Wireless compatibility with information systems - Essay Example

Our subject devices may be GPRS/EDGE or 3G connected computers or alternately Wi-Fi connected smart phones. There are compatibility issues at the network, operating system, and application levels.There are compatibility issues at the network, operating system, and application levels (Intermec, Nortel). These issues are currently being addressed with the objective of achieving a convergent information network that transparently supports all applications using any terminal device.GSM wireless networks carried IP packets over GPRS (45 Kbps), and EDGE (180 Kbps).

These protocols are modem based and are slower and less reliable than current digital data transmission technologies. Current versions of TCP assume a reliable high rate link and therefore its congestion control algorithms are tuned to handle traffic driven congestion. Wireless links are slower and incur higher error rates. Several options related to fast error recovery have resulted in the development of "Wireless Profiled TCP."UMTS, a GSM and CDMA successor, is a 3G technology whose development is carried through into 4G, relies on W-CDMA and supports up to 21 Mbps with HSDPA.

Users can expect at best uplink rates of 284 Kbps and downlink of 7.2 Mbps. When IP is carried over UMTS, ATM is typically the link layer, with SS7 being the signaling protocol. The later has a different addressing scheme from IP, so two new protocols were developed to carry SS7 over IP. Real time and streaming oriented transport protocols are also being developed in replacement to TCP. It is unfair to even attempt to treat all network issues involved in this short paper. An excellent and complete coverage of the subject is provided in (Bannister et Al., 2004). The practical conclusion is that there are many standards and operator related issues that would have to be resolved before one can think of actual convergence at the network level.

On another hand, wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) technology seems to be the more suited for short and medium term mobile application support since the wireless part involved has local significance and was designed to interwork with IP routers, just like an Ethernet port plugged into the router. 1.2 Operating System compatibility There are as of now far more mobile operating systems than there are "stable" PC ones: Windows Mobile, Symbian, Google's Android, Blackberry's RIM, and Apple's iPhone OS are the most known (Wikipedia.org). Operating systems impact the way the network's physical media is accessed (the air interface) and the way client applications communicate with servers (protocols).

One can find disparate solutions being developed like enabling MS Exchange access from Windows Mobile or IBM's Lotus notes and Citrix access from Apple's iPhone; but there is long and intense way to go before assuming smooth client-server applications. This is a major hinder since portable wireless devices are intended to run thin client applications and rely on servers for heavier processing and storage. Middleware is being developed to translate between mobile systems and servers, such as Omni Technology's GroupWise caching client. 1.3 Applications There are issues with the development and testing platforms used to design wireless applications, which have to be developed on a PC or workstation and