Category - Communication

Inside Intel

June 26, 2015

4 min read

We usually get awkward glances when we say we work at intel. There has been a few instances where a few of our co-workers were asked to check out broken laptops and another funny anecdote where one was asked for help in a Unity Plaza shop mistaking him for a computer sales guy because of his company t-shirt. This explains why some of us are reluctant to wear the light blue company t-shirts in public places.

We work at Intel and we have email addresses that goes as @intel.com; we have access to all Intel employees via Lync; our leaves and expenses are handled via Intel internal systems and we have access to Intel intranet. No, we do not repair computers or we cannot sell a chip to you! Honestly speaking, we know nothing more about the Intel chips than the fact that they are inside our computers. Yes, we do have an office in Sri Lanka and it’s in the HSBC building in Bamba. No, we are not sales people or hardware experts; we’re software engineers and we write software, in fact we’re continuing the same kind of work we did during the good old Aepona days.

Intel acquired Ireland based company, Aepona, 2 years back. We also wondered why would the chip giant has anything to do with an API business. Little did we know that Intel was one of the biggest software companies in the world. This article on Forbes shed some light into the matter. In fact, the security giant, McAfee, was acquired by Intel as well.

A peek inside 2014 annual report of Intel gives us a better picture of what Intel’s business consists of. Software and Service Group, known within Intel as SSG, is the segment to us, previous Aepona employees, are attached.

The above are the operating segments of Intel as of 2014. But don’t be deceived by the equal sized squares, the revenue earned by the segments give a better idea of the size and the financial significance of the respective segments.

PC client group is leading the way with a high percentage, but we can see that the percentage revenue from it is slowly but steadily declining and the other segments are slowly gaining.

Intel was founded in 1968 by semiconductor pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore. If you have heard of the famous Moore’s Law, it was Gordon Moore who came up with that. Intel is a derived shorter version of the term “Integrated Electronics”. Within a year Intel released the world’s first metal oxide semi-conductor (MOS) static ram, the 1101. Before long, in 1971, Intel created the world’s first commercial microprocessor chip. With the success of the Personal Computer (PC) microprocessor became the primary business of Intel and is still going strong today. “Moore’s law” which says that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit will double in every 2 years, is based on an observation made by Gordon Moore. It has become a target for Intel and the reason for the law to be valid up to today is because Intel has driven innovation fiercely to achieve this target. In fact, Intel’s mission statement goes as “Utilize the power of Moore’s Law to bring smart, connected devices to every person on Earth” This year,2015, marks the 50th Anniversary of Moore’s Law.

Infamous “Intel Inside” marketing campaign was launched in 1991 and Intel became a familiar name in every nook and corner of the world. As of today Intel stands as the 12th Most Valuable Brands in the World and #12 on Forbes World’s Most Reputable Companies. Currently Intel has 107,000 employees across 170 Sites in 70 Countries and is included in the 100 Best Companies to Work For by Fortune Magazine. Renée James, President of Intel was named #21 on Fortune’s List of Most Powerful Women in Business and #37 on Forbes 100 List of Most Powerful Women in Tech.

With the dawn of the 21st century, Intel faced threats to its dominance by its rising competition, notably AMD. Fall of the PC and the rise of the mobile is another reason behind the slow down. These reasons are behind Intel’s move to diversify and explore different markets and we see software and IoT highlighted in the roadmap of Intel.

There was a series of acquisitions which helped expand SSG and they include Virtutech, McAfee, Mashery, Aepona and many more.

Hopefully Intel’s software business will grow in leaps and bounds and our neighbors will not give us confused looks when we say we work for Intel 🙂

Google Project Fi

May 30, 2015

Nafli

Communication, News

Add comment

8 min read

Google has been keeping itself busy – and keeping traditional telcos on their toes as well – with quite a few connectivity projects, ranging from Google Fiber to Project Loon. Google is a company looking to connect everyone. One of the latest ventures is Project Fi, which is Google’s foray into mobile networks. Google’s Fi Network basically acts as a separate operator, to which your phone can connect and use – to make calls, SMS or browse the internet.
So how does one sign up for the Fi Network? Well, for the moment, the service is only available in the US and in areas where the Fi Network has coverage, and sign up is also limited by an invitation-only policy, at this early stage.

Access Network

Connectivity to the Fi Network is through Wi-Fi and the LTE networks of mobile operators Sprint and T-Mobile. Google has an agreement with these operators to use their existing network infrastructure, acting as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). The FI Network switches between the better of the two operator networks, ensuring that you get the best possible network connectivity (if 4G is not available, you will be switched to 3G or 2G).

When on the Fi Network, you will automatically be connected to free, open Wi-Fi hotspots that Google has verified as fast and reliable. This is convenient, as whenever you’re on Wi-Fi, you’re not charged for data usage. As per the Project Fi team, there are more than a million of these hotspots around the US.

If you are concerned about security on open Wi-Fi networks, Google has ensured data is secured through encryption using Virtual Private Network (VPN).

Just another MVNO?

Google never follows the norm, and neither does it’s Fi Network Plan – the Fi Basics for $20/month includes unlimited domestic talk and text, unlimited international texts, Wi-Fi tethering to use your phone as a hotspot and access cellular coverage in 120+ countries. Data (charged if you use it over a cellular network) has to be purchased as an extra package, with 1GB of data costing $10. [1]This is a departure from the contract-based and more expensive plans offered by other operators in the US (makes you glad you don’t have pay those data rates in SL).

This is a departure from the contract-based and more expensive plans offered by other operators in the US (makes you glad you don’t have pay those data rates in SL).

Google has also come up with an innovative package which credits cash towards your next bill for any unused data from your monthly package.

Devices

The Nexus 6 is the only smartphone currently supported by Project Fi’s early access network. The Nexus 6 works with a separate SIM that enables access to multiple networks, and has a cellular radio unit designed to work with different 4G network bands/types in the US and abroad, as required for the Fi Network.

The specially designed SIM can store up to 10 network profiles, which enables seamless toggling between different networks.

Another innovative step is that the phone number works with more than just your phone. Google stores your phone number in its data centers, which allows you to connect any device that supports Google Hangouts (Android, iOS, Windows, Mac or Chromebook) to your number.

Making Calls

When on the Fi Network, your calls can be made over Wi-Fi with no separate app required, and your call will automatically switch between cellular and Wi-Fi networks based on the signal quality. If you are using any other device, you can make calls or message using your number in Google Hangouts. It should be noted that international calls over Wi-Fi will have an extra charge.

Conclusion

Google’s ultimate goal is to push people to spend more of their online lives using Google products, because when that happens, it brings more traffic to its search engine, YouTube, and other services such as Gmail and maps.

It will be interesting to see how the Fi Network will perform once it is opened up to more subscribers. Key to making the project Fi Network tempting to users will be the offer of high-speed data without being charged (on Wi-Fi). It remains to be seen if a high number of users can be sustained by the available open Wi-Fi networks. Google will also have looked at, or will be looking at, ways to optimally manage providing services to high data using/streaming subscribers as well as casual subscribers over its multi-network platform.

Mobile operators may also benefit in the short term by selling more network capacity to Google. However, if all goes well with Project Fi, Google could be pushing more people to using its networks, generating more ad revenues and creating a shakeup of the mobile network’s pricing model.

Project Fi
Google has been keeping itself busy – and keeping traditional telcos on their toes as well – with quite a few connectivity projects, ranging from Google Fiber to Project Loon. Google is a company looking to connect everyone. One of the latest ventures is Project Fi, which is Google’s foray into mobile networks. Google’s Fi Network basically acts as a separate operator, to which your phone can connect and use – to make calls, SMS or browse the internet.
So how does one sign up for the Fi Network? Well, for the moment, the service is only available in the US and in areas where the Fi Network has coverage, and sign up is also limited by an invitation-only policy, at this early stage.
Access Network
Connectivity to the Fi Network is through Wi-Fi and the LTE networks of mobile operators Sprint and T-Mobile. Google has an agreement with these operators to use their existing network infrastructure, acting as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). The FI Network switches between the better of the two operator networks, ensuring that you get the best possible network connectivity (if 4G is not available, you will be switched to 3G or 2G).
When on the Fi Network, you will automatically be connected to free, open Wi-Fi hotspots that Google has verified as fast and reliable. This is convenient, as whenever you’re on Wi-Fi, you’re not charged for data usage. As per the Project Fi team, there are more than a million of these hotspots around the US.
If you are concerned about security on open Wi-Fi networks, Google has ensured data is secured through encryption using Virtual Private Network (VPN).
Just another MVNO?
Google never follows the norm, and neither does it’s Fi Network Plan – the Fi Basics for $20/month includes unlimited domestic talk and text, unlimited international texts, Wi-Fi tethering to use your phone as a hotspot and access cellular coverage in 120+ countries. Data (charged if you use it over a cellular network) has to be purchased as an extra package, with 1GB of data costing $10. [1]
This is a departure from the contract-based and more expensive plans offered by other operators in the US (makes you glad you don’t have pay those data rates in SL!).
Google has also come up with an innovative package which credits cash towards your next bill for any unused data from your monthly package.
Devices
The Nexus 6 is the only smartphone currently supported by Project Fi’s early access network. The Nexus 6 works with a separate SIM that enables access to multiple networks, and has a cellular radio unit designed to work with different 4G network bands/types in the US and abroad, as required for the Fi Network.
The specially designed SIM can store up to 10 network profiles, which enables seamless toggling between different networks.
Another innovative step is that the phone number works with more than just your phone. Google stores your phone number in its data centers, which allows you to connect any device that supports Google Hangouts (Android, iOS, Windows, Mac or Chromebook) to your number.
Making Calls
When on the Fi Network, your calls can be made over Wi-Fi with no separate app required, and your call will automatically switch between cellular and Wi-Fi networks based on the signal quality. If you are using any other device, you can make calls or message using your number in Google Hangouts. It should be noted that international calls over Wi-Fi will have an extra charge.
Conclusion
Google’s ultimate goal is to push people to spend more of their online lives using Google products, because when that happens, it brings more traffic to its search engine, YouTube, and other services such as Gmail and maps.
It will be interesting to see how the Fi Network will perform once it is opened up to more subscribers. Key to making the project Fi Network tempting to users will be the offer of high-speed data without being charged (on Wi-Fi). It remains to be seen if a high number of users can be sustained by the available open Wi-Fi networks. Google will also have looked at, or will be looking at, ways to optimally manage providing services to high data using/streaming subscribers as well as casual subscribers over its multi-network platform.
Mobile operators may also benefit in the short term by selling more network capacity to Google. However, if all goes well with Project Fi, Google could be pushing more people to using its networks, generating more ad revenues and creating a shakeup of the mobile network’s pricing model.

Reference
[1] https://fi.google.com/about/faq/#plan-and-pricing-1
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Inside-Googles-Project-Fi/articleshow/47161570.cms

Go FIFA 2018 with 5G

May 11, 2015

Buddhika Sameera

Communication

1 Comment

4 min read

The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the 21st FIFA World Cup, an international men’s football tournament that is scheduled to take place between 14 June and 15 July 2018 in Russia. This will be the first World Cup held in the area of the former Soviet Union. The finals tournament will involve 32 national teams, including that of the host nation, assuming the current format of the finals is maintained. The final is expected to take place in Moscow at the Luzhniki Stadium.

Here we have a 2018 FIFA promo video once you watch it only you may understand the importance of the wireless technology going to be used to cater a massive scale of subscribers, uploading downloading videos, imaging in social medias, blogs, etc.

Chinese infrastructure vendor Huawei and Russian operator MegaFon have announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to deliver trial 5G network services at the Fifa World Cup 2018, to be held in 11 Russian cities.
While Samsung recently claimed it has achieved 5G test speeds in excess of 30 times current 4G standards, Huawei has predicted final 5G speeds will be around 100 times faster than current technologies.

5G technology – features and advantages

8591074

5G technology will include spectral bandwidth more than 40 MHz on frequency channel which is a larger range than all other wireless technology systems.
The artificial intelligence will be included in 5G technology through advance wearable computer technology.
Massive Distributed with Multiple-input and multiple-output will be provided by 5G which will help cut costs and make it energy-effective.
5G technology may consume low battery power, provide a wide range of coverage, cheap rate of network services and many other advantages.
4G technology provides up to 1 GBPS internet speed and so it may be possible that 5G technology will provide more than 1 GBPS speed.

0aa0f8b

According to the two partners, the trials will be the first in Russia, and the first time an operator in the country will be involved in developing a communications standard. They said this will give MegaFon the opportunity to influence the standard based on the specific technical characteristics of the Russian telecoms market.

Huawei will provide its mobile technologies including SCMA (sparse code multiple access), full duplex and the cloud base-station for the 5G network, as well as conducting 5G terminal testing.

“The communication boundaries between human and machines are bound to be broken by 5G,” Ryan Ding, President of Huawei Products and Solutions, said.

huawei-signed-5g-memorandum-of-understanding-with-megafon-in-shanghai1

“Huawei has made great progress in the development of 5G. The 2018 Fifa World Cup provides a unique platform in wireless history to demonstrate Huawei’s leadership in 5G development. As always, I am delighted we once again join hands with MegaFon, the most promising and innovative carrier in Russia. With the help of MegaFon, we are confident of turning science-fiction-like service into 5G reality for citizens in Russia and soccer fans around the world, two years ahead of the industry’s estimated 5G introduction date of 2020!!’

Continuing with a very specific claim, he then went on to say: “MegaFon was the first mobile operator inthe world to offer LTE to guests and participants of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games. MegaFon’s strategic priority is technological leadership, so we will keep developing and rolling out new technologies to provide the best quality for our customers. Thanks to this memorandum, Russia will be among pioneers to enjoy next generation mobile telecommunications. It is particularly important that this happens on the eve of the Fifa World Cup 2018.”

3424d26

So far in terms of 5G availability, 2020 has been set as the availability timeline. It is interesting then to see MegaFon and Huawei now attempting to rush ahead of this date. Remains to be seen whether others will jump on the bandwagon too, or hold their horses until the widely accepted date. After all, many operators are not keen on rushing in the next generation as they would like to see some more return of investment from 4G first. Also, almost every presentation, talk and event focused on 5G still includes the notion that no one even yet knows what it will be.

When Huawei is climbing up in the ladder fast, the big question comes to my mind!! Ericsson Global, Alcatel-Lucent, ZTE where will they stand?? Here I found one video by Ericsson RnD team some introduction to 5G technology.

Lets see how the competition among these tele infrastructure vendors goes on !! Probably with the advancement they going to to gain with FIFA 2018, Huawei will remain the number one in the industry.

Hope to see you guys soon with a new article, till then KIT.

Ben-KGB

A tip for your new 4G LTE device

May 7, 2015

Buddhika Sameera

Communication

1 Comment

4 min read

Are you planning to buy your the latest mobile device for fastest data experience? Do you know LTE – TDD and FDD both in one devices are available in the market?? Here I’m going to give you few tips will be needing to enhance your knowledge about the latest technology,

LTE is the formal name for 4G, meaning Long Term Evolution. But similar to America’s different, incompatible GSM and CDMA phone systems, there are two different standards for LTE — TDD and FDD. The good news is you can make phones that are compatible with both standards now.

This video below shows how Nokia achieved one of the highest 3.8 Gbps throughput, at Mobile Asia Expo 2014.. wooow!!!

These two abbreviations, TDD and FDD stand for ‘time-division duplexing’ and ‘frequency-division duplexing’. They’re two different methods of cramming data and phone calls into the connection to your friendly local phone tower.

Duplexing is just where your phone can transmit and receive at the same time, unlike a walkie-talkie, which can only do one at once (this is called simplexing). TDD means the transmission and reception occur on the same frequency, but each only for a split second, alternating between the two. That’s great for mobile Internet use, because you can use more of the bandwidth available for either downloading or uploading, whichever you happen to be doing.

FDD, meanwhile, means you’re using a slightly different frequency for uploading and downloading. The benefit of this method is less possible interference — better reception. It’s unclear which standard gives faster downloads, and it would be difficult to eliminate all the possible variables to produce a meaningful answer.

A consideration of TDD-LTE and FDD- LTEE by Dan Warren, PhD. Senior Director of Technology, GSMA

What does this mean for you?

The real difference between the two systems is where they’re used, and therefore where you can use your 4G phone. Here in Sri Lanka mobile devices capable of LTE still using FDD technology (Dialog, Mobitel) while Fixed LTE devices use TDD technology( Dialog, SLT, Lanka Bell).

“While the majority of the global LTE market is based on FDD-LTE technology, TDD-LTE, the alternative LTE technology, is expected to see increased adoption in the US, China, Australia, Middle East, Northern and Eastern Europe, and Southwest Asia, and to gain a more pronounced position in the global LTE market,” Samsung says. “Seamless handover between FDD-LTE and TDD-LTE networks is a critical feature for end-user customers and mobile operators, especially in markets where the both technologies are deployed.”

China’s biggest phone company, China Mobile, is rolling out TDD, and industry watchers expect it to expand around the world. Australian network Optus has both, but because it’s such a big country the spectrum is divided up by region and in the capital, Canberra, it can only supply TDD.

This kind of fragmentation is likely to become more common, as Samsung says, as networks put in place agreements to allow 4G roaming, and people upgrade their phones and are willing to pay for 4G on their holibobs. So phones like the new S4 and S4 Mini that can nimbly swap between the two will become important for glamorous global jetsetters like you, dear reader.

Here we have the list of countries and the operators who have already deployed LTE technology, it’s great to see three mobile operators are already there in the list!! 🙂 We can be proud!!

There are some devices developed by different mobile manufacturing companies with both TDD and FDD technologies are inbuilt (Samsung,Apple, Huawei, Sony, Asus, etc). It is a great opportunity for mobile operators in Sri Lanka which has already deployed both the technologies, let’s hope to see some super fast internet experience on the go asap!! But with the new tax imposed by the government, I doubt the mobile operators are that much keen on developing the technology with such a high burden.

Below are some of the devices which both support TDD and FDD

( Source : http://www.gsmarean.com) you may click on the device to see further specifications.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Apple iPhone 6

Sony Xperia Z3

Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML

Apple iPhone 6 Plus

Sony Xperia Z4

Huawei Ascend Mate7

Asus Zenfone Zoom ZX550

Keep in touch till another update from tronication 🙂

Inflight Internet and Inflight WiFi

March 13, 2015

Nafli

Communication, Education, Science

Add comment

5 min read

Access to the Internet has become so commonplace for many of us, that even a few minutes without being able to chat with friends, upload a selfie or just catch up on your friend’s Facebook activities is compared to a catastrophe. Be it basement carparks, elevators or even deep in the Yala forest, people need to be connected.

One of the few places that have remained relatively free from demands of constant Internet access has been the seat of an airplane. Many of us are probably used to switching off our mobile devices while in flight, and amusing ourselves with inflight entertainment or trying to take a nap within the constricted space assigned (unless you are in business class).

Making inflight phone calls has been possible for a while, through onboard phones that made use of satellite communication, since 1998. Wireless communication was deemed off limits due to fears of interference with on-board systems. After receiving the all clear from the aviation authorities, in 2008, passengers using Emirates (and now many other airlines) have been able to use their mobile phones in flight. However, a voice call requires comparatively smaller bandwidth and probably made more economic sense to airlines.

While most of the world’s major airlines all provide in air Wi-Fi, flight service ranking company Routehappy’s analysis^[2] from its report on “Global state of in-flight Wi-Fi” shows that on a global scale, 24% of all air miles will have some form of Wi-Fi connectivity; while in the US, 68% of air miles will have Wi-Fi connectivity. It should be noted that only 15% of all air miles of non-US airlines had Wi-Fi connectivity.

So how do you provide broadband connectivity in air?

Firstly, you have to install the Wi-Fi system in the plane – which consists of an external antenna and in-cabin systems including the internal wireless access points. Inflight communication solution providers like OnAir – which is used by SriLankan Airlines – provides both inline and retrofitted solutions for most commercial airline types. Check this video of an installation taking place on a United Airlines plane for an idea of the work required.

The inside of a plane is a difficult environment for radio signals; the tunnel shape of the cabin causes lower losses but creates power addition of local signals causing fading at certain points, while the number of passengers in the plane provide additional obstacles. Therefore, careful modeling and planning of access point placement and power settings need to be done before deployment in each model of plane.

Connecting a plane to the World Wide Web (Backhaul)

– Air to Ground (ATG) – Deployed in the US and Canada, cellular-based technologies are used, beaming 3G signals (EVDO in the 3GHz & 850MHz spectrum) from the ground-based towers into the sky and delivers peak speeds of 3.1Mbps. Newer versions of this technology (ATG4) increase the potential connection speed up to 9.8Mbps by using EVDO Rev B and directional antenna, which more efficiently captures the beam being sent up from the tower at ground level. ^[7]

– Satellite – For satellite connectivity, an antenna is mounted onto the top of the plane, inside a “radome” (a domed enclosure). The antenna transmits data rates at 10-30 Mbps to the aircraft. Most satellite operators currently use the Ku band (12-18 GHz band) for mobile connectivity but are looking to use the Ka band (26-40 GHz) in the near future with the advent of technologies that mitigate the rain-fading issues with the band.^[7]

– Ground to Orbit (GTO) – This hybrid technology proposed by aero-communications service provider Gogo for planes flying in North America. GTO uses a combination of a satellite antenna on top of the plane to receive the signal and the ATG antenna under the plane to return the signal to earth and promising download speeds at a peak of 70 Mbps ^[1]. Inmarsat is also planning a hybrid satellite and ATG network partnering with Alcatel Lucent for the European continent ^[5].

Your Wi-Fi experience in the air, therefore, can vary significantly from airline/region to just the aircraft type. Inflight Wi-Fi has come a long way from the initial 332kbps incarnation when satellite bandwidth was at a premium. This year, satellite operator Inmarsat is set to launch more of its Global Xpress system ^[4] satellites which will be the first high-speed broadband network to span the world. This is set to offer improved downlink communications speeds of around 50 Mbps, with up to 5 Mbps on the uplink side, this version uses the Ka band and steerable spot beams to deliver high-speed broadband connectivity, and to provide capacity where and when it’s needed. With increased demand, we can expect other satellite operators to be planning to offer similar services along with GTA solutions in the near future.

References

Next internet revolution is coming

February 22, 2015

Kalpa Gunarathna

Communication, Web

Add comment

4 min read

The next revolution of internet and connectivity is coming and all around the world it has already created a big buzz. This hot topic is Internet of Things (IOT).

What is IOT?

With the widespread of the technologies, data is all over the world. Nowadays everything including vehicles, your pet, mobile phones and your house is literally a data source. Take you for an example. Your blood pressure rate is a data. Cholesterol /glucose level is a data. If a man is walking, running, sitting or eating that can be interpreted as a potential data source. Even when you sleep that stage itself is a data source and we can implement various kinds of applications that can be used on that data. On the other end, because the need of connectivity is emerging and bursting, internet is useless connecting just only webpages, web applications. It is said that in 2008, number of things connected to Internet exceeded the number of people on this earth. Check out this cool infographic by CISCO. So Internet should be able to embrace this revolution and become a platform not just have client server machine to machine connections but connect with everything in the world. That’s what IOT basically means. A platform where everything is connected.

image 1

In IOT everything is interconnected. It is a system of systems or can be seen as a one large eco system. Imagine your home is equipped with 3 systems. You have a security system which is connected with windows and doors. You have a water system which is connected with your taps and water line and you have the electricity system which is connected with the electricity plant and electronic items in your house. So your house is a system which has 3 systems. When you take the whole city, it is also a collection of houses which makes it again a system of system where your house security system can be interconnected with town’s police system. That is a one large electronic eco system.

What are things in IOT ?

image 2

In here “things” means objects that necessarily don’t have to be computers. They can be your pet, your door lock, your water bottle or even your rain coat. These objects have to be smart enough to connect and network with other systems and communicate with them. How do we make them smart? That’s why there are embedded systems. Typically things in IOT should have the following features.

Unique addressable ID – Just like in a normal TCP/IP environment, IOT entities should have a unique address. Thanks to IPv6 we can have 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 address space. That is 100 addresses per every atom in this world right now.
Communication ability – Embedded systems and wireless networks can easily do that
Sense – Embedded systems attached with sensors is the answer.

In the future …

On a perfect IOT implemented environment let’s say you went for a jogging and your trainers are about to be worn out. If you run another 200 meters at your current pace it is surely to be broken. What if your trainers or slippers can tell that to you. What if your slippers can tell you the nearest shoe shop once it is broken? What if your house itself can stop unwanted electrical items in your house considering that your income this months will be somewhat low. What if you are having a heart attack and there will be an immediate notification going to the nearest ambulance and your loved ones notifying about the situation. Possibilities are endless and, IOT can be heaven on earth.

Protocols-Related-to-Internet-of-Things-IoT

image 3

Is it implemented yet ?

It is not fully implemented yet but there are some partial applications built using IOT concepts. Lot of JIT(Just in Time) inventories in the world have inventories equipped with sensors notifying them the stock levels to various related entities. But everyone seems to be moving towards IOT environments. Very recently Canonical announced that they will be partnered up with Microsoft and amazon so that their IOT API s can be used on Ubuntu.

is it as good as they say ?

Well, every coin has two sides. Most people believe IOT has lot of good than bad and it is true. But this article is worth reading too.

Image credits

image 1: http://www.thomasvanmanen.nl/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Schermafbeelding-2013-02-25-om-10.56.17.png

image 2: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR8Sw_cUj9_fSRCkBehzcQ7PJmGWMIGwKpFYOa3HmlOsEEc0qRvu2iMp7QT

image 3: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FvrdNe8WCec/VDbnlA-somI/AAAAAAAARCY/3PycDuBfNiA/s1600/Protocols-Related-to-Internet-of-Things-IoT.png

SLT Ramps up the speed of their internet packages

January 5, 2015

TechWire

Communication, News

Add comment

1 min read

SLT (Sri Lanka Telecom) is making a habit of changing their broadband packages on the New Year, as a gift. Last year they changed the quota of the packages. This year they increased the capped speed. Basically they doubled the speed of the 2 Mbps , 4 Mbps and 8 Mbps packages. It is good to see the broadband companies in Sri Lanka actively trying to keep up with the customer requirements. However it must be noted that the benefit of this change would be seen in mostly for the customers with the 2 Mbps package. This is due to the fact that for users on the other packages, who were not hitting their top speed, will not see a difference. A quota increase would have been more valuable for the customers, but nonetheless for those who see a speed increase, it would be a good start to the New Year.

Free Dialog Wi-Fi for a Month

September 8, 2014

TechWire

Communication

1 Comment

1 min read

Dialog has launched a free Wi-Fi promotion where Dialog users can obtain free Wi-Fi for a month. In the fine print it states that it provides 1 GB data for 30 days. To obtain this free offer, users have to register here, and the promo password will be sent through SMS.

This seems to be an initiative to popularise Wi-Fi, as most Sri Lankans are used to using mobile data over Wi-Fi. Also people would get to know the available hotspots in their near vicinity. Wi-Fi could be accessible through the 2500+ hot spot network. So go ahead to your nearest Wi-Fi hotspot and make use of this free offer.

Bringing the Cloud Down to the Ground

January 26, 2014

Udara Liyanage

Communication, Web

2 Comments

9 min read

Earlier when people were thirsty, they had no other option other than digging a well. However with the population growth and urbanization, it was impractical to build wells to address each family’s need. Instead people created tanks where a huge volume of water could be stored. The stored water is supplied to the citizens of many towns and villages. This method has many visible advantages over the traditional way. All families don’t have to put an effort in digging wells for themselves, no need of time to maintain wells, and no dedicated and suitable place is required. An established and dedicated organization such as Water board does everything necessary to take water from a river, pump to a tank, purify and deliver to the end consumers. Consumers only pay for the volume of the water they consume which covers the overhead costs of the producer as well.

Cloud Service

The above scenario is an analogy to the base concept of cloud computing. Earlier, when computing facilities or computer systems are required by an organization or an individual, they had to buy computers and the network infrastructure. In addition they had to buy licenses for necessary software and install them, allocate dedicated space and employ necessary personnel to maintain the system. This requires a considerable initial setup cost and recurring maintenance cost. Scaling up and down based on market and business needs is not easy as it involves direct costs as well as management overheads associated with it. When the power of the internet was practically proven, the concept of cloud computing was emerged. As the water is received via pipes, computing power is received via internet. Thus the cloud computing can be explained as “computing via internet”.

Flavors of cloud computing

Cloud computing comes in different flavors. Following will be discussed in this article.

IAAS – Infrastructure As A Service
SAAS – Software As A Service
PAAS – Platform As A Service

IAAS – Infrastructure as a Service

Dedicated or shared computing infrastructure is provided with the basic features such as the OS and other domain specific features installed. Users see these services as virtual machines with comprehensive administrative powers or hosting service with limited administration capabilities. Amazon EC2 is the most popular IAAS provider providing virtual computing power in the cloud. There are thousands of web hosting service providers such as godaddy.com, hostgater.com, ixwebhosting.com.

For instance let’s consider Amazon EC2. After creating an account in Amazon EC2, users can create virtual machines with his preferred OS, disk size, virtual memory size, firewall etc. Thereafter we can access those machines just as we access normal physical machines in a remote location. We can stop or terminate the machines when we are done with it or restart later when we need them again. In addition a snapshot of the machine can be created at any point so we can boot up another machines from the same state later. Following is a screenshot of the management console of EC2.

Amazon EC2 console

There are more services such as load balancing, scaling up and down etc. based on the user needs. Users are charged according to the resources they consumed such as virtual memory, storage and the time the machines were active. Another advantage of having an IAAS is we can scale up the system instantly. We can add and remove more hard disk space, memory or machines themselves or database instances easily; no ordering, no deployment, no baseline etc. Just play without even plugging. Coolest thing is that resources can be added in rush hours and removed when things go dull. Dynamic resource management to its max! These systems also support automatic scaling up and scaling down so application developers don’t have to think of typical constraints of the shared computer architecture.

SAAS – Software as a Service

Adding another layer on top of the computing infrastructure, users are given a valuable service through a single piece of software or a collection of software. Google’s collection of SAAS is the most famous free services stack among the general public. Gmail and Google Docs are the popular example applications for free SAASs. Even this article itself was started in the clouds as a Google Doc first – in favor of cloud computing. There are thousands of other paid services which provides services like online time management systems, online POS systems etc. Paid services charge in different ways like per year, per user and PAYG. PAYG or pay as you go is the cost model that charge for the resources (computing power, storage etc.) consumed. Users have the freedom to choose the cost model that best suits them. So you might question how free services generate revenue. The answer is it depends. Let’s consider Gmail as an example. Their main revenue model is advertisements. Gmail has more than 500 millions of users which imply Gmail make more than 5 billion advertisements display if we assume one average user sees 10 advertisements a day. Although it is impossible to assume how much they make for a year, but it should be a plenty. Additionally Google offers only a limited email and document space. Normal users can live with that. However for large corporate users needs to pay for additional email and document space when they grow. For e.g. there are numerous organizations in Sri Lanka uses Google services by paying subscription fees.

PAAS – Platform as a Service

There are organizations that provide platforms to build applications in the cloud where other organizations can build software services and host them. PAAS facilitates building of custom applications using a bunch of software platforms. This includes facilitating all of the development, maintenance and retiring stages of a typical software lifecycle. WSO2 Stratos, WSO2 App Factory, Heruko, Redhat OpenShift are high standard PAAS vendors. Please read more about WSO2 App Factory in this introductory article by the same author.

As an example, WSO2 Stratos is a 100% open source, multi tenanted for private, public and hybrid cloud deployments. It provides a complete stack of middleware products as a service and also mediation, governance, security, gadgets, monitoring and more by using the capabilities of WSO2 products. Third party runtimes such as PHP, MySQL, and Tomcat etc. can be plugged in via a concept called cartridge. StratosLive is the Stratos version hosted by WSO2. It is free for anyone interested.

Cloud Features

Every service hosted in the Internet is not a cloud service. They have some common characteristics which qualifies a service as a cloud service which is listed below.

Multi tenancy

Single software is shared among multiple users or organizations called tenants. The system and the data are partitioned among tenants. Different tenants can have different configurations. But the software service provided should be the same with different features on or off based on costing model etc.

Auto Scaling

The system automatically scale up (spawn up serving instances) during the rush time and automatically scale down (kill additional services) during the free time.

Distributed

System supports multiple nodes/instances running concurrently in different machines in a network, ability to save and transfer the overall state to work as a single servicing entity is also an attractive feature.

Cloud Users

Disadvantages of the cloud

As every coin has two sides, cloud computing also has some inherent disadvantages. Organizations which handle the confidential data such as government organizations, mission critical applications etc. may think twice before storing their information in a public cloud.

Though it seems to be cheaper at the beginning, cloud may be expensive in the long run. Another problem is organizations may have to tolerate cloud services providers downtimes and bugs which can hinder the overall quality of service. If you can remember recent service degradations of Outlook and Gmail, you know what I meant by that.

When looking at the current industry, more and more organizations tend to move to the cloud since organizations needs to get the competitive advantages by delivering their services or products early to the market. Almost all the popular companies like Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, IBM, eBay, Redhat etc. have stepped into the cloud. Big companies like Google are born due to the cloud computing, and all its services are available via cloud. Through cloud, companies can make their services available to the customer faster. Cloud native features help to build a more distributive, auto scaling services that that supports any number of users. Cloud let the companies to address more users. For instance Microsoft Office what was a desktop application became more collaborative and accessible when it reached the cloud as Office 365.

Cloud is a new computing model of the era to build the applications shortly. However moving to a cloud might be time consuming initially as information may have to be separated and treated differently based on the security needs.

The Future

Rise of cloud computing is remarkable as it has made great success for this short time period. Almost every person who uses a computer or modern mobile phone, benefit from the power of cloud. Google, Email, Facebook, Dropbox, Google Drive, Skydrive are few of the system an average person uses which uses the Cloud. According to a recent report by IBM states that the businesses that moved to use cloud have doubled the revenue compared to its non-cloud counterparts. According a survey, 75 % of the surveyed businesses uses the cloud and the global market for the cloud is $158.8 Billion by 2014 which is 126.5% growth compared to 2013. So it is clear that the past of cloud computing was bright, but the future of cloud computing will be even brighter and business will be forced to use it to survive in the industry.

References

http://pzf.fremantle.org/2010/05/cloud-native.html?view=timeslide

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/multi-tenancy

http://www.gxsblogs.com/radkoj/2008/03/multi-tenancy-absolutely-critical-to-software-as-a-service-saas.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-most-important-companies-in-cloud-computing-2012-4?op=1

Image credits : creatiwittyblog.com, insideout.com, rent-a-techie.com/

What you need to know about SLT ADSL broadband quota increase

January 19, 2014

TechWire

Communication, News

2 Comments

2 min read

At the beginning of the year, SLT gave their broadband users a new year gift with additional quota (both peak and off peak) for their broadband packages. However many users were saying that the increase in quota is only for the off peak hours. The problem stems down to the fact that even though SLT had peak and offpeak quotas in 2013, they were never applied. For example, the user who had a quota of 20GB peak and 5GB off peak, had the ability to use all 25GB at peak times. So effectively the total quota is the peak quota. Now with that context lets take a look at the below comparison of packages after the quota increase.

SLT ADSL broadband data packages

From the above table it is clear that the earlier total quota is now the peak quota while there is additional off peak quota. So practically yes it seems there is only an increase in the off-peak quota. However theoretically there is an increase in both quotas, just that the off-peak wasn’t applied earlier.

Bottom line is that SLT ADSL users can experience more quota in the off-peak hours. Being off-peak should not be too much of a problem as most users would schedule their downloads at that time. However it may not be too much use for corporate connections and internet cafes.

For more information on SLT ADSL broadband click here.

All you need to know about Dialog Mobile LTE

April 24, 2013

TechWire

Communication

3 Comments

3 min read

Not long after successfully bidding for the LTE frequency, Dialog launched its Mobile LTE network few weeks back. This enables 4G network on supported mobiles and USB LTE modems. Lets take a look at some of the aspects of this new service

Frequency

The frequency band used is 10 MHz from the 1800 MHz band. The 1800 MHz band is currently the most used frequency band for LTE deployment around the world. The 700 MHz band would have provided better coverage, but seems free bands on it were not available.

Coverage

The Mobile LTE coverage is currently available in the Colombo 1 – 15 area. Since the frequency band used is in the 1800MHz range, the indoor penetration of the signals would be less than in the case where the 700MHz band was used. However since there wont be large number of users initially, even with marginal signals one should be able to get good speeds.

Speeds

As the frequency bandwidth is 10MHz, theoretically one would be able to reach upto 50 Mbps speeds. However 20-30 Mbps would be the practically achievable speeds. This might also vary according to the bottlenecks in the server you are accessing and also the device category.

Supported Devices

You would require a FD-LTE 1800 MHz Band 3 compatible handset or a dongle to be able to use Dialog mobile LTE. The dongle currently available through Dialog is the Huawei E398U which is priced at Rs. 16,000. That is quite a price for an USB modem. The price of these type of units directly depends on the quantity in the production line. Since the demand is still less for these devices, the number of units manufacture in batches are low and hence the high price.

Only a few mobile LTE supported mobile phones are currently available in the market, although this number would increase significantly by the end of the year. Please check below for some of the supported mobile phones available in Sri Lanka.

Samsung I9305 Galaxy S III
Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100
Sony Xperia V

Sony Xperia Z

LG Optimus G

(Note: Mobile LTE is not supported on Apple devices have not enabled the service for Sri Lanka)

Use cases

Dialog Mobile LTE would be used less for personal broadband data as the price of the dongle is high. The dongle would be more appropriate for an office use, where it is used to create a Wi-Fi Zone.

In the initial stages Mobile LTE would be used more in phones. Streaming HD video would be a main usage. With the large HD displays on the supported handsets, watching HD videos would be a treat. Browsing and email would also be a breeze with 4G , and if needed one can always generate a hotspot from the phone for a high speed WiFi.

What do you need to start using Dialog Mobile LTE?

You will need a supported device (phone or dongle) and a 4G enabled SIM which you need obtain from a Dialog outlet for Rs. 150. Also you would need a postpaid connection as it is still not available for prepaid.

Babel – Thoughts on automated language translations

March 30, 2013

Nafli

Communication

1 Comment

6 min read

Babel

Babel was a city (now thought to be Babylon), where legend has it, the people attempted to build a tower that would reach into heaven. As this was an enormous task, it required much time and cooperation among the people who incidentally all spoke the same language.

Hearing of this endeavour, God is said to have come down to see the city and declared, “Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

And so God confounded the attempts of the builders by confusing their language into many mutually incomprehensible languages. Soon discord arose, the tower was left unfinished and the people of Babel scattered across the world.

Whatever your theological belief may be, this story is an interesting allegory. While used as a reason for the existence of the numerous languages in the world, it also illustrates how differences in language often lead to loss of cohesion.

Babel Tower

The Babel fish

In his entertaining novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, science-fiction writer Douglas Adams came up with an unusual solution to the problem of understanding multiple languages across the universe – the Babel fish.

Described as “small, yellow, leech like and probably the oddest creature in the universe the Babel fish feeds on the energy of brain waves around it, and excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with nerve signals picked up from the speech centres of the brain which has supplied them.

The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear, you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish.”

First steps towards a Babel fish

While text and voice based translation applications have been around for a while, NTT Docomo made a giant leap late last year with the launch of an Android based voice translator for phone calls – the Hanashite Hon’yaku app. This app provides voice translation of the other speaker’s conversation into a required language as well as providing text readout.

The free service is already being used by Docomo customers, with translations possible on any smartphone, because the app utilises Docomo’s cloud servers for processing. However, the user must be a subscriber to one of Docomo’s packages to be able to use the service, so sadly it is not available on other operator networks.

Docomo will soon face competition from France’s Alcatel-Lucent which is developing a rival call translation product, named WeTalk. The service is to be compatible over any landline and is said to be able to handle Japanese and about a dozen other languages including English, French and Arabic. The firm said all this could be done in less than a second. However, it has opted to wait before the speaker has stopped talking to start the translation after trials suggested that users preferred the experience.

These applications are far from perfect, with errors occurring due to inability to recognize various accents and nuances in a language. The best voice translators typically have an error rate of 20-25%, which is just not good enough especially in business environments.

Babel Translator

Smarter Translators

Microsoft Research and the University of Toronto made a breakthrough in improving translations by using a technique called Deep Neural Networks, which is patterned after human brain behaviour. The researchers were able to train more discriminative and better speech recognizers than previous methods.[ 1 ]

Back in October 2012, Microsoft researchers demonstrated software that translates spoken English into spoken Chinese almost instantly, while preserving the tone of a speaker’s voice – an innovation that makes conversation more effective and personal.

The demonstration was made by Rick Rashid, Microsoft’s chief research officer, at an event in Tianjin, China. “I’m speaking in English and you’ll hear my words in Chinese in my own voice,” Rashid told the audience. The system works by recognizing a person’s words, quickly converting the text into properly ordered Chinese sentences, and then handing those over to speech synthesis software that has been trained to replicate the speaker’s voice. [ 2 ]

As Rashid explains in the Microsoft blog, “it required a text to speech system that Microsoft researchers built using a few hours speech of a native Chinese speaker and properties of my own voice taken from about one hour of pre-recorded (English) data, in this case recordings of previous speeches I’d made.”

As IBM’s Jeopardy champ “Watson” has shown, with enough information computers using neural networks can identify puns and wordplay in languages and learn to respond to questions involving them.

The Future

With further improvement in translation technologies, real time perfect translations could move from science fiction to science fact in the very near future. Wearable technology such as Google glass may soon be able to incorporate real time translation using cloud based services.

In a country where linguistic differences have and still affect such a significant portion of the population, such translation applications could be very useful. There should be some significant effort and backing put into developing translation services in the local market – an example of which is the website translation services developed by Dialog which, however, is only available for English to Sinhala translations. It is a small step but should be used as motivation for local developers to get involved in including Sinhala and Tamil to existing translation technologies – voice and text – in order to create applications that can help break language barriers.

While not so fantastical as a tower that reaches heaven, we may soon be able to embark on the next great project, which will hopefully help in understanding one another a little bit better in the future.

References

http://blogs.technet.com/b/next/archive/2012/11/08/microsoft-research-shows-a-promising-new-breakthrough-in-speech-translation-technology.aspx#.UUrU1merSfs

http://parivarthaka.dialog.lk/

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/507181/microsoft-brings-star-treks-voice-translator-to-life/