The great thing about standards, as some wit once said, is that there are so many to choose from. Mobile phones have a multiplicity of standards, nested within one another like a messy set of Russian dolls filled with alphabet soup. WTF is… 4G article tells about the newest hot mobile phone standard. The ‘generations’ →
I still like to follow what is happening IEEE is doing on Ethernet standardization, although there has been around 10 years since I last time was part of the process. I was participating in Ethernet in the first mile (EFM) standardization work at years 2000-2001 (at that time I worked for Nokia). There is always →
You wouldn’t write your username and passwords on a postcard and mail it for the world to see, so why are you doing it online? Every time you log in to any service that uses a plain HTTP connection that’s essentially what you’re doing. There is a better way, the secure version of HTTP—HTTPS. HTTPS →
Hardware developers familiar with the history of Ethernet in the enterprise may find themselves overwhelmed by the service diversity and complexity which must be addressed in applications for the local exchange carrier, long-haul or inter-exchange provider, and wireless operator. Analyze service complexity in a common Ethernet infrastructure article tasks Ethernet is called upon to perform →
Today is a historic milestone for the Internet: the allocation of the last remaining IPv4 Internet addresses from a central pool. The ICANN pool of available unallocated addresses for IPv4 is completely depleted. The allocation of the final IPv4 addresses is analogous to the last crates of a product leaving a manufacturing warehouse and going →
Just what is “4G,” anyway? It’s one higher than 3G, sure, but does that necessarily mean it’s better? 2G, 3G, 4G, and everything in between: an Engadget wireless primer tries to answer those and some other questions on mobile communications technologies. Here is my “short” summary of the different generations: 1G: Analogue cellphone technologies introduces →
LEDs are used for a long time for all kinds of data communications applications ranging from wireless IR remote controls and IrDA to wired fiber optics communication. There has been many years ago also ideas on optical wireless LANs based on infrared, but they faded quickly. But now when LED lights are becoming very popular →
Whatever assurances have been given about the security of GSM cellphone calls, forget about them now. Breaking GSM With a $15 Phone … Plus Smarts article tells that a pair of researchers demonstrated a start-to-finish means of eavesdropping on encrypted GSM cellphone calls and text messages, using only four sub-$15 telephones as network “sniffers,” a →
Ethernet link speeds of 100 megabits per second or even 1 Gbit/s per second are typical in today’s LANs. When everything is wired to Ethernet LAN very many LAN connections are needed and they consume some power. And the faster the Ethernet connection is, typically more power it consumes. IEEE Spectrum Energy-Efficient Ethernet article tells →
The challenge of protecting today’s systems from transient threats is more complex than ever before. As semiconductor manufacturers introduce new wireline transmission devices built on smaller CMOS geometries, more circuit protection challenges are emerging. CommsDesign article System level transient voltage protection–Five in-depth answers to ESD questions gives answers to important questions that can ensure that →