Ozmo, http://www.ozmodevices.com/, has announced the availability of a chip, Ozmo 2000, that transforms any WiFi enabled device into a newtork node.  The chip implements the WiFi Direct  standard (not yet consolidated) allowing a direct communications among WiFi devices with no need for a base station, just like Bluetooth. It should be available in devices early next year.

WPAN: Wireless Personal Area Network

http://www.ozmodevices.com/the_ozmo_solution.php

This is an interesting evolution: cell phones having WiFi, as it is the case for most smart phones, will be able to talk one another, axchanging data, without having to go through the wireless network.

These networks-less networks have been studied by researchers and a particular form of them has been called viral networks. A viral network is made by terminals able to connect one another and through another creating dynamic networks. Imagine having one cell phone embedded in each car (not difficult to do!) and creating a viral network. A city can be completely covered by this network and people could send messages and data from one car to the next one or to the one at the other side of the town using this network. No need for a wireless network operated by a specific Operator.

Sending voice over this network may be much more problematic since every “hop” would introduce a delay and they will add up to the point that the quality degrades rapidly. However, for most data transmission this would be irrelevant.

Actually, some cars, most of them may be, may also store information and they can distribute this information on request. A completely different sort of communication paradigm can emerge: a network where the more users the more capacity is provided.

 

 

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Tags: future networks, WiFi

This entry was posted on Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 2:17 am and is filed under Pervasive Computing & Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.