Sunday 13 February 2005

Christo turns the Big Apple orange. Arts: An installation of metal gates in Central Park by controversial artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude is taking New York by storm. [Guardian Unlimited] 11:48:14 PM    comment [] House of Commons passes U.K. biometric ID card plan. The U.K. moves toward requiring all citizens to carry ID cards containing biometric information. [Computerworld News] 10:07:29 PM    comment [] Unlicensed Mobile Access on Verge of Deploying. Monica Paolini of Senza Fili explains a technology you've never heard of that will soon be everywhere: Monica, a fellow Seattle-area resident, has written a long and expensive piece of analysis about UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access), which is a way to use unlicensed Wi-Fi and Bluetooth spectrum to carry voice through a gateway to the existing GSM networks. GSM operators can then leverage their huge investment and better serve existing and new customers with better pricing and service. I asked Monica if she could extract a high-level overview of UMA for Wi-Fi Networking News, and she obliged. Her full report, intended primarily for decision-makers and analysts involved with GSM networks, is available at her Senza Fili site. (And for those of you who speak Italian, Senza Fili means Without Wires.) Monica writes: The UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) Consortium was formed by GSM mobile operators with the aim of creating specifications for WCC that would eventually become standards-based and that would interface well with their core networks. Manufacturers have also joined to create an impressive, if restricted, group that includes Alcatel, British Telecom, Cingular, Ericsson, Kineto Wireless, Motorola, Nokia, Nortel Networks, O2, Rogers Wireless, Siemens, Sony Ericsson and T-Mobile USA. The specifications were published in September 2004 as guidelines for mobile operators and handset manufacturers, and as a blueprint for a future 3GPP standard. They are available at www.umatechnology.org. They are clearly designed by and for mobile operators, to allow them to control both cellular and Wi-Fi traffic, and to integrate Wi-Fi voice services seamlessly with their GSM networks. With a Wi-Fi cellular phone, subscribers are able to switch freely from the cellular network they use when away from home, to Wi-Fi when they enter their home network coverage, and vice versa. UMA enables GSM/GPRS handsets equipped with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to access the GSM and General Packet Radio Service GPRS core networks using the unlicensed air interface when available (see figure from the UMA Consortium at above right). As such, UMA represents an extension of the GSM/GPRS network for mobile operators, which can support voice services in homes, offices and hotspots both through the cellular and the WLAN networks. Subscribers using UMA can take advantage of improved indoor coverage and higher data rates, when accessing the local WLAN. (More after the jump.)... [Wi-Fi Networking News] 10:05:12 PM    comment []

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