Wireless Technology in the News

Applications for commercial use of spread spectrum technology range from "wireless" LAN's (computer to computer local area networks), to integrated bar code scanner/palmtop computer/radio modem devices for warehousing, to digital dispatch, to digital cellular telephone communications, to "information society" city/area/state or country wide area networks. This page is meant to show the wide-reaching affect that wireless technology will have in the immediate and near future.

Bluetooth, is a short-range wireless networking technology standard, which began development in 1998. According to the National Post, "It has been heralded as the next great breakthrough of the Internet economy and the one that will make it easy for consumers to link computerized devices in their homes -- VCRs, stereos and heating systems." Bluetooth-enabled devices, such as cellphones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) or even microwaves will have the ability to communicate with each other wirelessly. It is important to note that Bluetooth itself is not a product, but a standard for connecting computerized devices without cables. The Bluetooth Special Interests Group (SIG), a research consortium that was founded by Ericsson, International Business Machines Corp., Intel Corp., Nokia Oyj, and Toshiba Corp., develops the standards and issues license certifications.
http://www.nationalpost.com/tech/story.html?f=/stories/20010125/449531.html

An article in Nature describes a new theoretical method to triple the channel capacity for RF carriers. The method involves the use of multiple and 'smart' antennas. Through the use of magnetic as well as electric field components the transmitted signals will have six polarities in total, a three-fold increase over the binary on-off nature of modern RF transmission signals.
http://www.nature.com/nature/links/010118/010118-2.html

Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) is planning to hold trial runs of flights featuring in-flight Internet access. Passengers of the flight will be able to access e-mail and other applications normally run over the Internet via a server and wireless LAN system. While in airborne, the server will communicate with ground station and the content will be updated and transmitted at regular time intervals.
http://www.scandinavian.net/company/newsfacts/press/latesteng.asp

Initially, proponents of IPv6 had a difficult time convincing suppliers to support their protocol. Then they found the killer application that changed it all: wireless. After the European wireless community's 3rd Generation Partnership Program (3GPP) in May 2000, adopted IPv6 protocol as it's next-generation initiative, mainstream support has been growing from major companies such as Sun, Microsoft and IBM. Like many corporate executives, although IBM vice-president Sue Horn doesn't anticipate significant customer demand for IPv6 compliant products until 2002 or 2003, but she still considers the technology a critical part of their e-business strategy.
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2000/1023ipv6.html