CP 1005 - Lecture Seven - Networks, Telecommunications

Wireless networking is a mobile workforce.

Companies worldwide are going wireless to increase productivity.

The terms mobile and wireless are often used synonymously, but actually denote two different technologies:

• Mobile means the technology can travel with the user, but it is not necessarily in real-time.
• Wireless gives users a live (Internet) connection via satellite or radio transmitters. Wimax is a type of wireless technology that enables the user to be connect to a wireless network, www.wimax.com. 

Business Drivers for Wireless Technology; Universal access to information and applications, The automation of business processes, User convenience, timeliness and ability to conduct business 24/7, 365 days a year.

• People delayed in airports no longer have to feel cut off from the world to their office. Through wireless tools and wireless solutions, such as a BalckBerry or iPhone device can access their information anytime, anywhere.

Step to take for deploying mobile strategies

Compliance in the mobile enterprise, Staying flexible and embracing change.

Mobile telephones (or cell phones) work by using radio waves to to communicate with radio antennas (or towers) placed with adjacent geographic areas called cells.

Each tower on a mobile network is considered a Cell.

Satellite - A big microwave repeated in the sky; it contains one or more transponders that listen to a particular portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Location Based Services (LBS) - Are wireless mobile content services which provide location-specific information to mobile users moving from one location to location. 

Global Position Services (GPS) - Is a "constellation" of 24 well-spaced satellites that orbit the Earth and make it possible for people with ground receivers to pinpoint their geographic location. Currently 33 according to Wikipedia.

Geographic Information Services (GIS) - Is designed to work with information that can be shown on a map.

Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) - A means of linking computers using infrared or radio signals.

WiMax is a telecommunications technology aimed at providing data over long distances in a variety of ways, from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular types of access.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) - Contains a mirochip and an antenna, and typically works by transmitting a serial number via radio waves to an electronic reader, which confirms the identity of a person or object bearing the tag. Active powered and passive tags in the forms of chips that store information.

Tagged products - RFID Reader - Network - Server - Supplier Data, Customer Data.

Mobile Workforce trends - Mobile TV, Location-based services, mobile advertising, enterprise mobility, wireless security moves to the forefront.