COMPUTER NETWORKS AND

COMMUNICATIONS
1.Introduction
Mobile Computing is an umbrella term used to describe technologies that enable people to
access network services anyplace, anytime, and anywhere. Ubiquitous computing and nomadic
computing are synonymous with mobile computing. Information access via a mobile device is
plagued by low available bandwidth, poor connection maintenence, poor security, and addressing
problems. Unlike their wired counterparts, design of software for mobile devices must consider
resource limitation, battery power and display size. Consequently, new hardware and software
techniques must be developed. For example, applications need to be highly optimized for space,
in order to fit in the limited memory on the mobile devices. For Internet enabled devices, the
good old TCP/IP stack cannot be used; it takes too much space and is not optimized for minimal
power consumption. Given the plethora of cellular technologies that have emerged in such a
market, it becomes extremely difficult to provide support for inter-device communication

2.Content

Mobile Computing

*Specification of Mobile Computing

Mobile computing used to be exclusively a matter of dragging a laptop computer around,* plus
various adapters and other widgets. “Road warriors” have more choices now. Of course, USB
thumb drives, also called USB flash drives, are probably the benchmark technology for mobile
computing these days; before you think about other methods, check if you can do it cheaper and
easier with a thumb drive.

*Services of Mobile Computing

Mobility services can be classified into three groups. First there are services designed to
overcome common restrictions of mobile computing, which arise mainly from the slowness,
insecurity and instability of wireless or analogous connection lines utilized by the mobile user.
These services are called common mobility services (CMS). Examples are connection
management, caching or encryption services. The second group of services handles the
management and administration of mobile users moving around and connecting their portables to
networks at different places. These mobility management services (MMS) include tasks such as
the authentication of users, accounting and billing issues or profiling of the users’ habits. The
tasks necessary to adapt certain existing applications to mobile usage are implemented by high
level services, which are called special mobility services (SMS). Special mobility services adapt
existing services to the mobile conditions. For example to allow remote database access over a
wireless connection line one has to take special care of possible frequent connection losses
especially in the context of the state of the database. Viewing services as distinct building blocks,
we are able to sketch an architecture for a “mobility services enhanced system”.

*Frequencies of Mobile Computing

Bluetooth is an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs). Bluetooth
provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices such as mobile phones,
laptops, PCs, printers, digital cameras, and video game consoles over a secure, globally
unlicensed short-range radio frequency. The Bluetooth specifications are developed and licensed
by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group.

Bluetooth technology relies on two things, a radio frequency technology and the protocol
software enabling it to transmit data to other devices. Bluetooth-capable devices can transmit data
to other devices not within the line of sight of the user. It also enables different devices to
communicate using certain rules such as the amount of data that will be sent, the type of
communication between the devices and the radio frequency or frequencies this communication
will take place. These protocols ensure that Bluetooth devices experience the least amount of
interference from other Bluetooth capable objects while communicating with each other.

smartphones are the ideal productivity solution for both voice and data for your mobile
workforce. They’ll be able to stay in touch with the people and information that matter
most. Access email, instant message, access the Internet, run business applications and
more.Communicate your way: Call, email, instant message, or text message, all with one
device.

Internet Technology and Services

Explain VOIP
(Voice Over IP) A telephone service that uses the Internet as a global telephone network.
Many companies, including Vonage, 8×8 and AT&T (CallVantage), typically offer
calling within the country for a fixed fee and a low per-minute charge for international.
Broadband Internet access (cable or DSL) is required, and regular house phones plug into
an analog telephone adapter (ATA) provided by the company or purchased from a third
party.

Explain BLOG
A blog is a lot like a journal except it is generally intended to be read by others. The topics for
blogs vary greatly; some being about day to day activities and others taking a more corporate or
political slant. There is no defined or widely accepted format and so blogs range from one liners
that the author adds every few hours to relatively long, well thought out arguments for or against
a topic of interest.

Types of network

Explain PAN, VPN, WLAN, and WIMAX

PAN

A Personal Area Network (PAN) is a computer network used for communication among
computer devices (including telephones and personal digital assistants) close to one person. The
devices may or may not belong to the person in question. The reach of a PAN is typically a few
meters. PANs can be used for communication among the personal devices themselves
(intrapersonal communication), or for connecting to a higher level network and the Internet (an
uplink). Personal area networks may be wired with computer buses such as USB and FireWire.
A wireless personal area network (WPAN) can also be made possible with network technologies
such as IrDA and Bluetooth.

VPN

Short for (Virtual Private Network), VPN is a type of network that allows a user to connect to a
network through a tunneling protocol and access internal internet and intranet web sites and e-
mail. Virtual Private Networks are commonly used to allow an employee with a large company to
connect to the company’s intranet

WLAN

A wireless LAN (or WLAN, for Wireless Local Area Network, sometimes referred to as LAWN,
for local area wireless network) is one in which a mobile user can connect to a local area network
(LAN) through a wireless (radio) connection. The IEEE 802.11 group of standards specify the
technologies for wireless LANs. 802.11 standards use the Ethernet protocol and CSMA/CA
(carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance) for path sharing and include an
encryption method, the Wired Equivalent Privacy algorithm. A personal area network

WIMAX

WiMax is the industry term for a long-range wireless networking standard. WiMax technology
has the potential to deliver high-speed Internet access to rural areas and other locations not
serviced by cable or DSL technology. WiMax also offers an alternative to satellite Internet
services.WiMax technology is based on the IEEE 802.16 WAN communications standard.
WiMax signals can function over a distance of several miles / kilometers. Data rates for WiMax
can reach up to 75 megabits per second (Mb/s). A number of wireless signaling options exist
ranging anywhere from the 2 GHz range up to 66 GHz.

Conclusion

Mobile computing (like the peer to peer transaction model did) brings about a new
paradigm of distributed computing in which communication may be achieved through
wireless networks and users can compute even as they relocate from one support
environment to another. The impact of mobile computing on systems design goes beyond
the networking level and directly effects data management. Although being a relatively
new area, mobile data management has attracted a lot of research efforts, motivated by
both a great market potential and by many challenging research problems

Reference

Book
Shelly Cashman,S Vermat (2004),Thomson Course Technology, Discovery
Computer.

Internet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/image:Bluetooth.headset.jpg

www.wimax.com/deployment/network