Channels
Search
Resources
Editor
RSS
news
FierceWiFi May 18, 2005
- Editor's Corner
- Government warns about WiFi security
- UWB may be smothered to death by red tape
- Enterprise WLAN sales down 6% in Q1
- Vonage to offer Wireless VoIP
- LA jail tags inmates with RFID
- SPOTLIGHT: ZigBee's Time
- ALSO NOTED: WiMax to revolutionize basic tech in developing world; Aruba upgrades WiFi switches; and much more...
Editor's Corner
Our sister publication, FierceWireless, yesterday named its third annual Fierce 15, a special issue detailing the top emerging companies in wireless. If you missed the special issue, you can read it by clicking here.
Also, my colleague, Stephen Wellman of FierceWireless, will host the inngural …
Government warns about WiFi security
Any half-way capable hacker could easily penetrate dozens of US government computer networks becasue of lax security standards at many agencies, a congressional report concludes. The report was issues by the Government Accountability Office. It found that only a handful of government agencies had secure wireless networks so as to be protected from unauthorized access. The report urges government agencies not to set up WiFi networks until and unless these agencies could be sure to secure …
UWB may be smothered to death by red tape
The chair of the IEEE task group entrusted with establishing the standard for the technology warned that too many regulations may choke UWB to death. Indeed, he said that these contemplated restrictions pose more risk to the future of the technology than the impasse between the UWB camps promoting different standards for it. Bob Heile, chair of the IEEE 802.15.3a working group, said that if Europe and Asia applied more restrictions to the technology than the US FCC, the technology may be …
Enterprise WLAN sales down 6% in Q1
Enterprise WLAN equipment sales declined for the second quarter in a row, according to the Dell'Oro market research group. Sales were down 6 percent in the first-quarter of 2005. A major reason for the decline has to do with changes among WLAN vendors as buyers wait for the dust to settle over mergers and acquisitions which may bring changes in product lines. The study cites Cisco's acquisition of Airespace in January, which in turn forced Airespace partners such as Nortel and Alcatel to …
Vonage to offer Wireless VoIP
Vonage is jumping on the bandwagon of wireless VoIP -- a bandwagon filling up rapidly. Skype is working on a wireless handset, and companies let it be known that they would soon be offering products for this market. There is every reason to believe that Vonage, a pioneer among independent providers of VoIP, would be offering a good product at a reasonable price. Reports in the press say that Vonage's customers are testing both wireless handsets for VoIP and wireless routers from Cisco's …
LA jail tags inmates with RFID
California's jails, the country's largest prison system, plan to tag their inmates with RFIDs so prison authorities can better monitor and track inmates around prison grounds. In the first phase, the 1,800 inmates of the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, California, will be tagged by fall 2005. The system will then be spread to other prison facilities.
The system works by planting RFID readers throughout a jail so that bracelet-wearing inmates can be continually tracked. When …
SPOTLIGHT: ZigBee's Time
ZigBee is not a panacea for all embedded wireless applications, but it is a good and useful technology. It consumes little power owing to a low-duty cycle and the rapid ability of 802.15.4 radios to sleep. A ZigBee device which requires 10mW active power and 10uW standby power with a duty cycle of 0.1 percent supplied by a 750mAh AAA battery linearly regulated to 1V would have a battery life of around 37,000 hours -- that is, four years and three months. ZigBee is secure, …
ALSO NOTED: WiMax to revolutionize basic tech in developing world; Aruba upgrades WiFi switches; and much more...
> A study by West Technology Research Solutions says that WiMax will revolutionize basic technology systems throughout the developing world. Website
> Aruba has upgraded its WiFi switch product line with improved security and voice functions. Story
> Calypso Wireless announces dual WiFi/GSM-GPRS phone prototypes. …