machines hooked up to wired connections
And even if the kids could connect to a network from their gadget or computer, the available bandwidth to the internet is woefully inadequate, judging by the chairman’s anecdotal evidence.
To that end, says Wheeler, E-Rate should reduce spending on unpopular wired Ethernet, ramp up for Wi-Fi coverage in classrooms, and then shift its focus to hooking schools and libraries up to high-speed broadband.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EU net neutrality vote would let ISPs charge for Internet “fast lane”
Ban on roaming charges helps push through controversial net neutrality package.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/eu-net-neutrality-vote-would-let-isps-charge-for-internet-fast-lane/
A European telecom law approved by a committee today is intended to prevent Internet service providers from blocking or slowing down Web applications, but lets ISPs charge content providers for higher quality of service.
Critics say this allowance will create an Internet “fast lane” and undermine the principles of net neutrality, that Internet service providers should treat all traffic equally.
“Internet providers should no longer be able to block or slow down Internet services provided by their competitors.”
The European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO), a telco lobby group, criticizes the restrictions as too severe, saying, “This would make an effective management of the network almost unworkable.”
Consumer-friendly ban on roaming charges
In addition to net neutrality, the legislation would ban most mobile roaming charges. “A broad majority of the committee members backed plans to ban ‘roaming’ charges within the EU as of 15 December 2015,” the committee announcement said. “However, to protect telecoms companies against ‘anomalous or abusive usage of retail roaming services,’ MEPs [Members of the European Parliament] ask the European Commission to lay down guidelines for exceptional cases in which companies would be allowed to apply charges. These charges would, however, have to be below the caps laid down in current roaming rules.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internet of Things Presents CIOs With Both Technical and Ethical Questions
http://www.cio.com/article/749843/Internet_of_Things_Presents_CIOs_With_Both_Technical_and_Ethical_Questions
Chamberlain Group’s garage door opener lets consumers monitor and control their garage doors via Android and Apple mobile phones. It’s convenient for customers, but what happens to the data collected?
Earlier, the team had delivered an Internet of Things device called MyQ Gateway to connect customers’ smartphones to a narrow set of garage door products. Now Chamberlain wanted to build a device to connect with most garage door openers, even those from competitors. The result: MyQ Garage, which lets users monitor and control their garage doors with an Android or iOS smartphone.
pressure to meet back-end IT demands to monitor thousands of devices worldwide, every few seconds
Tomi Engdahl says:
What the Internet of Things Will Mean for CIOs
http://www.cio.com/article/747634/What_the_Internet_of_Things_Will_Mean_for_CIOs
Estimates suggest that as many as 50 billion devices will connect to the Internet by 2020. Surveys say enterprises are giving the ‘Internet of Things’ a cold shoulder, though, citing security, cost and integration concerns.
Cisco Systems has re-termed this phrase the Internet of Everything, as it believes that, eventually, everything will be connected.
“Our 2013 networks and telecommunications survey shows that more than 50 percent of companies have no interest and/or no plans to implement machine-to-machine or Internet of Things capabilities, while just 8 percent tell us they have implemented M2M or IoT systems.”
Lack of interest, according to Forrester, begins with security concerns (37 percent), followed by costs (32 percent), technology immaturity (25 percent), integration challenges, migration and/or installation risks and regulatory issues.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Data centers are to spread again
Internet of Things changes data center capacity needs considerably, says the IT industry research firm Gartner.
Each other electronically or linked objects boggling amount of data required by the amount of traffic speed and not to mention the strain on the diversity of incomprehensible power of data security, storage management, servers and data center networks.
Gartner expects the object-net, consisting in 2020 of about 26 billion to connecting to the network object. They develop around the time of about $ 300 billion (215 billion) worth of new business.
“That data gathering in one place is not in any sense of the organization in terms of sense,” says Gartner’s Internet of Things (IOT – the internet of things) the following analyst Joe Skorupa.
“Organisations need to go to the decentralized pre-processing centers, which screened the data then moves to the big centers for further processing.”
This whole environment must be able to managed as a single entity, but flexible so that each element of the center can be managed separately from the whole if needed .
Source: Tietoviikko
http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/konesalit+hajautuvat+taas/a975366
Tomi Engdahl says:
Will Compound Applications save IoT from falling victim to the hype cycle?
http://community.arm.com/groups/smart-and-connected/blog/2014/03/18/will-compound-applications-save-iot-from-falling-victim-to-the-hype-cycle
The Internet of Things (IoT) is at the peak of the famous Gartner hype cycle
Many things reach that peak then fall off into oblivion.
Deploying an end to end system over multiple wired and wireless networks using various technologies usually requires many players which makes the business model extremely complex, (one of the reasons always sited as to the low growth in M2M deployments.) IoT will not hit 50B end points with a complex business model, nor will it reach that point without a compelling one.
Then I ran into the term “Compound Applications”.
With the correct platform, and access rights, different applications from different industries may use the same data from an IoT endpoint for different services.
My endpoints are securely connected to the cloud using one of the many platforms on the market today from big guys and start-ups.
How do I sell access to these different local and global entities to enable these applications?
I would love to hear from companies offering this subscription service for IoT endpoints.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What Exactly Is The “Internet of Things”?
A graphic primer behind the term & technologies
http://postscapes.com/what-exactly-is-the-internet-of-things-infographic
Tomi Engdahl says:
Connectivity of things: Wireless for the last 100 m of IoT
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/connectivity-of-things-wireless-for-the-last-100-m-of-iot/14d6d4fa02b8bbd8526cf6f89b8185a6.html
Internet of things (IoT) has huge potential for wireless as 90% of the market will be in the last 100 meters, according to some estimates. Which wireless technologies suit what applications?
Which wireless technology best fits IoT? There are several proprietary wireless solutions used in every segment as well as standards including 6LoWPAN, ANT+, Bluetooth, Bluetooth low energy, DECT, EDGE, GPRS, IrDA, LTE, NFC, RFID, Weightless, WLAN (also commonly referred to as Wi-Fi), ZigBee, Z-Wave, and others. To successfully grow the IoT connectivity it is, thus, essential to focus on a small selection of the main standard short-range wireless technologies available.
As mentioned, 90% of the IoT devices will operate in the short range of 50-100 m, but sometimes one would like a longer range. This extension can be done via gateways, WLAN, and Bluetooth low energy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Consumer market will drive industrial Internet of things for manufacturing
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/consumer-market-will-drive-industrial-internet-of-things-for-manufacturing/e9ff3510ee1a8e73c42b7348c7847237.html
Technology Update: The same disruptive activities are at work for the industrial Internet of things (IIoT) as when the personal computer changed the way businesses operated.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Boosting productivity, innovation and business agility requires the adoption of effective industrial physical network infrastructure strategies that connect the Enterprise throughout the Factory with reliable and actionable information.
Best-in-class manufacturers can achieve as much as 99.9% uptime and 90% OEE, providing their organizations lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and greater operating margins. Physical network design plays an important role.
Source:
https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1031645&utm_source=emailcampaign1203&utm_medium=phpList&utm_content=HTMLemail&utm_campaign=Webcast%3A+A+Standards-Based+Approach+to+the+Industrial+Physical+Network
Tomi Engdahl says:
Huawei number one in the 4G base stations
Research Institute of the LTE base stations increased last year to 280 per cent of the 2012 figures. Time-division LTE or LTE-TDD’s market share was 28 per cent reflecting China’s major operators massive investment in 4G.
The market has now moved to clear the 4G era. EJL Wireless, the 3G base stations (WCDMA and HSPA) supplies will shrink this year by 26 percent.
Source: Elektroniikkalehti
http://www.elektroniikkalehti.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1080:huawei-ykkonen-tukiasemissa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Designing IoT: Part 1 – IoT Devices and Local Networks
http://www.edn-europe.com/en/News/full-news.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10003465#.Uyr4YIVM0il
Thinking About the Internet of Things (IoT) What does the phrase “Internet of Things” mean? It depends a lot on where you stand in the supply chain
But, as a hardware or software engineer, you already understand the essential element: to build products that are interconnected.
As you see, there are four separate areas:
- The Thing itself (the device)
- The Local Network, which moves data in and out of the device. This may include a gateway to translate proprietary communication protocols to the IP family of protocols.
- The Internet itself
- End user devices (desktop, laptop, smartphones) or enterprise data systems that receive and manipulate data (backend data analytics)
the value in IoT is in interconnected devices, and the data and metadata they will generate. The choice of communication technology affects the amount of software required, which in turn affects hardware requirements and cost.
Conclusion
The requirements for IoT device communication dictate the requirements for the device’s software. Any one of the above-mentioned communication stacks, together with the application implemented in the device, represents a significant amount of software. The IoT device hardware design is greatly impacted by these choices.