CIS 2050 Chapter 8: Wireless, Mobile Computing, and Mobile Commerce

Universal Product Code (UPC)

A typical bar code is made up of 12 digits that are batched in various groups. The first digit identifies the item type, the next 5 digits identify the manufacturer, and the next 5 identify the product. The last digit is a check digit for error detection. First, they require a line of sight to the scanning device. Second, because bar codes are printed on paper, they can be ripped, soiled, or lost. Third, the bar code identifies the manufacturer and product but not the actual item.

World of Pervasive Computing (or ubiquitous computing)

A world in which virtually every object has processing power and is connected to a global network either via a wireline or wirelessly.

Mesh Networks

use multiple Wi-Fi access points to create a wide area network that can be quite large. Mesh networks could have been included in the long-range wireless section, but you see them here because they are essentially a series of inter- connected local area networks.

Radio Transmission

uses radio-wave frequencies to send data directly between transmitters and receivers. Radio transmission has several advantages. 1. First, radio waves travel easily through normal office walls. 2. Second, radio devices are fairly inexpensive and easy to install. 3. Third, radio waves can transmit data at high speeds. For these reasons, radio increasingly is be- ing used to connect computers to both peripheral equipment and local area networks

Micropayments

very small purchase amounts (generally less than $10).

Motes

wireless sensors that are placed into the physical environment. The motes collect data from many points over an extended space. Each mote contains processing, storage, and radio-frequency sen- sors and antennas. Each mote "wakes up" or activates for a fraction of a second when it has data to transmit

There are two basic types of RFID tags: active and passive.

1. Active RFID tags use internal batteries for power, and they broadcast radio waves to a reader. Because active tags contain batteries, they are more expensive than passive RFID tags, and they can be read over greater distances. Therefore, they are used primarily for more expensive items. 2. In contrast, passive RFID tags rely entirely on readers for their power. They are less expensive than active tags, but they can be read only up to 20 feet.

Types of Orbits

1. Geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites orbit 22,300 miles directly above the equator. These satellites maintain a fixed position above Earth's surface because, at their altitude, their orbital period matches the 24-hour rotational period of Earth. GEO satellites are excellent for sending television programs to cable operators and for broadcasting directly to homes. One major limitation of GEO satellites is that their transmissions take a quarter of a second to send and return. Also, GEO satellites are large and expensive, and they require substantial amounts of power to launch. 2. Medium-earth-orbit (MEO) satellites are located about 6,000 miles above Earth's surface. MEO orbits require more satellites to cover Earth than GEO orbits because MEO footprints are smaller. MEO satellites have two advantages over GEO satellites: They are less expensive, and they do not have an apprecia- ble propagation delay. 3. Low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites are located 400 to 700 miles above Earth's surface. Because LEO satellites are much closer to Earth, they have little, if any, propagation delay. Like MEO satellites, however, LEO satellites move with respect to a point on Earth's surface and therefore must be tracked by receivers. Tracking LEO satellites is more difficult than tracking MEO satellites because LEO satellites move much more quickly relative to a point on Earth.

Wireless Transmission Media

1. Microwave - Advantage: High bandwidth. Relatively inexpensive. - Disadvantage: Must have unobstructed line of sight. Susceptible to environmental interference. 2. Satellite - Advantage: High bandwidth. Large coverage area. - Disadvantage: Expensive. Must have unobstructed line of sight. Signals experience propagation delay. Must use encryption for security. 3. Radio - Advantage High bandwidth. Signals pass through walls. Inexpensive and easy to install. - DisadvantageCreates electrical interference problems. Susceptible to snooping unless encrypted. 4. Infrared - Advantage: Low to medium bandwidth. Used only for short distances. - Disadvantage: Must have unobstructed line of sight.

Mobile computing has two major characteristics that differentiate it from other forms of computing: mobility and broad reach.

1. Mobility means that users carry a device with them and can initiate a real-time contact with other systems from wherever they happen to be. 2. Broad reach refers to the fact that when users carry an open mobile device, they can be reached instantly, even across great distances.

QR codes have several advantages over bar codes:

1. QR codes can store much more information than bar codes. 2. Data types stored in QR codes include numbers, text, URLs, and even Japanese characters. 3. The size of QR codes is small because these codes store information horizontally and vertically. 4. QR codes are more resistant to damage than bar codes. 5. QR codes can be read from any direction or angle, so they are less likely to be misread.

Four major threats to wireless networks: rogue access points, war driving, eavesdropping, and radio-frequency jamming.

1. Rogue Access Point is an unauthorized access point to a wireless network. - Using a hotspotter—a device that detects wireless networks and provides information on them—the attacker simulates a wireless access point with the same wireless network name, or SSID, as the one that authorized users expect. 2. War Driving is the act of locating WLANs while driving (or walking) around a city or else- where. he intruder can then obtain a free Internet connection and possibly gain access to important data and other resources. 3. Eavesdropping refers to efforts by unauthorized users to access data that are traveling over wireless networks. 4. Radio-frequency (RF) Jamming, a person or a device intentionally or unintentionally interferes with your wireless network transmissions.

Wireless devices provide three major advantages to users:

1. They are small enough to easily carry or wear. 2. They have sufficient computing power to perform productive tasks. 3. They can communicate wirelessly with the Internet and other devices.

The development of m-commerce is driven by the following factors:

1. Widespread availability of mobile devices. 2. Declining prices. 3. Bandwidth improvement.

8.4 Airlines Provide Wi-Fi to Passengers

After years of using drop-down televisions and expensive seat- back monitors, airlines now hope to entertain passengers on the screens that the travelers bring with them. The airlines are providing Wi-Fi, movies, and TV shows that travelers can view on their smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Although the airlines are experiencing economic difficulties, they are investing heavily in Wi-Fi capabilities. The airlines hope that this upfront investment will help them tap into a new source of revenue as they attract customers who need to be online while they are traveling. Not surprisingly, passengers are unhappy with the cost of in-flight Wi-Fi access. Only about 7 percent of passengers currently avail themselves of the service. Although competition among in-flight Wi-Fi providers will drive down prices over time, in-flight Wi-Fi will not be an effective revenue-producing technology for airlines until this occurs.

Wireless 911

Cell phones in the United States now must have a GPS embedded in them so that the location of a person making an emergency call can be detected immediately.

8.1 Big Wheel Mobile Truck & Square

Chef and owner Tony Adams runs a mobile restaurant in Orlando, Florida. Tony prides himself on his original recipes, which are made from fresh, locally sourced foods that Tony frequently purchases from the local farmers market. His Web site proudly advertises that "Local Is Lovely." Then he heard about Square (http://squareup.com). Square offers an iPad point-of-sale (POS) system that allows Tony to customize his menus daily. As he logs in his menu items, Tony creates his POS for the day. Each item gets its own button, so he has to tap the menu items only to total each order. Square also offers a small device (it looks like a square) that plugs into the headphone jack of the iPad (and will also work on an iPhone).

8.5 Mobile Ads Still Aren't Very Good

Experts classify mobile ads as the holy grail for companies that conduct business online. In fact, Pandora Media, Twitter, and many other companies often derive the majority of their revenue from mobile advertising. For example, in October 2012, Facebook's stock increased in value by more than 10 percent following news that the social network had earned 14 percent of its 2012 third- quarter revenue from mobile ads, up from almost nothing in the first quarter of that year. Working with a tiny smartphone display, most mobile ads take one of two forms, each of which has serious limitations. The first form is the banner ad, which has little room to say anything other than "Click here for something!" The second form is the interstitial, which is the screen that pops up and interrupts you while you are trying to read something else. The bottom line? Traditional advertising does not translate well to mobile devices, and companies are still having difficulty coming up with effective strategies for mobile advertising.

Wireless Access Point

In a typical configuration, a transmitter with an antenna that connects to a wired LAN or to satellite dishes that provide an Internet connection.

Near-Field Communications (NFC)

Instead of swiping a plastic card at the checkout counter, consumers merely wave their phones a few inches above a payment terminal.

8.3 Near-Field Communications Helps Travelers in Japan

Japan's smartphones are called keitai. These phones contain a high-resolution camera, a projector, and near-field communica- tion capability. Consider the case of a Japanese woman who uses her keitai to scan a QR code (discussed later in this chapter) at a Tokyo bus stop. A timetable appears instantly on her screen, along with the estimated arrival time of the next bus. When her bus arrives, she uses her keitai to pay by simply waving it close to the payment terminal in the front of the bus. Because the keitai are NFC equipped, they can function as board- ing passes and tickets for trains, airplanes, and events. They also allow users to check into hotels, and they even serve as electronic room keys. Keitai also act as electronic wallets (e-wallets). Customers can input a credit of up to 50,000 yen over the Internet and then use their keitai to buy groceries at convenience stores, pay taxi drivers, and purchase goods from Japan's ubiquitous vending machines.

Location-based Commerce (or L-commerce)

Location-based mobile commerce. Location-based services provide information that is specific to a given location.

8.7 Brazil Uses Smart Meters

Reading electricity meters can be a dangerous job in Brazil, as AES Electropaulo meter readers well know. Robson Dourado, a São Paulo meter reader, claims that residents of São Paulo's Morro do Indio slum watch him carefully as he makes his rounds, worried that he will detect rogue wires that residents use to siphon away power illegally. In Rio de Janeiro, utility companies are taking advantage of preparations for the 2014 World Cup soccer championship and the 2016 Olympic Games to deploy the meters. Before August 2011, about 80 percent of the electricity in Tabajara and Morro dos Cabritos, two particularly violent slums, was stolen through illegal connections. After police established a constant presence in the slums, a utility company installed 50,000 smart meters. Electricity theft has dropped to zero since that time, proving the efficacy of the new technology.

Cells

The cell phone communicates with radio antennas, or towers, placed within adjacent geographic areas

8.2 Cell Phones Revolutionize Healthcare in Uganda

Uganda's healthcare system needed an overhaul. The country has only 131 hospitals, and they need to serve 136 million people. This is a major reason why Ugandan children are dying of treatable diseases, particularly malaria, which accounts for up to 40 percent of medical visits and almost 25 percent of deaths among children under the age of 5. The Ugandan Ministry of Health and various other international organizations have tried to address the health- care issue by building smaller clinics and utilizing volunteer village health team workers, some of whom dispense drugs. However, the results of these efforts have not been encouraging. In an initiative called mTrac, principally sponsored by UNICEF, health workers are using these phones to text details of drug sup- plies and disease outbreaks that they had previously put on paper. This information is collected and entered into an online dashboard so that public-health officials can observe in real time what is happening. These officials can track which clinics have medicine and which ones do not. They then use this information to move medical supplies to locations where they are critically needed.

Mobile Portal

aggregates and provides content and services for mobile users.

Mobile Wallet

allow you to pay with a single click from the phone.

Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

allows manufacturers to attach tags with antennas and computer chips on goods and then track their movement through radio signals. RFID was developed to replace bar codes

Municipal Wireless Networks (also called municipal Wi-Fi)

are designed to turn an entire city into a wireless access zone in order to provide universal wireless access to the Internet. Cities provide municipal Wi-Fi via wireless mesh networks, using hundreds of wireless access points that are often located on utility poles.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs)

are networks of interconnected, battery- powered.

Wide-area Wireless Networks

connect users to the Internet over a geographically dispersed territory. These networks typically operate over the licensed spectrum—that is, they use portions of the wireless spectrum that are regulated by the government.

Isis

creates a digital wallet into which customers of card-issuing banks can easily move their accounts. In 2010, three of the four big mobile phone service providers— AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, but not Sprint—along with Discover (www.discovercard.com) and Barclays Bank (www.barclays.co.uk) formed a joint venture named Isis.

Wi-Fi Direct

enables peer-to-peer communications, so devices can connect directly. It allows users to transfer content among devices without having to rely on a wireless antenna. It can connect pairs or groups of devices at Wi-Fi speeds of up to 250 Mbps and at distances of up to 800 feet. Further, devices with Wi-Fi Direct can broadcast their availability to other devices just as Bluetooth devices can.

Near-field Communications (NFC)

has the smallest range of any short-range wireless networks. It is designed to be embedded in mobile devices such as cell phones and credit cards.

Wireless Technologies

include both wireless devices, such as smartphones, and wireless trans- mission media, such as microwave, satellite, and radio. 1. First, people can make productive use of time that was formerly wasted—for example, while commuting to work on public transportation. 2. Second, because people can take these devices with them, their work locations are becoming much more flexible. 3. Third, wireless technology enables them to schedule their working time around personal and professional obligations.

Voice Portal

is a Web site with an audio interface. Voice portals are not Web sites in the normal sense because they can also be accessed through a standard phone or a cell phone.

Personal Area Network

is a computer network used for communication among computer devices—for example, telephones, personal digital assistants, and smartphones—located close to one person. Advantages of Bluetooth include low power consumption and the fact that it uses omnidirectional radio waves—that is, waves that are emitted in all directions from a transmitter.

Transceiver

is a device that can both transmit and receive signals.

Ultra-wideband (UWB)

is a high-bandwidth wireless technology with transmission speeds in excess of 100 Mbps. This very high speed makes UWB a good choice for applications such as streaming multimedia from, say, a personal computer to a television.

Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi)

is a medium-range WLAN, which is a wired LAN but without the cables.

MiFi

is a small, portable wireless device that provides users with a permanent Wi-Fi hotspot wherever they go. Thus, users are always connected to the Internet. The range of the MiFi device is about 10 meters (roughly 30 feet). Developed by Novatel, the MiFi device is also called an intelligent mobile hotspot.

Super Wi-Fi

is a term coined by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to describe a wireless network proposal that creates long-distance wireless Internet connections. Super Wi-Fi uses the lower-frequency white spaces between television channel frequencies. These lower frequencies enable the signal to travel further and penetrate walls better than normal Wi-Fi frequencies.

Wireless

is a term that is used to describe telecommunications in which electromagnetic waves, rather than some form of wire or cable, carry the signal between communicating devices such as computers, smartphones, and iPads.

Global Positioning System (GPS)

is a wireless system that utilizes satellites to enable users to determine their position anywhere on Earth. GPS is supported by 24 MEO satellites that are shared worldwide.

Bluetooth

is an industry specification used to create small personal area networks.

Infrared Light

is red light that is not commonly visible to human eyes. Common applications of infrared light are found in remote control units for televisions, VCRs, and DVD and CD players. In addition, like radio transmission, infrared transceivers are used for short-distance connections between computers and peripheral equipment and local area networks.

Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (popularly known as WiMAX)

is the name for IEEE Standard 802.16. WiMAX has a wireless access range of up to 31 miles, compared to 300 feet for Wi-Fi. WiMAX also has a data-transfer

Telemetry

is the wireless transmission and receipt of data gathered from remote sensors. Telemetry has numerous mobile computing applications.

Satellite Transmission Systems

make use of communication satellites. Three types of satellites circling Earth: geostationary (GEO), medium-earth-orbit (MEO), and low-earth-orbit (LEO).

Line-of- sight

means that the transmitter and receiver are in view of each other.

Pervasive Computing (called ubiquitous computing)

means that virtually every object has processing power with either wireless or wired connections to a global network.

8.6 BP Uses Wireless Technologies

n 2009 the giant oil company BP (www.bp.com) launched a wide- ranging information technology initiative. The initiative, which BP calls "Track and Trace," involves deploying a web of networked RFID tags, cellular phones, and GPS devices to monitor key assets around the world. Its goals were to improve safety and compliance. Another goal was to save money by reducing BP's asset loss and theft, employee downtime, and material waste. In another Track and Trace project, BP outfitted oil trucks in Alaska with cellular equipment that transmits data to BP through the AT&T cellular network or, as a backup, through Iridium's satellites. The system monitors driver activity and sends alerts through e-mail and text about a suspected accident or unsafe activity by their truck drivers such as speeding and hard braking. The system monitors about 900 trucks, and it generates roughly 500,000 messages per week.

Satellite Radio (or digital radio)

offers uninterrupted, near CD-quality transmission that is beamed to your radio, either at home or in your car, from space.

Cellular Telephones (cell phones)

provide two-way radio communications over a cellular network of base stations with seamless handoffs.

Mobile Computing

refers to a real-time connection between a mobile device and other computing environments, such as the Internet or an intranet.

Mobile Computing

refers to a real-time, wireless connection between a mobile device and other computing environments, such as the Internet or an intranet.

Mobile Commerce (also known as m-commerce)

refers to e-commerce (EC) transactions conducted with a mobile device.

Mobile

refers to something that changes its location over time.