The technology that does not tie you down to one place and provides you the
scope to move around without compromising on the service is how some CIOs we
have interacted with prefer to define mobility. Such a service would let a user
access data seamlessly and securely whenever and wherever. What are glaringly
missing from both definitions and descriptions of enterprise requirements are
references to traditional concepts or terms like 'wireless', 'notebook'
and so forth. But is the definition of 'mobility' changing to exclude that
wireless and notebook be a part of mobility? We do believe that for mobility to
happen there has to be wirelessness, which need not be tied to 802.11 based
networks and can include cellular (GSM, GPRS, CDMA, EDGE, what-have-you) ones as
well.
We do not deny that for true mobility to happen, one still needs a portion of
it (viz. the applications) to be largely static. But these are changing too.
Below, we explore the rapidly advancing possibilities to mobile enable your
enterprise.
Voice mobility
With voice moving to VOIP, it is worth discussing voice mobility here. Voice
mobility is about getting a call to your office switched to your phone
regardless of where you are. The main hurdle to this is legal in nature. The
technology is forcing the big elephants of telecom and telecom policy formation
to dance and voice mobility can become a reality in a few years. Internet
telephony over mobiles or Mobile IP is a scalable mechanism that helps
organizations offer seamless roaming among wireless networks anywhere. Mobile IP
supports applications such as media streaming and VPN without interrupting
service when you roam.
Skype is already offering VoIP with Wi-Fi enabled smartphones. The Nokia 6136
uses UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) technology to provide access to GSM services
over unlicensed spectrum technologies like WLAN and Bluetooth. More such
solutions are on the way in the next few years for those who use any cellphone
with Internet capabilities.
Mobility Distros |
Puppy Linux (www.puppylinux.com): This is a small Linux distribution that can be installed onto USB keys and USB hard disks or run directly off a CD. The 3-files long distribution is RAMDISK based-the bootsector and one compressed file containing the entire file system of the distribution. Each copy has Abiword, Gxine audio-video player, Gnumeric for spreadsheet, Gaim for IM, Ical/Gabby/Agenda for calendaring and 15 other application categories with two or three applications for each category. Mojopac (www.mojopac.com): A small OS that can run most Windows applications and some games. Its USP is its portability. All you need to do is download the light-weight installer from the website and run it to install the OS onto your USB key. Then install your applications as you need them to the USB key by following the wizard that comes up. Now, anywhere you go, simply select to boot off the USB key from the PC or notebook and use your own PC with your applications, settings/configuration and data kept intact. Mojopac can also install onto prepared iPods and regular PC hard drives. |
Mobile video conferencing
Modern cellphones enable you to do everything a desktop PC can do and also give
you mobility. Simple connectivity to the Web and e-mail on the move are buzz
words of the past. New technologies are aimed at 3G and 4G broadband services.
Similar bottlenecks of infrastructure, cost and hardware exist in this arena.
Connectivity for this while available abroad is still a widely unavailable
technology-3G and EDGE. We still have gone only upto GPRS in India which
offers a maximum data rate of 14.4 Kbps while EDGE offers 384 Kbps which is
necessary for video conferencing.
3G-H.324/M
This is an extension of the H.324 standard for the mobile world. The idea is to
provide multimedia telephony services in CS (circuit-switched) networks similar
to how H.323 is used in PS (packet-switched) environments. The premise of H.324
is to enable an abstraction of the capabilities voice/video network and its
connected devices to be transparent to the end-user.
A user would directly dial out to the desired end point similar to dialing a
PSTN or cellular number without needing to know what data rate, codec and other
specifications are to be used. H.324 would be supported as a baseline over PSTN
networks and a choice of 3GPP/UMTS, H.320, H.310/H.311 and H.322 would be used
on LANs where there is a Guaranteed QoS in place. The modem pole at the
interconnection between a H.324 and H.320 network would use GSM-AMR as the audio
codec, H.263 as the video codec, H.245 and H.223 for system control and mux/demuxing
respectively. The interconnection point would use an IWF (Inter Working
Function) to convert between one network and another. Such an IWF must be placed
within each network edge-if placed outside the network, the network will be
unaware of the existence of the IWF.
Our April 2006 CIO survey shows that notebook penetration levels are still low (10% or less) within enterprises. 75% of the organizations had plans to improve WiFi deployments |
UMTS
The Third Generation Partner Project 2 (known as 3GPP) was initially formed to
evolve CDMA2000 (a part of the IMT-2000 family). IMT-2000 uses frequencies
between 1885-2025 and 2110-2200 MHz. The 3GPP group is divided into four
functional groups: Radio Access, Core Network, Terminal and Services and System
Aspects. UMTS offers teleservices and bearer services for communication networks
point to point or to multiple points. Teleservices include speech as well as
short-text based messaging. One can also transfer an ongoing session between
access points with renegotiation of service characteristics. Data rates can vary
between 144 kbits/s and 2048 kbits/s depending on usage and connectivity type
(satellite, outdoor or indoor). Based on this, QoS can be set up to provide
conversational, streaming, interactive or background class service for apps that
can range from video telephony and gaming to e-mail and SMS. Current maximum
data rate supported over UMTS is 11 Mbit/s while 384 kbit/s and 2 Mbit/s are
possible on R99 and HSPDA based endpoints.
One 'killer application' that was envisaged over 3G networks was video
conferencing. But as we have said above already, this has still not caught on
even in advanced countries like Japan and Singapore. Live TV and mobile gaming
are other apps for this technology.
Internet Mobility Protocol (IMP)
This is a new protocol invented by Netmotion Wireless (US Patent #7136645) to
add session state, performance improvements as well as security to data over
wireless networks. To implement IMP, you need to deploy a Mobility Mgmt Server
and Mobility End Points, which act as the server and client pieces of the
architecture, implementing the different aspects of the protocol. In effect,
this becomes a new layer in the communication schema that takes care of the
problems in the old one.
Internet-based services
Several vendors, like Lucent's MiLife and AnyPath solution suites, are
offering solutions for enterprises that let them integrate voice, billing and
messaging services into one application. MiLife packs a real-time billing
application, an OSA/Parlay gateway that helps bridge enterprise IT and telecom
solutions, a VoiceXML gateway to extend VPN services to mobile business users
and a speech-enabled messaging system. These are optimized to run over 3G and/or
CDMA networks.
Security issues in mobility |
Malware These are proving to be a major security threat on the mobile because of increased programmability of these devices given the cross-platform tools now available (including J2ME and .NET/CE platforms) as well as the number of applications that are now available for mobiles. There are 760 viruses for the Symbian OS based devices and 17 for Windows CE devices. These spread over Bluetooth, GPRS and CDMA links masquerading as themes, wallpapers, ringtones and MMSes. Once installed, they drop system files into the mobile device and spread by messaging themselves (if the phone/PDA supports it) to everyone on your address book. To keep your mobile device away from infection, don't open attachments or files unless you expect them and so on. But curing an infected device can prove to be a costly firmware reset. Some common mobile worms include: Cabir, Doomboot, Cdropper, Cardtrp, Stealwar, Skulls and Locknut. Encryption is of course one of the means to achieve partial security. MediaCrypt's IDEA NXT is a technology that provides encryption for digital media, communications and storage. The IDEA technology itself was developed to replace DES (another encryption algorithm) that's been in use since the 1970's. SMS phishing |
Direct Push
Push e-mail is not new to mobiles-the Blackberries have featured Push-based
e-mail services for long. But, Microsoft has gotten into the act now, with their
Direct Push Technology as an alternative to this on their Windows Mobile
devices. It keeps your mobile Outlook data in sync with Directory based Exchange
servers, compresses mail for faster transmission and better bandwidth
utilization, transmissions over HTTP (avoiding special gateways for other
protocols) and does connection-level encryption.
Power still an issue
Li-ion and polymer-based batteries have been around for over two decades now.
And the credit for it goes to Sony. These conventional batteries have become
lighter, efficient and more compact over the years.
Recently Sony was in the news about a problem with Li-ion batteries they
make. Apparently their manufacturing line had left bits of metal inside some
models of their battery packs which caused short circuits leading to the
notebooks they were in to catch fire. This caused notebook manufacturers like
Toshiba, HP, Lenovo and Matsushita to recall their notebooks' batteries in the
largest battery-recall exercise. That aside, would the power these batteries can
efficiently put out soon come to a fizzling end given that the world has just
started to see yet more powerful processors?
SANYO has developed an ultra-thin (under 4mm) & ultra-light lithium
polymer battery with better performance and reliability. Li-polymer batteries
employ a new gel-type electrolyte to provide power to the most demanding
application in the hand-held world.
Fuel and nano-tube based cells may be the answer to these problems. Micro
fuel cells or MFCs use chemical reaction to produce energy. While there are many
different types of fuel cells, the ones that are slated to replace Li-ion
batteries are the Direct Methanol Fuel Cells, or DMFCs. These combine methanol,
water and air to produce electricity. Their benefits are plenty. They offer a
far higher energy potential, resulting in much longer battery life (as much as
10 times) over the conventional batteries. They're more environment-friendly
with water and heat being their byproducts. Moreover, to recharge them, you
don't need to hunt for a power outlet, nor do you need to carry a separate power
adapter with you.
Instead, simply replacing or refilling the methanol cartridge does the job.
So, fuel cell powered devices are free from AC power. Fuel cells are also free
from the potential hazards that exist in the conventional batteries, as happened
to Sony's batteries. To commercialize fuel cell technology, a number of issues
have to be resolved. These include regulations prohibiting them aboard aircraft
and other public transport, standardizing fuel cell cartridges and establishing
sales networks for replenishing user-supplies. A common standard for fuel cells
may to be out sometime in '07.