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eLab – Wireless connectivity.ppt 

There are many technologies and standards in the domain of wireless connectivity. Some are complementary, others are in direct competition. The most interesting ones are presented below.

WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a technical standard for broadband wireless access, providing an alternative to cable and DSL last-mile access. WiMax technologies are developed by the WiMax Forum, a group of more than 200 companies, providers and carriers. The WiMax standard has a theoretical bandwith of 70 Mb/s and a theoretical range of 50 km. In practice, it reaches 12 Mb/s with a range of 20 km. The first large scale tests started in 2006 for fixed access (home to WiMax base station) and in the coming years WiMax should also support mobile access (mobile to WiMax base station and mobile to mobile).

Comparison with Wi-Fi: larger bandwith (typically 12 Mb/s against 2 Mb/s) and larger coverage distance (typically 10 km against 30-50 m); however WiMax networks requires a license, whereas Wi-Fi networks can be set up by anyone.

WiBro (Wireless Broadband) is a proprietary mobile broadband wireless access technology, developed by Korean telecom industry and supported by the government. Also it is in direct competition with WiMax, WiBro joined the WiMax Forum and agreed to harmonize with the mobile version of the standard.

Bluetooth is a short-range radio communication protocol providing a way to connect and exchange information between devices like personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers and digital cameras via short range radio frequency. Popular uses are wireless headset for mobile phones, PC mouse or keyboards, transfer of contact details, calendar appointments, and reminders between devices, wireless controllers of a games console, etc.

UWB (Ultra-Wideband) technology allows high-speed connections for short-range, wireless personal networks, to transmit video, audio and other high-bandwidth data between consumer electronic multimedia products. UWB complements other longer-range radio technologies such as Wi-Fi or WiMAX. It is used to relay data from a host device to other devices in the immediate area (up to 10 meters), e.g. from a laptop or a digital camera to a large screen display and speakers.

ZigBee is a low data rates and low power consumption radio transmission technology that is intended to be simpler and cheaper than Bluetooth and it is used in embedded applications requiring . ZigBee’s focus is to define a general-purpose, inexpensive, self-organizing, mesh network that can be used for industrial control, building automation, home automation, etc

Power line communication describes several different systems that allow simultaneous distribution of data over power wires. One such system is the use of home electrical wiring for remote control of lighting and appliances, using the X10 industry standard or the compatible Insteon (see below). Another is using power-line in order to provide broadband internet access. There are also prototypes of in-vehicle networks to transmit data, voice, music, or video over the direct current (DC) battery power-line.

Insteon is an integrated dual-band mesh network that combines wireless radio frequency with the home’s existing electrical wiring.

Mesh networking is a way to route data, voice and instructions between nodes: the infrastructure is decentralized and each node needs only to transmit as far as the next node. It allows for continuous connections and reconfiguration (or “self-healing”): when a node breaks down or a connection goes bad, the networks tries to “hop” from node to node until a connection can be reestablished. As a result, these types of networks are very reliable. Mesh networking can be applied to wireless or fixed networks.

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