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SPOTLIGHT: RFID legislation on hold for now
A California legislature's panel has adjourned for recess without addressing a proposed legislation to impose strict limits on the deployment and use of RFID technology in California. Hi-tech groups hailed the committee's inaction as an indication that the restrictive legislation will likely not pass. In any event, as the use of RFID technology spreads and privacy concerns grow, the big debate and big decisions about RFID will surely come. …
ALSO NOTED: Fortress, AirMagnet sign OEM agreement; Stealing WiFi; and much more...
> Fortress entered an OEM agreement with AirMagnet and will re-brand AirMagnet's sensors and software to sell to enterprises. Report
> Some people pay a monthly fee for their WiFi service, others steal from their neighbors. Story
> WiFi brings convenience, security vulnerabilities. …
FierceWiFi August 24, 2005
- Cisco, Intel collaborate on enterprise WLANs
- Alvarion joins Digital Communities initiative
- Pulse~LINK, Analog Devices show UWB HDTV
- Trend: VoWLAN poised for take off
- Redpine shows very low-power 802.11b/g platform
- SPOTLIGHT: The media justice movement
- ALSO NOTED: Business users confused over WiFi, 3G, GPRS; FireTide, Meru team on enterprise products; and much more...
Cisco, Intel collaborate on enterprise WLANs
Intel and Cisco will expand their collaboration in enhancing the capabilities of WLANs and bolstering the security of enterprise networks. The two companies have produced what they call the Business Class Wireless Suite, which targets companies using Cisco's Unified Wireless Architecture and Intel Centrino mobile technology. The solution will be available in the first quarter of 2006.
The two companies will also participate in programs led by each of them: Intel will join the …
Alvarion joins Digital Communities initiative
Israeli WiMax pioneer Alvarion will participate in Intel's Digital Communities initiative, aiming to assist in the community's design and develop and deploy communication services through wireless broadband and state-of-the-art computing. Participants also hope that the program will bridge, or at least narrow, the the digital divide. Alvarion's BreezeACCESS VL is already deployed in several participating cities. One such city, Corpus Christi, Texas, is deploying a large, multi-use …
Pulse~LINK, Analog Devices show UWB HDTV
UWB has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, what with the impasse in standard specifications and such. It is good, therefore, to see a positive note for a change. Pulse~LINK, developer of CWave UWB, and Analog Devices, developer of high-performance semiconductors for signal processing applications, are teaming up to show the first wireless transmission of real-time HD video. The two companies will show side-by-side comparison of MPEG and JPEG2000 across Pulse~LINK's UWB wireless …
Trend: VoWLAN poised for take off
More and more people are making voice calls over wireless data networks, and as technology develops further, VoWLAN is going to experience exponential growth. These are the conclusions of two research groups -- Frost & Sullivan and Infonetics Research. Of special importance is the increasing number and sophistication of dual-mode handsets, which allow customers to switch between cellular and WiFi networks. In 2004, worldwide revenue from dual-mode handsets reached $6.7 million and …
Redpine shows very low-power 802.11b/g platform
Santa Clara, California-based Redpine Signals has unveiled what must surely be the world's lowest-power licensable 802.11b/g platform. It requires only 35.6mW during VoIP calls. The Pine1-LP WLAN reference design is supported by Linux drivers and targets mobile handsets, PDAs, digital cameras, MP3 players, gaming, and printing platforms. Low power is in: A recent study by ABI Research pointed to low power consumption as key to the success of mobile WiFi chipsets.
Redpine says that …
SPOTLIGHT: The media justice movement
Were W.E.B. DuBois alive today, he would probably conclude that the digital divide has a color line running through it. Several organizations have been established to bridge this divide, among them the Center for Digital Democracy, the Media Access Project, and Free Press. They are all part of a new activism, called the media justice movement, fighting what they describe as the unbearable whiteness of media reform. The problem of poor people, mostly minorities, failing to benefit from …
ALSO NOTED: Business users confused over WiFi, 3G, GPRS; FireTide, Meru team on enterprise products; and much more...
> New research from Tatara Systems finds that business users are confused over differences between WiFi, 3G, and GPRS. Report
> Los Gatos, California-based mesh gear maker FireTide is teaming up with WLAN system maker Meru Networks to offer jointly developed products to the enterprise. Story
> The latest entryway for SPAM: VoIP. …
FierceWiFi August 17, 2005
- WiMedia, Ecma to push UWB standardization
- VeriSign tests WiFi-WWAN roaming service
- McAfee shows WiFi security solution
- Availability of dual-mode handsets key to VoIP success
- RFID matures, new patent-pool group established
- SPOTLIGHT: RFID, ZigBee to the rescue
- Unarmed in the Gunfight -- The Lack of Security for wVoIP
- ALSO NOTED: Free WiFi too expensive for Pasadena; ZigBee gets Extreme Makeover; and much more...
WiMedia, Ecma to push UWB standardization
Some stories have a happy ending. Such is the case with the 802.11n standard skirmishes which ended two weeks ago when the two competing coalitions ceased fire and began to work on reconciling their differences. Other stories end less happily, with an all-out war and real winners and losers. Such was the case in the late 1970s when home videocassette players hit the market. A war erupted between VHS and Sony's Betamax system. Beta had many advantages over VHS, but by the 1980s it had lost …
VeriSign tests WiFi-WWAN roaming service
The convergence trend continues. Mountain View, California-based VeriSign said yesterday that it was conducting trials on the campuses of three major universities aiming to integrate on-campus WiFi with any WWAN carrier network. The service will be called Wireless IP Connect Service; it will be used mainly for connecting mobile and WiFi networks, but the technology can also connect devices with an IP …
McAfee shows WiFi security solution
McAfee is jumping on the WiFi bandwagon. Next week it will ship a subscription-based software aiming to protect home wireless routers. The Wireless Home Network Security software will automatically set up encryption keys on WiFi routers and the PCs connected to them; importantly, it will then rotate the keys every three hours. The solution is also backward-compatible and will work with older WiFi systems which use WEP encryption and with current equipment which supports the newer WPA and …
Availability of dual-mode handsets key to VoIP success
The key to VoIP success in the mass consumer market will be the availability of cellular/WiFi IP phones, concludes a recent In-Stat study. The widespread adoption of VoIP in both business and consumer markets will depend on whether wireless VoIP handsets are available. Dual-mode cellular/WiFi handsets will be the key driver to mass consumer adoption of VoIP, and control of these end-point devices is key to capturing the mobile market. "Wireless high-speed broadband access, unified …
RFID matures, new patent-pool group established
RFID is maturing, and one sign is the coming together last week of 20 RFID vendors to create a patent-pool consortium. The goal is to make it easier for users to access RFID intellectual property. ABI Research's Erik Michielsen rightly points out that RFID is no longer merely about hardware such as tags and readers. Many of the companies who joined to form the coalition have interests which include full integration of RFID with end-users business' systems. The new group and other aspects …
SPOTLIGHT: RFID, ZigBee to the rescue
The high-tech industry has yet to be heard on the energy issue. This is puzzling, because technology now offers a new and helpful set of tools. Specifically, writes Eric Lundquist, "The advent of RFID tagging, location-aware GPS services, and remote Web-based monitoring and control capabilities from organizations such as the ZigBee Alliance holds tremendous promise for using energy resources such as electricity in the most efficient manner." Article
Unarmed in the Gunfight -- The Lack of Security for wVoIP
Unarmed in the Gunfight -- The Lack of Security for wVoIP
Georgia Tech's Richard A. DeMillo argues that the wireless and VoIP industries need to tackle wireless VoIP now.
The recent onset and growth of Voice over IP (VoIP) has thrust the telecommunications industry into a new frontier. RBOCs, MSOs, and ILECs view this white-hot technology with giant dollar …
ALSO NOTED: Free WiFi too expensive for Pasadena; ZigBee gets Extreme Makeover; and much more...
> Pasadena, California, was eager to offer free WiFi to its citizens but got sticker shock. Story
> Qtek shows new versions of two mobile smartphones which can run Windows Mobile 5 with wireless networking capabilities. Story
> UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund, the private-equity investment arm of UPS, is investing …
Clearwire offers WiMax in Belgium
Broadband wireless provider Clearwire has reached beyond the ocean by launching a commercial network in Belgium. The company has deployed a kit from NextNet Wireless which, the company says, currently offers coverage of 60 percent of Brussels and about 75 percent of Mont St. Guibert. The company is not releasing the number of subscribers it has attracted but says that it plans to expand the service throughout Belgium.
Clearwire uses a pre-WiMax kit in the 3.5GHz spectrum band and …
Solar-powered WiFi arrives
Small companies can make big waves. Lumin Innovative Products is a company with a staff of four with one big idea: Harnessing the power of the sun to power WiFi networks (one of the company's mottos: "Technology... Sourced by the sun, brought to earth by Lumin"). In mid-July this concept was put to the test when the company, then one month in existence, deployed its first solar-powered APs at the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado.
The company currently offers the LightWave …
Trend: 60GHz band beckons
More than 150 years ago, James Maxwell wrote his famous equations (see below), and 30 years later, in 1895, physicist J.C. Bose channeled 60GHz signals in his laboratory (you can still see the equipment he used, including a Victorian polarizer, at the Royal Institution in London). Why this walk down memory lane? Because with the no-end-in-sight stalemate in which UWB has been mired, inquiring minds are beginning to take a serious look at 60GHz.
Several companies are already …
Zeewaves shows mobile WiFi architecture
Colorado Springs, Colorado-based start-up Zeewaves Systems, already busy working with Nvidia on planar-antenna WiFi designs, has a new and intriguing offering: A mobile WiFi architecture which may combine vehicular hotspots with such functions as GPS, automatic vehicle location, and ZigBee sensor gateways. Zeewaves calls the commercial version of the system ConnectStar and also offers an extended architecture version with the clunky name of On-board Communication, Automated Tracking and …
Connexion, OnAir to offer in-flight cellular service
Boeing's Connexion and Airbus' OnAir are partnering with other companies to offer in-flight GSM and CDMA device usage. Connexion is working with Qualcomm, and the two companies have been testing cabin-fitted GSM and CDMA 2000 base stations with beam calls from the aircraft to the ground via satellite (the test base-stations are provided by UTStarcom). OnAir is working with software company TriaGnoSys and server maker Miltope to build a similar system, if currently only for GSM. OnAir will …