Wireless & Internet Tech

The Portable Wireless Router

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Portable routerStarTech launches the Wireless-N Travel Router (R150WN1X1T)-- a small, portable router allowing customers to easily connect wireless-only devices to wired networks.

Ideal for customers wanting 802.11b/g/n connectivity in hotel rooms, conference centres or boardrooms, the portable router fits over iPad wall chargers and includes a pass-through USB port to charge devices while in use.

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Infonetics on Home Networking

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According to Infonetics Research multiscreen video is an important networking industry driver, pushing global H1 2013 home networking device revenues worth $5.4 billion with 6% Y-o-Y growth.

“Like broadband CPE, home networking devices continue to grow as fixed broadband subscribers increase around the globe," the analyst says. "The types of services being delivered over data networks are growing as well, with the most important being multiscreen video.”

Infonetics Networking

W. European and N. American operators distribute video around the home through higher-end gateways and STBs packing both wired and wireless technology. These in turn drive a secondary market of MoCA STBs and HomePlug adapters connecting TVs, Blu-ray player, game consoles and a growing peripheral ecosystem to home networks.

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Wifi? Make Way for Li-fi

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UK-based researchers at the Ultra-Parallel Visible Light Communications (UP-VLC) project announce a breakthrough in visible light communications (VLC), reaching data transfer speeds of 10Gbps with a system using tiny micro-LEDs.

micro LED VLCThe researchers hail from the universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews, Strathclyde, Oxford and Cambridge.

Reportedly the system transmits 3.5Gbps through each of the 3 primary colours (red, green, blue) making up white light, this increasing the amount of data the light can "carry." This makes the the basis of what the researchers call light fidelity or "li-fi," a potential low-cost alternative to radio-based wireless internet.

"If you think of a shower head separating water out into parallel streams, that's how we can make light behave," Prof Harald Haas tells the BBC.

Allowing the micro-LEDs to handle millions of light intensity changes per second is Orthogonal Frequency Divisional Multiplexing (OFDM), a dgital modulation technique making what amounts to an extremely fast on/off switch.

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Wifi Goes Under the Sea

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Underwater networking should move beyond cables researchers at the University of Buffalo propose as they start testing their first wireless internet modems designed for underwater use. 

underwater modem Of course these are not any regular modems-- the oversized (18kg) bright yellow devices use high-pitched chrips, not radio, to push what amounts to an aquatic version of the TCP/IP networking protocol. Their use? Bringing the Internet of Things to watery realms. 

The use of acoustic signals is crucial, since while radio works poorly underwater sound waves penetrate water better with superior range.  

“A submerged wireless network will give us an unprecedented ability to collect and analyze data from our oceans in real time," lead researcher Tommaso Melodia says. “Making this information available to anyone with a smartphone or computer, especially when a tsunami or other type of disaster occurs, could help save lives.”

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Wireless Network Reaches 100Gbps Record

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Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics (IAF) and the Karlsruhe Instute of Technology (KIT) manage a world first-- wireless data transmission at 100Gbps.

wifi testingThe wifi tests use 237.5GHz signals over a distance of 20m in laboratory conditions. However the super-high frequencies involved demand clear line of sight between devices at all times.

“At a data rate of 100Gbps, it would be possible to transmit the contents of a Blu-ray disk or of 5 DVDs between 2 devices by radio within 2 seconds only,” researcher Prof. Ingmar Kallfass says.

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