The study seeks to establish what wireless networks are in existence and their application in improving mobility of data or information. It will also seek to examine the various developments in the field. This will involve the consideration of widely used and known technologies that are applied in daily life situations such as in the mobile telephony industry. It will also seek to point out other less known technologies that are mostly utilized in specialized fields for the provision of communication service.
These systems in themselves are not perfect and there is continuous development in order to make them more adaptable and useful to the current times. This includes the improvement in their capacities as in regards to what they are able to carry and how well they carry that data in terms of speed of data transfers. This will be shown to have been necessitated by the increase in the number of users who use these services.
Looking at the given subject one needs to first gain an understanding of what it implies. The definition of this may be taken from the words themselves. Mobile would be used to mean the accessibility that is provided by a device on a continuous basis. The term wireless network would usually be taken to mean a connection that is achieved through use of intangible systems without wires.
Basically these devices are used in situations where there is necessity for access to different forms of data. And the best application would be in areas where having other types of systems would not be possible so to speak. But technological improvements have made these technologies accessible to most of the population with their application in day to day activities becoming a common occurrence. This is through such devices as mobile phones and remote control systems.
Working mechanism
When considering the above subject one may choose to consider the system from two perspectives. There is the radio frequency network also called the cellular/mobile network. And the second way in which one can look at these devices is the mobile ecosystem. The second way borrows majorly from the fact that today’s wireless networks are mostly used for the purposes of data transmission and not necessarily voice only.
Wireless networks have in the past been used majorly by telephone companies and television or radio broadcasters. For the working of a wireless network one requires to have a transmitter that is responsible for encrypting and transmitting the information that one would wish to transmit. These transmitters usually utilize power. On the other end of the transmission one needs to have a device that will receive and decrypt the information to make it useful to the end user. This may be a phone, radio or television depending on the case in question.
Technologies applied
Historically the development of wireless technology may be traced back to the development of telephony. The use of wireless technology started with the use of analog cellular telephony which was largely inefficient compared to today’s standards. Different systems and technologies though have been modified from this to provide the different types of technologies that are in use today.
The most notable wireless technology is that known as cellular. This is usually what is used in the transmission of information either in terms of voice or data onto portable devices (mobile phones, PDAs and the like). This is a technology that has largely found use in the civilian population on a large scale. The other technology is the wireless Local Area Network. This replaces the conventional LAN with electromagnetic transmitters to provide the remote access at different points within a given locale. This is mostly used in areas such as healthcare and retail sectors.
The other technologies in this sphere include GPS technologies, which in full stands for Global Positioning Systems. These are usually space based and are mostly used in the determination of location of points on the Earth. They are mostly used in the navigation and survey and have recently also found use in construction. Others include satellite based PCS which are very expensive systems. There are ad hoc networks such as Bluetooth that provide for short range data transfer between enabled devices.
Recent developments
The technologies in this area are usually prefaced in with a number and the letter G which generally stands for generation. The latest technology in this sphere is that of 4G which denotes the fourth generation wireless technology. This is a technology that is still in its early stages and is awaiting adoption by the technology industry in its fullest. The 1G system is the initial cellular telephony technology. In Glisic’s book the 4G system is one that is touted as to provide “... up to 100 Mbit/s on the uplink and up to 1 Gbit/s on the downlink.” These are speeds that far exceed the capabilities that are provided for by the 3G system.
Key players
Looking at the major players in the field one may decide to divide this group into two. The first one is the military and the second one is the private player. The military basically develops the more expensive types of technologies such as those used in the GPS based applications. This is because the main uses of these systems are in military based application. They are mostly used in the guiding of drones, missiles, detection of aircrafts and such like application. Even though their use has been observed in the private sector, this is usually on a lesser technological scale. This is with the civilian form providing only basic technological functions with minimal functionalities. This may be used only in the provision of directions.
The other area, where private players are concerned is in such areas as satellite based PCS such as that developed by Motorola. These usually are Low-earth Orbit satellites which provide those who have portable communication devices with the ability to communicate. The other area is in the development of the 4G network systems which are mostly used by mobile telephone providers. Due to the fact that more and more people are being added onto the network the systems may become strained. This usually requires continuous upgrades to maintain the service level.
Challenges
More and more mobile applications are moving towards the transmission of data and not necessarily voice which was the concern of previous wireless technologies in this sphere. The basic consideration of the previous three generations of wireless technologies was majorly concerned about improved voice transmission. With an increasing shift into social media and web 2.0 applications taking this direction, more and more consideration is being focussed on increasing the capacity of systems to transmit data and at faster transmission rates.
There are some few issues that the 4G networks are hoped to solve with increased development. The first one is the ability to provide connectivity among the different networks without interruption. This is something that Papadimitriou refers to as interoperability in his book. The other point of concern with these new systems is that of the ability of the system to provide for greater support for transmission of data in greater volumes, at faster rate of transfer and without compromising the system that is being used. This should also be such that it does not greatly affect the cost of doing so.
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